I'm 36, male.

In building my weekly mileage from 25-35 up to 60-80, I did it gradually. Spent the 2006-2007 winter running slow but not going beyond 40 mpw. Then I began doing a lot of back-to-back-to-back middle distance runs, starting at 10 miles 3 days in a row in March, and gradually getting up to 17 miles 3 days in a row by August. By April I was breaking through 50 mpw. By July, I was over 60, and since then it's been a steady 60 with occasional peaks of 70 and 80.

I got into a good rhythm of doing long runs every 3 weeks, which allowed enough time for recovery (maybe 5 days), which gave me a good 2 weeks to run higher mileage before a brief mini-taper for the next long run. My long runs started at 20 miles in March and my last was 29 miles. At first, I would run maybe 60 minutes of the long run at a tempo pace of 8:00 to 8:30. Gradually, I'd increase the distance/time spent at tempo pace. My last 29-miler featured 24 miles at 7:30 (not counting water stops etc).

I was doing tempo runs once a week. But then 2 months ago increased to twice a week: one short and fast (eg 3 miles at 6:30), the other longer and slower (12 miles at 7:30). These past 2 months have really seen a boost in my fitness and I attribute it to the twice-weekly tempos -- the way I see it, tempo runs allow me to realize the potential that running higher mileage makes possible.

Of course, even a 3:15 BQ marathon isn't really that fast compared to a lot of people out there. But compared to myself over the last few years, it's night and day.

As far as injuries... the first half of the year my right ankle bothered me. Tendonitis, most likely. Ice, Aleve and switching to the green more-supportive SuperFeet seemed to resolve the issue. I'm still struggling with some hip flexor issue on my left side. It's slowly getting better; back in July and August it would bother me if I tried to run faster than 7:30, forcing me to slow down, but lately it's a little better. It may or may not cause a problem for me this year during the marathon; if it acts up, I won't BQ. I figure the hip flexor and related muscles are still weak and catching up.

TK5 -- just run like you've been training. Don't feel pressured to "race" it. That'll come later. The first time is magical.

I recommend not listening to an MP3 player either.

flobaby,

I just went by feel. I followed no training plan. The anchor of the training plan was long runs every 3 weeks, and I was always sure to get enough recovery in and then run as much mileage as I could handle in between.

The tempos: I'd usually pyramid the tempos. Slower at the start, faster in the middle. The longer tempos would usually be a little slower, the shorter tempos faster. But speedwork at the track? None. The fastest tempos never went faster than my 5K pace (~20 minute 5K, 6:20 pace).