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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 : Run

Planned Time: 0:21:00
This Advanced 2 Training schedule, specific to the Chicago Marathon, is the toughest of all my programs! It is only for very experienced runners seeking to fine-tune their training by following a program that includes two days of speedwork plus more mileage than the programs leading up to it. Hopefully you arrived at this program with a background of speed training and know what it's like to do hill repeats, interval training on the track and tempo running in the woods. If not, this is no time to start. You would be much better following one of the Intermediate programs or Advanced 1 and saving this program for a later marathon. (You're not listening; I can tell.) Okay, you read my disclaimer and agreed to the conditions for acceptance into this very tough program. For the next 18 weeks, you will use Monday as a day of comparative rest by running an easy 3 miles, then adjourning to the gym for 15-30 minutes of stretching and strength training. (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.) Wednesday workouts will be about the same. Fridays are rest days, since even Advanced runners need to rest. On the other days, get ready to bust! Are you up to the challenge?

Workout #4 : Run

Planned Time: 0:35:00
I've reserved this day toward the beginning of the week for some of your hardest training. This is your speed day. In the marathon countdown, you will alternate running hills, tempo runs and interval 800s. Today the prescription is 3 x Hill. But the workout is slightly more complicated than that. Warm up with a couple of miles. Find a hill 200-400 meters long. Run 3 uphill repeats on it, jogging back down between. Cool down with a mile or two. That will give you a workout today of about 5 miles--but counting mileage is not important. More important is the quality of what you do, not the quantity. Even in the marathon, quality counts--at least for Advanced runners.

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: 0:21:00
Tuesday and Thursday workouts form a tough one-two punch in this Advanced 2 schedule for the Chicago Marathon--but that's what it takes if you want to run a fast marathon, perhaps qualify for Boston, or go even faster! In between, you get to run easy. Jog an easy 3 miles today, then do some stretching, spending more time on this than you normally might do because speedwork (like you did yesterday) has a tendency to tighten your muscles. You can also do some lifting today, but I don't recommend excessive strength training during the marathon buildup, and I suggest cutting back on what lifting you do as the marathon draws near. Go to my halhigdon.com, where Olympic Trails qualifier Cathy Vasto offers Six Spectacular Strength Exercises and Physical Therapist Debbie Pitchford provides Five Fantastic Stretching Exercises. Put together a regular routine that you can use each Monday and Wednesday.

Workout #8 : Run

Planned Time: 0:30:00
In this Advanced 2 program, Thursdays feature tempo runs and pace runs, alternating between each from week to week. Tempo runs also are included every third Tuesday. I do this mainly to provide some variety to the program. On this first Thursday, do a tempo run of 30 minutes. A tempo run is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace. A tempo run of 30 minutes would begin with 10-15 minutes easy running, building to peak speed for the next 10 minutes (15-25 minutes into the run), then finish with 5 minutes easy. In any tempo run, the pace buildup should be gradual, not sudden, with peak speed coming about two-thirds into the workout and only for a few minutes. You can do tempo runs almost anywhere: on the road, on trails or even on a track.

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.