Philly Marathon 2014, the plan

Whelp...here we go.  Again.

Here is the 16 week training schedule I've cobbled together for myself.  I have some specific races I'm working around (Falmouth RR, Run to the Rock 1/2, Nahant 30k, Newport (distance TBD)) and I'm hoping my runs with Forrest Hill Runners (Tuesday Tempo and Thursday Speed or Hills) will continue and morph into this Yasso 800 marathon predictor/training plan.

(click image to enlarge)

The 600 miles is set just slightly above the 16 week Boston training+race miles of 589 miles.  This is only 2% more, but my hope is that I'll be able to come in above the plan miles for many of the weeks, like I did with my Boston.   Makes for a nice confidence boost!  I'm also keeping an eye on my trailing 12 months of running, to try and manage reasonable mile increases, usually of 5%-10% rolling growth with each new month.  (I have no basis for whether this is a reasonable amount to increase miles, but it feels right.)

One change I hope to make is to manage my pace in the pre-marathon races better than I did at SF1/2 and Ashland1/2 this winter...running all out in those races resulted in PR times, but left me depleted for 10-14 days after.  So, a safer goal may be to run my marathon PR pace for 80% of the race and then try and finish faster than marathon PR, which brings me to the actual goal:   

Philly marathon in 3:20...12 minutes faster than Boston 2014 and almost 6 minutes faster than my 2002 Pacific Shoreline time at 23 years old.