So, seriously, understand what you’re getting yourself into so you get the most out of your training and don’t hurt yourself. The plans will make little sense if you don’t take the time to read the books they came from. I’ve read these books and have trained with programs from them in the past.

A few popular “Couch to 5K” plans for new runners.

Several plans by Hal Higdon from his popular Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide.

Beginner and Advanced Marathon plans by Keith and Kevin Hanson from their popular Hansons Marathon Method book.

Several plans by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas from their popular Advanced Marathoning book.

(If you do use Google Calendar, I recommend creating a new calendar to import into so your training schedule gets its own color and so you can show/hide it as needed.) If you’re not familiar with iCalendar files, what you need to know is that you can import them into Google Calendar, the OSX Calendar app, and any other calendar app worth using.

Download an iCalendar (.ics) file with the right training runs on it.

Specify miles or km (Hello non-Americans!).

So to save myself this mundane ritual as I lock in a training schedule for the 2016 Boston Marathon (and many evenings and weekends since), I hacked together a web application that lets me: It’s a collosal waste of time and an easy way add or remove a few miles with a careless fat finger. Instead, I do what you probably do: I enter each training run by hand.

Your training needs to work despite travel you do, work deadlines you face, kid schedules, doctor’s appointments, election days, Maker Faire, visits from out-of-town friends, baseball games, dates, gran fondos, colonoscopies, court appearances-whatever life throws at you is easier to manage when it’s on a calendar.Įach time I gear up for a race, I search Google for a way to marry a training plan to my calendar and I’m surprised when nothing comes up. After all, you’re not likely to kill that Sunday long run if it follows that Saturday night Phish show.

Having a good training plan is key, but understanding how your running life intersects your non-running life is even more important. Often, the biggest challenge in running a race is finding the time to train.

Download hal higdon marathon training