Five Weeks Away - This is the Hardest Part

The Long Runs - This stretch of your training plan likely calls for 3-4 runs of 3-6 miles, a mid-week run of 8-10 miles, and a long run of 15-22 miles. These weeks are the hardest part of the experience, even harder than the race itself. The first time you run 15 miles is exhilarating. The sixth time you run 15 miles or more, it’s just draining. You give up your Saturday to run 18 miles, a week after you ran 16 miles and two weeks after you ran 14 miles, knowing that you have to run 20 miles next week. 

This is where you find out whether you have what it takes to run the marathon.

The Mid-week Runs - The mid-week runs are easy to overlook – they are critically important to maintaining your fitness in between the long runs. A solid 8 mile-run on Wednesday can make a slower 18-mile run on the weekend seem more manageable.

Contentment is Your Biggest Enemy - By now, you’ve now broken through physically and mentally. You feel great, look great, and the world is your oyster. Smug self-satisfaction feels good – even deserved. It is also your enemy. Perhaps, you complacently think, you can replace your run at the gym with a late-night run to Ben & Jerry’s. Now is exactly when you have to work harder. Can you imagine how disappointing it will be if you blow it now?

Don’t Let Small Setbacks Cause Total Failure - You’re human. In this, the hardest part of the training program, you will bend. Don’t break. You may go for a 16-mile run and not be able to go past 6 miles. Go back out there two days later and run the full 16. You will have days where you are busy, hurt and tired and don’t run. Don’t let three days off became ten. Draw a line in the sand.

Interval Training - Start running one-mile intervals once per week. Instead of a moderate 4-mile run, run one mile at a good pace, then rest two minutes; run a second mile slightly faster; then rest two minutes; run a third mile even faster; then rest again for two minutes, before running the final mile almost all-out. You will be running these individuals miles a good bit faster than your long run pace; it will exercise your legs in a different way, and make slower runs seem easier.