My 2019 Boston Marathon Training Plan

Prologue

I finished the 2018 New York City Marathon last month in 3:33:17 (8:09 pace).

It was such a beautiful day and I re-qualified for next year’s race, so I didn’t really care that I missed the goal I set that summer.

Looking back, my mileage seemed low during the training cycle and I don’t think I ran enough speed-work – everything felt slow.  On a positive note, I consistently performed weight training at the beginning of the training cycle, which made my legs feel stronger.

Since the 2018 New York City Marathon, my runs have been sporadic and carefree – if I woke up wanting to run 15 miles, I’d do it!  But most days, I didn’t want to run at all.  By December, I knew it was time to start training for the 2019 Boston Marathon even though I didn’t feel completely rested.

The Plan

Choosing or Designing a Plan.  Because running is feeling stale for me right now, I chose the “Advanced” plan from Hansons Marathon Method by Luke Humphrey and Kevin Hanson as the foundation for this training cycle.  I also re-read my post-2015 California International Marathon assessment of the Hansons approach to revisit some of the mistakes I probably made.

Setting a Start Date.  The 2019 Boston Marathon is on Monday, April 15^th.  The schedule is 18 weeks, which made my start date December 10th.

Arranging Workouts.  The workouts are laid out as follows:

Long Run.  The plan has the longest weekly run on Sunday.  However in the winter, I like to schedule my long runs on Saturday so I can move them to Sunday if the weather is bad.  I also wanted to add some mileage to the long runs but try to keep it between 25 and 30% of my weekly mileage.  (Although the Hansons plan is known for limiting the long run to 16 miles, the coaches thoughts on that topic are actually more nuanced.)

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”raised” width=”800px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”4″ border_color=”#0d29a0″ rounded_corners=”false” outside_shadow=”false” ]But, I think the strength of this training plan is the weekly marathon pace run, not the limitation it places on the long run.[/dropshadowbox]

Speed and Strength.  The schedule put my speed-work on Monday after an easy day on Sunday, and a marathon-paced run on Wednesday after a rest day.  The interval workouts vary but build from 3 to 6 miles of fast running.  The strength workouts climb from 6 miles at goal marathon pace to ten.

 

Scheduling Mini-Cycles.  The Advanced plan has four cycles – Base, Speed, Strength, and the Taper.  Here’s how they fall on my calendar:

Base. 1 week – Sunday, December 2nd to Saturday, December 15th
Speed. 9 weeks – Sunday, December 16th to Saturday, February 16th
Strength. 7 weeks – Sunday, February 17th to Saturday, April 6th
Taper. 1 week – Sunday, April 7th to Sunday, April 14th

However, I will alter the schedule for to have a two week taper.

Selecting Tune-up Races: The Hansons Marathon Method plans do not have races.  But, the authors explain how to incorporate them, essentially suggesting runners can substitute a race for a weekend’s long run of the same distance:

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”raised” width=”800px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”4″ border_color=”#0d29a0″ rounded_corners=”false” outside_shadow=”false” ]”In sum, that race should fit into the overall plan, supplementing your training rather than taking away from your ultimate goal, which is your best possible performance on marathon day.”[/dropshadowbox]

Regardless, I will probably run these two popular regional races:

Saturday, March 9th – 2019 RnR DC Half Marathon
Sunday, April 7th – 2019 Cherry Blossom Ten Miler

(My Complete Racing Schedule.)

Designing a Cross-Training Program.  I still think the range of motion through my hips could use improvement. This training cycle, I’d like to add cycling or pilates to my schedule for cross-training.

With all of this in mind, I created a training plan on RunningAhead.

Contemplating a Race Goal.  Having missed my last marathon goal and going into this training cycle feeling a bit unmotivated, if I ran a time close to my finish at the 2018 New York City Marathon – 3:33:17 (8:09 pace) – I’d be content.

Final Thoughts

The Boston Marathon isn’t my real goal marathon for next spring.  Five weeks after the race, I plan to run the Cleveland Marathon!  I’ll write more about that later.  Now, it’s time focus on the next 18 weeks.

(My Guide to the Boston Marathon.)