A few of my friends were talking about the different training programs to run a marathon. It seems we came to the conclusion that there are four programs that seem to be the most popular.
One that gained popularity is the over distance training that Galloway recommends. His theory is that if you do long runs of 30 miles, then running 26.2 miles will be easy. The problem for some runners is that after a 30-mile run, the recovery period is almost two weeks before you can do another long run. The other problem is that the pace you need for 30 miles is slower than what you would like to do the marathon in. The positive side of this program is that if a runner runs 30 miles, they have the confidence that they can now run 26.2 miles with no problem.
The opposite of this is to run faster for a shorter distance. At one time many of the winners of marathons were runners that specialized in 10K distance. The theory behind this program is that if you run distances of 12-15 miles faster than a normal pace, it will be easier to back off the fast pace to a slower pace and be able to run a longer distance. One positive point about this program is that the chance of an injury is less than running long distances. And recovering from a 12-mile run is much shorter than the recovery time from a 30-mile run.
