Flying Pig Marathon training schedule

Update (05.08.08): Okay, I notice that lots of people are landing on this page from searches of "Flying Pig Marathon." I'm a runner from Toronto, Ontario, training for the marathon with a 12-week schedule, and I'm running the race for the first time who just finished running the 2008 Flying Pig Marathon. It's my third marathon, my first being Chicago in 2006 and the second being the Marine Corps Marathon in 2007. Welcome to my training blog, which i've been doing since December, 2005.

Some useful links
My race report (and pre-race one)
Results from Active.com and from Cincinatti.com.
Photos from the race on Cincinnati.com and from RunPhotos.com.
Want to know your real marathon time? My post and also an update from Cincinatti Enquirer.
Course info, including course description.
Long range forecast for Cincinnati
Course reviews

Other blogs by people who are running the race in 2008, as far as I could tell
Mine, of course.
The Internal Pigdog
A Cystic Fibrosis Patient’s Journey to Completing A Marathon
Vorilee
MileMusings
Miles and Madness

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My spring marathon training, if I was doing an 18-week program, should have began on New Years Day. But I've decided to do the Pfitzinger 12-week program that tops out at 55 miles a week. It's a shorter version of the 18 week schedule I followed last summer.

I'm delaying my training for several reasons, but I do know I need to get accustomed to doing major running in the winter and perhaps buy a month and a half to let the cold weather pass us by a little before doing a lot of quality work. I also have to build a real base mileage before plunging into the training.

My goal for this marathon is to gain more experience, work on keeping my fitness at a high level, improve some aspects of training such as working harder at LTs and doing long runs at faster pace.

So here's the plan. In the next six weeks, I'll do between 30 and 35 miles a week so I can build a strong base. It will be built on running about 15 miles during two or three weekday runs and two weekend runs with a long run starting at 10 miles and working up to 15 miles.

So here's a sample base week from now until the second week of February. I intend to start this now and see if I can keep it up over the next five:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 5 miles (Add strides)
Wednesday: 8 miles (Key weekday run)
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: long run (10 to 15 miles)
Sunday: Recovery of 5 miles.

And below is the Pfitzinger 12 week program beginning on Feb. 12.