My Philadelphia Marathon Training Plan
Coming off the 2024 Ottawa Marathon, I felt euphoric by how well I ran – 3:44:51 (8:35 pace)!
Before I ran the race, I started thinking about my next marathon. I thought about rerunning the Marine Corps Marathon because it’s the largest marathon in Washington, DC, and I was weary of travel. However, I thought October was still too early for dependable cool weather here. So, I narrowed my choices to the Philadelphia and the Richmond Marathon, which were both nearby. Ultimately, I chose the Philadelphia Marathon because the course and city seemed more interesting.
Cost
The race was $130.
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
Strengths
Health. I haven’t felt this good and injury-free in years! I’m generally taking better care of myself and seeing the results of sleeping and eating better. I’ve increased my training load and seen faster race results.
Weaknesses
Work. Lately, there have been days when I need to come in early – by 9 a.m. – which has made it challenging to finish longer workouts.
Speed endurance. In the last training cycle, I skipped my threshold runs or ran them too slowly. I want to improve my “comfortable hard” efforts this time.
The Plan
Choosing or Designing a Plan
After using Hansons’ Marathon Method for last year’s marathons and feeling like I didn’t have the race I wanted, I switched to Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas (“Pfitz”) for the 2024 Ottawa Marathon. I’ll also stick with Pfitz for this training cycle and use the 18-week plan where the highest mileage week will be 70 miles (“18/55-70”).
Setting a Start Date
The 2024 Philadelphia Marathon is on Sunday, November 24th. Eighteen weeks before that date is Monday, July 22nd. I will be on vacation in San Diego, California, that week, but I can start then.
Arranging Workouts
The Pfitz plan has four core workouts, but the long run is the only one on the same day of the week. This 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 better fit my work schedule.
Long Runs. In the “Pfitz” plan, these runs are on Sundays. They range from 15 to 22 miles, and for a few of the run, some miles are run at marathon pace. I will run these on Saturday morning to get them out of the way so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Medium-long Runs. I think the “secret sauce” of the Pfitz plan is the mid-week medium-long run. They range from 12 to 15 miles; there are two in some weeks.
Threshold or Tempo Runs. There aren’t many of these runs in the schedule – just six – but, as I mentioned above, my goal in this training cycle is to run them faster.
Speed Runs. For Pfitz, the speed work comes late in the plan, which is excellent timing because the worst of the heat should be over, 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 2023 New York City Marathon time.
| Recovery | Long | Aerobic | Marathon | Threshold | 5K |
| No faster than 11:00 | 10:15-10:45 | 10:05-10:25 | 9:00-9:15 | 8:15-8:30 | 7:45-7:55 |
Of course, I’ll change these paces as I train and my fitness improves. By the end of the cycle, my paces should be more like this:
| Recovery | Long | Aerobic | Marathon | Threshold | 5K |
| No faster than 10:30 | 9:45-10:15 | 9:15-9:35 | 8:25-8:40 | 7:45-8:00 | 7:15-7:25 |
Contemplating a Race Goal
For the first time in a long while, I have a sense of my fitness! My goal is sub-3:42 (8:30 pace).
Selecting Tune-up Races
In the Pfitz plan, the tune-up races come at the end of Week 12 (October 12th), Week 14 (October 26th), and Week 16 (November 9th).
- 2024 Army Ten Miler, Sunday, October 13th.
- 2024 Marine Corps 10K, Sunday, October 27th.
- 2024 Freedom Is Never Free Half Marathon, Sunday. November 10th.
It’s a very military-centric schedule!
Other Considerations
Supplemental Training
Given how busy I am, I’ll be lucky to do the running, so I don’t think I should count on doing any supplementary training like weight lifting or cross-training.
Summer Training
The National Weather Service predicts a hot summer in the United States this year. Now that I’ve discovered Zwift, I look forward to a treadmill run! So, I’ll stay indoors on hot (over 80 degrees) and humid days.
Final Thoughts
Due to so many competing demands, this might be my most challenging training cycle yet. But I’m determined to make it work!
