In looking at different marathon training plans I realized most count the first day of the week as Monday and end the week with the long training run on Saturday or Sunday. I’ve always viewed weeks as starting on Sunday and ending on Saturday. For this reason I thought this week was my first week of training for my first marathon, but it was actually my second if I’m figuring 16 weeks back from the marathon date.
I’ve been keeping up longer runs since after Christmas with running 10 miles almost every Sunday. Running two more times a week has provided a solid base going into marathon training. I’m hoping to maintain 4 runs a week with keeping my long run on Sunday mornings with the group. I’ve been advised by a running buddy and saw on a lot of plans that 5 runs a week is preferred. Once track season starts in March though I don’t know that 5 runs is feasible, so 4 runs is my main focus. I have no time goal for the marathon, and I’ve done all my half marathon training having only ran 3x a week so I think I’ll be ok.
With all that said here’s how my first 2 weeks of training have gone… I only plan to document my runs, the other days I normally am either doing yoga/mobility for recovery or strength training via DailyBurn workouts.
Week 1 Total Miles – 24.75
Sun. 1/24 – A half marathon on the Columbia river trail ran in 2:04:18. I initially planned to run 12 miles but felt so good I went for a full half. This was the day training for a marathon became a real consideration.
Wed. 1/27 – 7 miles around my neighborhood. This was my first official training-for-a-marathon run as I had actually signed up.
Sat. 1/28 – 4.65 trail miles at Lake Redman. Jason really wanted to put his trail shoes to use again so I agreed to 5 miles or under. His doubling back for me (he flies on trails, I don’t) resulted in 5 for him but I was content not having a fully even 5 miles as running up a tough trail hill 2x was a good enough workout to me.
Week 2 Total Miles – 25.5
Sun. 1/31 – A snowy 10 miles from Armand’s house out to Hellam and back. Todd’s truck slid while driving there so he turned around and drove home, but Jason and I were almost there so we continued and met my dad at Armand’s. It was a fairly enjoyable run considering the weather until we were running along 462. Armand and I watched two cars hit an icy spot and swerve a bit but right themselves before coming closer to us. We caught up with dad and Jason who had nearly been hit by a car that hit the same icy spot and actually went off the road down an embankment. Both were really shaken up and the 4 of us were very glad to get off that road and onto back roads again.
Wed. 2/3 – 6 miles around the neighborhood on Jason’s lunch. Plenty of hills as they can’t be avoided in this town and a bit of pace pushing for me as I tried to keep as close to Jason as possible.
Thurs. 2/4 – 4.5 miles with my track kids. This included a warmup and then 800s around a circle in a nearby development since the track was snow covered. They ran 4, I ran 5, with a short rest break after each loop then a cooldown.
Sat. 2/6 – Game plan is to run 5 miles around the neighborhood before I go work a Covid pod shift.
Overall I’m off to a solid start even with having some weather concerns. Here’s to maintaining those 4 runs a week and building up mileage and long runs!
If you’ve trained for a marathon how many times per week did you run?
The Writing Runner 
I can’t even imagine training for a marathon with slick roads to contend with. It seems like your runs are going well. It’s been so long since I trained for my marathon but I believe I was running either 4 or 5 days a week. I clearly didn’t train properly, though, because I felt like I was either constantly injured or had a cold or some other illess because my body wasn’t handling the miles well.
I certainly wouldn’t have been running in those conditions last week (or today for that matter) if I weren’t in training for something so big! It’s been good so far for Jason, dad and I and I hope it stays that way and we all stay injury free!
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I had to come back in your posts and read the account of your dad and Jason’s near accident. Wow! They did have a close call. When I marathon trained, I usually ran 4 or 5 days/week. At first, my goal was to run 40 miles/week. Sometimes more when I was doing 20-mile long runs. The older I got, though, the less I ran in preparation. I think because you don’t have a time goal, you will be fine with 4 times a week. A 2:04 half on the Columbia trail is awesome!
Jason is very leery of running certain roads now or at certain times of day because of that near accident. I think once the snow clears/warm weather returns for good he’ll feel a bit better about things. Thanks for the reassurance that 4 days a week should suffice, it seems more manageable particularly once track season begins and my motivation is staying up without feeling burned out mentally or physically.