My 2025 Boston Marathon Training Plan

Prologue

In September, I was accepted into the 2025 Boston Marathon! It’ll be my 10th!

My first chance to qualify for the 2026 Boston Marathon was at the 2024 Philadelphia Marathon. Unfortunately, I had a cold the day before and only met the new qualifying standard (“BQ”) by 1 second!

I mulled over the race for a few weeks, but eventually, I had to move on and start training for my next marathon.

Long-term Goals

Although I missed my opportunity to run the inaugural event due to COVID-19, I still want to qualify for the Wanda Age Group World Championships. My guess is that I will need a sub-3:40 (8:24 pace) to get an invitation. (The automatic time qualifier is sub-3:21.)

Self-assessment

I looked back on my training cycle for the 2024 Philadelphia Marathon and drew the following conclusions.

Weaknesses

• Time. I struggled to get some workouts in during my last training cycle. For example, as I get slower, it takes longer to finish a medium-long run before work in the morning. And, the lure of doing work before my runs became stronger. I’ll need to get better at time management if I’m going to finish this cycle feeling prepared.
• Mental training. I gave up on myself in the later miles of the 2024 Philadelphia Marathon. I fought back, but I’ll need to ensure that doesn’t happen again by reminding myself that racing is about getting the best out of myself, not my time.

Strengths

• Resilience. I ran the 2024 Philadelphia Marathon with a cold and still met my Boston Marathon qualifying time! Granted, it was only by 1 second, but still. I’m resilient and know that if I work hard, there’s no reason why I can’t run well in Boston.

The Plan

Choosing or Designing a Plan

Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas is my favorite training plan and I’m going with it again.

Setting a Start Date

The 2025 Boston Marathon is on Monday, April 21st.  Eighteen weeks from that date is Monday, December 16th.

Arranging workouts

The Pfitz plan has four core workouts, but the long run is the only one on the same day of the week. The schedule can be challenging when you have less time in the morning on some days than others. So, I’ll have to change some workouts to fit my work schedule better.

Long Runs. In the “Pfitz” plan, these runs are on Sundays. They range from 15 to 22 miles; for a few runs, the plan calls for some miles at a marathon pace.

Medium-long Runs. Being fit enough to run 12-15 miles mid-week makes the Pfitz plan work for many runners. In a few weeks, there are two of these runs.

Threshold or Tempo Runs. Only six of these are in the schedule, but they come at points where the body is already tired.

Speed Runs. For Pfitz, the speed work comes late in the plan, which is excellent timing because any snow and ice should have melted, and I can run them at goal pace.

Establishing training paces

I will use the suggested training paces from Pfitz and the McMillan Pace Calculator based on my 2024 Philadelphia Marathon time.

Recovery	Long	Recovery	Marathon	Threshold	5K
No faster than 11:40	10:00-11:40	9:45-10:30	8:30-8:40	8:20-8:30	7:20-7:40

Contemplating a race goal

Given that I ran a BQ with a cold, I don’t think it would be too aggressive to attempt to match my time from the 2024 Ottawa Marathon. My goal is sub-3:45 (8:34 pace).

Selecting tune-up races

In the Pfitz plan, the tune-up races come at the end of Week 12 (March 8th), Week 14 (March 22th), and Week 16 (April 5th).

• Sunday, March 15th – 2023 RnR DC Half Marathon
• Sunday, April 5th – 2023 Cherry Blossom 5K
• Sunday, April 6th – 2023 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

Last year, I missed winning my age group in the “Double Blossom,” so I’m looking forward to another shot.

Other Considerations

Winter Training

On snowy, icy, or days when the temperature is below 20 degrees, I will retreat indoors on my treadmill, a Landis L8. I transport to Watopia for these runs using the Zwift app.

Final Thoughts

I’m nervous about marathon training for the first time in a long while. I’m not sure I’ll be able to fit my workouts into my schedule, as fitting morning workouts in before work gets more challenging. As motivation, I’ll try to remember how special it is to have the opportunity to run a 10th Boston Marathon!