Ramp Up for Marathon Training

My plan for February and the first two weeks in March is here.
I aim to start training at 44 mi/wk.

Target Heart Rates for the marathon

I am going to use my heart rate monitor with three heart rate targets for the start, middle and finish sections of this coming marathon. According to coach Benson on Running Times Magazine, miles 0-13 at a low heart, miles 13-20 at +3-4 bpm and miles 20-26.2 at another +3-4 bpm. The trick is to choose heart rate 1 (HR1) wisely, or to put it another way, not to go out too fast. I went out at 137 in the 2004 Boulder Backroads (BBR) marathon and felt strong at the finish. I went out at 140 in the 2005 BBR and fell apart at mile 17. Last Sunday I did a 4 mi run at 140 and was very sore for days afterwards. So I am not going to start at 140. Starting at 137 seems safe but what about 138 or 139? Am I going out too slow at 137? Three Sundays ago I ran 3.5 mi at 139 and felt fine afterwards. Was it the extra .5 mi that caused my soreness and not the one beat per minute? Right now with five weeks to go I'm settling in to train at 137, 140 and 143 bpm. I may up these by 1-2 bpm in May if this goes well.

Eight Weeks of Training to Go

The marathon I plan on running is May 4, 2008 and I have 8 weeks to go. I have been increasing my long run by 2 mi every other week since February 1. I reached 20 mi on the second week in March. The 20 milers will be the cornerstone of my training from here on. I will do three of them and taper for 3 weeks. My two hard workouts during the week will be 6x800 and a 35 min threshold run. The spreadsheet is published here.

Week 9 Base Training Plan

The plan for the week of Nov 27 is Mon - Easy 3 m with Kiki; Tue - 4 m, 1 m tempo, hr 140; Wed - Easy 3 m with Cocoa, hr 125; Thu - 7 m, easy 3 m in the morning with Kiki, easy 4 m at lunch to the base of the hill I'll use for repeats; Fri - Easy 3 m with Cocoa; Sat - 8 m long run; Sun - Easy 3 m with Kiki. This will give me a total of 31 m for the week, 2 m more than Week 8.