Fast Running Blog

I am looking for suggestions for a plan to help me hit my goal of a BQ run. I am set to run the NYC marathon in Nov. I am currently developing my plan. I am 45. My most recent race was a little over 1 month ago. I race Vancouver ,BC marathon in 3:57. I need a 3:25 for BQ. I currently run about 40 miles per week. I plan to increase that to about 60 per week during the heart of my plan. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

You can design your own plan or buy a book and modify one of theirs.  There are many good running books out there that can give you actual training workouts you can modify for your use as well as explaining overarching training principals.  You can look at the Competitive Runner's Handbook (title from my memory, I gave my copy to a sister in law, I meant to lend it but I think I phrased it like a gift so there you go) or Daniels' Running Formula.
The most important principles in trying to get to where you want to be are probably: consistency, injury prevention (stretch, flexibility exercises), and a training plan.  You want to run hard/easy and gradually get your body to agree that 3:25 pace IS your marathon pace effort. Perhaps do a short training cycle now that focuses on speed or the half marathon, then a nice long training cycle that focuses on the marathon.  I find that half marathons make for great marathon workouts

If we're recommending books, I've always like Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger.

On my run this morning I was thinking about what I posted yesterday and realized I meant to mention that part of the injury prevention principle is listening to your body.  It can be easy to overdo it when going for an aggressive goal, so you will need to be listening for any early warning signs and giving attention where it is needed early on.  This can't prevent all injuries, but it often keeps us chugging along instead of getting sidelined.

If you haven't, go to your workout calender and click on "Running Info".  That how I became a Boston qualifier.  It doesn't take some fancy schmancy plan.  I went through a three year period of trying all kinds of different things and each different thing produced about a 3:42 marathon.  One thing that was consistent in my three year search for the magic plan was my weekly mileage.  I was averaging about 35 miles a week for the year or about 1800 annual miles.  Once I averaged about 60 miles a week for a year (3000 annual miles) that's when I hit my BQ.  My "speedwork" was nothing more than racing 5 and 10K's about 9-10 times a year.  Some of my 20 milers would end with a fast finish at marathon pace.  That's it.  I found that about two 20 milers a month for 3 months leading up to the goal race gave me the endurance I needed.  This is pretty much Sasha's plan.  It works very well for me, it will probably do the same for you.   I am a product of Sasha's plan, I'm glad I found it and used it.  It just makes sense.  Want to get faster?  Run more. 

By the way, all my race times increased across the board all the way down to 5K.

Thank you for your replies! I have begun my training and have incorporated much of what has been discussed here and on other threads. I have a plan that I personalized from runners world. It does have about 6 20 mile runs in it and pushes my weekly miles up to about 65 per week at its peak. It will be interesting to see how this goes. I am listening to my body tell me when I am pushing too much. I have had to modify some goals with regard to time because I have been training at altitude (7,000 ft) in Flagstaff and doing trail runs which I had not done much of before. When I am in Scottsdale training it is the heat that makes things tough. I run at 4:30-5am and it's already 85-90. It's all fun no complaints here!

The race reports are extremely helpful when you are chasing a time goal.  Find a report that coincides with your 3:25 goal, then look back on the mileage and workouts that runner was doing leading up to that race.  I find the "case study" approach helpful.

Thank you! I will check into the case reports.