I ran the Chicago marathon in October 2016 - my first marathon - a year and 10 months after I first started running. I had 5 half marathons, 4 ten milers, and a few other races under my belt so I had a pretty solid running base.
I primarily used the Nike+ running coach app (now defunct I think) marathon training program to plan out all my training runs. It’s a 20 week training program with runs 5 days per week. A little intense compared to Hal Higdon’s beginners’ training program, but I just wanted to be well prepared.
Below is the schedule of what I actually ran. I did very little actual cross-training, just some easy yoga every once in a while on Sundays. Each week I show in parentheses my actual mileage / planned miles for the week, so you can see how well (or poorly) I stuck to the plan. Days I was supposed to run but didn’t I marked with zero miles (as opposed to rest days).
Run Schedule
| Week | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (15.2/19) |
Rest | 5.1 miles | 0 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 10.1 miles | Rest |
| 2 (22.4/25) |
4.1 miles | 3.15 miles | 4 miles | Rest | 4 miles | 7.1 miles | Rest |
| 3 (18.1/24) |
4.1 miles | 4 miles | 4 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 0 miles | 6 miles |
| 4 (4/20.2) |
4 miles | 0 miles | 0 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 0 miles | Rest |
| 5 (15.2/20.2) |
2.4 miles | 5.05 miles | 3.2 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 4.55 miles (10k) | Rest |
| 6 (23.6/23) |
3.2 miles | 6 miles | 3.2 miles | Rest | 3.2 miles | 8 miles | Rest |
| 7 (14.1/28) |
4 miles | 0 miles | 0 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 10.1 miles | Rest |
| 8 (26.2/30) |
4 miles | 0 miles | 7.1 miles | Rest | 5 miles | 10.1 miles | Rest |
| 9 (0/32) |
0 miles | 0 miles | 0 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 0 miles | Rest |
| 10 (24.1/34) |
5 miles | 7 miles | 0 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 12 miles | Rest |
| 11 (37.2/37) |
5 miles | 8 miles | 5 miles | Rest | 5.05 miles | 14.1 miles | Rest |
| 12 (31.5/31.1) |
4.1 miles | 8.05 miles | 4 miles | 0 miles | 2 miles | 13.35 (half marathon) | Rest |
| 13 (22.9/24) |
Rest | 5.1 miles | 0 miles | 3.75 miles | 0 miles | 14.1 miles | Rest |
| 14 (37.5/39) |
5.1 miles | 8.1 miles | 5.1 miles | Rest | 3.1 miles | 16 miles | Rest |
| 15 (39.55/41) |
5 miles | 8.1 miles | 5.1 miles | Rest | 3.4 miles | 18 miles | Rest |
| 16 (35.5/43) |
0 miles | 8.2 miles | 4 miles | Rest | 3.3 miles | 20 miles | Rest |
| 17 (44.5/49) |
5.1 miles | 12.4 miles | 5 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 22 miles | Rest |
| 18 (31.3/35) |
0 miles | 6 miles | 5 miles | Rest | 4.2 miles | 16.1 miles | Rest |
| 19 (33.4/33) |
4.15 miles | 8 miles | 5.1 miles | Rest | 4.1 miles | 12 miles | Rest |
| 20 (35.4/49.2) |
4.05 miles | 5.1 miles | 0 miles | 0 miles | Rest | 0 miles | 26.2!!! |
I moved across the country during week 9 so I logged zero miles that week. In week 5 / 12, I didn’t run a 10k / half marathon race as suggested- just the distance.
My goal for the marathon was to finish under 4:55, and I got in with a minute to spare at 4:53:59 or a pace of 11:13 min/mile.