My approaching marathon date has been subtly haunting me in my sleep. I still have a little over two months to train, but I want to feel strong while I run, or else I fear I will hate marathons till the end of time.

Luckily, my dear friend Laura created a marathon plan for me (rightfully titled “Last Minute Plan”) that calls for running only three days a week, which is perfect! Since I signed up for the race, I didn’t want to give up strength training and yoga, yet I alssoo didn’t want to burn out by trying to fit in all these activities while running a crazy amount of miles per week.

Here is what the plan looks like:  

“Day 1” is supposed to be some sort of speed work, “Day 2” hill work, and the third day is strictly endurance-training. The remaining four days should be one day of recovery cardio (not necessarily running), two days of strength, and one day of rest. I may skip the other day of cardio and replace it with yoga or added rest — we’ll see! 

My first week was pretty successful; I did three 1-mile repeats on the track (avg pace 6:40, wanted to vom after), my “hill work” day ended up just being six faster miles (7:30’s), and then my long run was 13.1 miles in 1:54, avg 8:46 pace, which took me all around greenpoint, williamsburg, and parts of manhattan. 

So that’s the plan. If I run a 3:10 marathon (kidding, major) I will thank this wonderful plan. But mainly, I want to debunk that you need to be running crazy amounts of miles a week in order to prepare for crushing 26.2!