What is a good marathon training plan?

Answer 1

There are many marathon training plans available online. Many are aimed at beginners who have little or no experience with running. Almost with no exception these plans focus on easy running only and get you to run 20 miles once or twice during the training cycle.

This generally leaves you under-prepared for the marathon.

A good marathon training plan combines easy running with faster running (tempo running and intervals). It also contains test runs / training races that give you a good sense of what you are capable of on race day.

One of the best marathon training programs available today is 100 Day Marathon Plan by Marius Bakken. The approach is modern and fresh. In addition to several different marathon running programs sorted by finish time his program also contains videos, written information and the ability to ask questions.

An older good marathon training program is Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger and Douglas. Their marathon plans are sorted based on the number of miles you want to do and is accompanied by an enormous amount of useful information.