Last Monday: 6.5-mile run (with a negative split)

Last Tuesday: 4.5-mile fun run

Last Thursday: 6.5-mile run (with another negative split)

Saturday: 12.5-mile run, 1 hr. 56 min.; 9:16 minutes per mile.

Total for the week: 30 miles

Yesterday: 6.5 miles

Saturday’s long run felt much better than the 10-miler a week earlier. Partly because it was cooler and less humid, partly because I paid attention to my hydration and partly because my friend Zeta Cooper ran the last four miles with me and told a very intriguing story. Thanks, Zeta!

In one of my earlier marathon training posts, I noted how I was going to talk about why and how I came up with my own training schedule. Then I realized I’d already done so several weeks ago in this blog. So I’ll just refer you back to that post.

I figured out that running fewer times a week (but more mileage) was better for me about 4 years ago. Since then, several running publications have written similar articles, including this one, which ran in Runners World last year.

Experienced marathoners, I’d be interested in hearing how you train and whether you fiddle around with traditional schedules at all or rigidly follow high-mileage ones that you get from books, experts and off the internet.

By the way: Runners World has also found that several colleges now offer courses on how to run a marathon. For credit. Hmmmmmmmmm.