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After purchase, your plan will be available in your own private online training log account. You'll enjoy these benefits and more:

• Daily e-mails with your next workout keep you on track
• Create your own routes or search our library of routes for tracking your workouts
• Map, graph and share workouts with your friends by e-mail, Facebook and view in Google Maps or Google Earth
• Upload workouts from one of more than 80 training devices (Garmin, Suunto, Timex, Polar, more) or easily record your workouts manually
• Track your fitness and gain confidence
• Complete nutrition tracking to monitor your diet
• Get support and answers on the Message Boards

Workout #1 : Other

Planned Time: 0:00:00
Hundreds of thousands of runners have run marathons using my training programs. Many have followed my novice program to finish their first marathon. Once having achieved that success, they often migrate upwards to use one of my intermediate or advanced programs, running more miles or adding speedwork to improve their times, to set Personal Records, even to qualify for the prestigious Boston Marathon, which accepts only runners who qualify by running fast times. Whether your goal is to qualify for Boston or not, welcome to my training program.

Workout #2 : Other

Planned Time: 0:00:00
Have questions related to your marathon training? You can ask them by going to my interactive Bulletin Boards, available online through halhigdon.com.

Workout #3 : X-Train

Planned Time: 0:30:00
This marathon training schedule, designed specifically for the Chicago Marathon, is for Intermediate 1 runners, those individuals seeking to improve their Personal Records. Use each Monday as a day of comparative rest to recuperate from the long runs you will be doing on Sundays under this training program. Notice that I said comparative rest. As an Intermediate 1 runner, you don't get Mondays off as do the Novice runners. Mondays are reserved for 30-60 minutes of cross-training. Swimming, cycling, walking: The choice is up to you. But make this an easy day. Don't turn this into an intensive workout under the mistaken belief that it will make you more fit; the opposite may prove true if you overtrain. As you cross-train for about a half hour today, contemplate the 18 weeks of running ahead of you leading to Chicago.

Workout #4 : Run

Planned Time: 0:27:00
Run 3 miles at a comfortable pace. While training for the Chicago Marathon over the next 18 weeks, you will add only a few miles to your Tuesday workouts. In Week 7, you'll do 4 miles. In week 11, you'll be up to 5 miles. By that time, you'll be so used to doing much longer runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays, that a run of that distance will seem easy. It's all part of the progressive buildup of total mileage designed to get you ready to run 26 miles 385 yards. Don't be tempted to push the pace. Undertraining is often better than Overtraining.

Workout #5 : Other

Planned Time: 0:00:00
Marathons lend themselves to goal setting, because of the extra effort required both to train for them and to compete well in them, and simply because of the magic of the marathon itself. But setting a goal involves not merely selecting an event or events but also deciding what you expect from your participation in that event. Is your goal just to finish? Is your goal a PR? Is your goal victory, or at least placing high in your age group? Or maybe you are just out to have a good time?

Workout #6 : Other

Planned Time: 0:00:00
Planning is where time and goal come together. If you have a specific period of time in which to achieve a specific goal, you can plan accordingly, to a point, of course. You cannot predict whether the wind will be in your face or the weather will be too warm. But you can plan almost every other aspect of your marathon training so you will reach the starting line ready to perform to the best of your ability.

Workout #7 : Run

Planned Time: 0:45:00
Five miles, a couple of miles more than yesterday. As the countdown to Chicago continues, your Wednesday mileage will increase gradually from 5 to 8 miles. This is what Olympian Julie Isphording describes as a sorta long run, done midweek at longer distances than usual, but not as long as the weekend long runs. Feel free to punch the acceleration button if you're feeling good, particularly toward the end of the workout.

Workout #8 : Run

Planned Time: 0:27:00
Run the same workout that you did on Tuesday: 3 miles. Follow the run by doing some stretching and strength training for about 15-30 minutes. Go to my web site, halhigdon.com, where Olympic Trails qualifier Cathy Vasto offers Six Spectacular Strength Exercises and Physical Therapist Debbie Pitchford provides Five Fantastic Stretching Exercises. This might be a good workout to do in a health club, since you can do your 3-miler on a treadmill before heading to the weight room.

Workout #9 : Other

Planned Time: 0:00:00
Marathons continue to grow in size. Chicago, New York and London all attract fields larger than 30,000 runners. Within the United States, according to figures from the USATF Road Running Information Center, the number of runners finishing marathons has grown from 170,000 to 400,000 in two decades. Those finishers are slightly older and somewhat slower, their motivation in entering a marathon (often their first road race of any distance) being mainly to finish it, not to finish it fast.