16 Week Marathon training plan?

Quoted message said:

I ran my first marathon last Oct (Chicago). My time was around 4:20. I
felt like I certainly had more in me at the end, but being my first, I
just wanted to finish...

In any case, I am training again. When I compare my training log now
to that of last year I can see that I am clearly a stronger runner
(i.e. running 4-6 miles at 7:30 pace fairly easily, whereas last year
it took me months to run at that pace). I certainly don't think I can
get a Boston qualifying time my 2nd marathon, but I want to train as
though that is my goal. But I just don't know what sort of pace I
should be doing training runs at.

Have you recently run any shorter races? A 10K would be good just to see
how far away you are from realistically shooting for a Boston qualifier.
That's sort of how I did. But I didn't even think about it until I was
running some 10K times that were in line with a BQ. Once you run your
10K, plug the time into this web site:
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/rununiv/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
It will tell you what your marathon time would be, assuming you trained
appropriately for it. You can also see what you get for the various
training paces - long runs, easy runs, tempo runs, VO2 workouts, etc.

--
Phil M.

Quoted message said:

Have you recently run any shorter races? A 10K would be good just to see
how far away you are from realistically shooting for a Boston qualifier.
That's sort of how I did. But I didn't even think about it until I was
running some 10K times that were in line with a BQ. Once you run your
10K, plug the time into this web site:
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/rununiv/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
It will tell you what your marathon time would be, assuming you trained
appropriately for it. You can also see what you get for the various
training paces - long runs, easy runs, tempo runs, VO2 workouts, etc.

Nice link, thanks

Quoted message said:

--
Phil M.

Brian Huether said:

I ran my first marathon last Oct (Chicago). My time was around 4:20. I felt
like I certainly had more in me at the end, but being my first, I just
wanted to finish...

In any case, I am training again. <snip>

I'm training for the Chicago Marathon this year myself--first time! (C:
The most helpful site I've found, both for training plans and for
advice, is Hal Higdon's site:

http://www.halhigdon.com/

Hal is the author of "Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide". His site
has a lot of training plans and advice on it, plus there are great
interactive forums:

http://www.trainingpeaks.com/halforumslogin.asp

The audience there is very knowledgable, very encouraging, and since
Hal moderates the forums, there are no spam/off topic/offensive posts!
(C:

Hope this helps, and best of luck!

Jim

Quoted message said:

So given that I won't be starting my long runs (as in 12 miles plus) til 3rd
week of July, what sort of plan should I be on? I have a way better base
than last year. Right now I am running around 10 miles a week.

I hope you talking about a 2008 Chicago marathon with that kind of
base.
I'd work the next two years, running year round, to get the base up to
40 to 60 miles a week, then start working in the long runs.