I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning.  You can probably follow the 55 mile plan without any problem.  The best thing about this book, however, is that it provides you with the knowledge you need to tweak the plan to your specific needs.

Victor

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www.competitiverunner.com[/URL" target="_blank">

NateFromRI,

I was going to use the same schedule you did for yopur first marathon. Why would you not have used that again? Did you beat 4 hours? I am 37 Male and average 20-25 miles a week and been running for 1 year. I used the cool running schedule for half marathon and seemed to be right on, but same was nervous of little mileage in middle of the week. Anyway, just curious on why it was bad for first marathon.

Thanks

[QUOTE]Originally posted by NateFromRI:
In my first marathon, I used the 20 week beginner plan on this website http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_4/143.shtml.[/URL" target="_blank">  It got me up to the distance and I got through the marathon pretty well.  In retrospect, however, I think it probably put too much emphasis on the long run and too little on overall weekly mileage.

I did beat 4 hours (3:45), but felt that I could have done better.  I was in rough shape after mile 22 and my speed wasn't proportional to what I run in other distances. McMillan has me running a 3:20ish marathon.

After lots of reading both in forums like this and in books, there seems to be a good consensus that there should be a lot more mid-week mileage to improve marathon performance. I guess I'll find out if that's true for me in a few months!

All that said, the plan did get me up to enough of a base that I could reasonably run a marathon.  I started off doing less than you are now, so I'm sure you could start with something a little more advanced.