A lot of people run in the Deseret Morning News/KJZZ Marathon. So can you. The youngest person to run was 7 and the oldest was over 70. The lightest runner weighted only 57 pounds and the heaviest weighed over 220. But they all finished as a result of proper training.

  The step-by-step schedule shows how you can finish the Deseret Morning News/KJZZ Marathon if you have been running at least 30 minutes a day. If you’re significantly below that, the program shouldn’t be started until you’ve reached that level.

  The schedule includes a three-month plan. If a runner plans to enter the Deseret Morning News /KJZZ Marathon on July 24, the schedule should begin in late April.

  When training, it’s a good idea to not try running the full marathon route because you might drop out or hurt yourself and never recover psychologically. Leave the last several miles of the race unexplored until the proper time and place, when other runners can help you and when finishing counts!

MARATHON TRAINING SCHEDULE

PROGRAM	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7	Average
Week 1	25 min.	50 min.	25 min.	50 min.	25 min.	1:10	optional	35 min.
Week 2	30 min.	55 min.	30 min.	55 min.	30 min.	1:20	optional	40 min.
Week 3	35 min.	1:00	35 min.	1:00	35 min.	1:30	optional	45 min.
Week 4	35 min.	1:10	35 min.	1:10	35 min.	1:45	optional	50 min.
Week 5	40 min.	1:20	40 min.	1:20	40 min.	1:45	optional	55 min.
Week 6	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	2:00	optional	1:00
Week 7	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	2:00	optional	1:00
Week 8	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	2:00	optional	1:00
Week 9	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	2:00	optional	1:00
Week 10	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	2:00	optional	1:00
Week 11	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	2:30	optional	1:05
Week 12	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	1:30	40 min.	2:00	optional	1:00

Instructions

2. The schedule presumes that you’re starting from a base of about a half-hour of running a day. If you’re significantly below that, don’t begin this program until you’ve reached that basic level.

3. If you’re running more than 35 minutes a day, start later and at the appropriate place in the schedule. There is, of course, no reason to back down.

4. Typically, the weeks will run from Monday (Day 1) through Sunday, (Day 7), with the longest run on Saturday. But weeks can start and end anywhere you want.

5. One day a week - labeled “optional” - is left open for rest or as a makeup day if you’ve come up short for the week.

6. The entire schedule has alternating long and short days to allow cycles of work and recovery. They’re planned on about a 1-2-3 ratio: a short run is one part, a medium-long run two parts, and the longest three parts.

7. The program calls for a five-week buildup, leveling off at an average of an hour a day for seven weeks and then a one-week easing off before the marathon.

8. In the next-to-last (11th) week of full training, you’re asked to go at least a half-hour longer than ever before. This is a confidence builder.

9. You are trying to accumulate an average of an hour a day for an eight-week period (all averages are figured on seven-day weeks.) This theoretically gives you the ability to run for four hours or to race for three hours.

10. Three months include 13 weeks, but only 12 are given here. We hope you aren’t superstitious, because the 13th is race week. “Taper” all week with runs averaging about half of normal - 30 minutes a day.

11. Do all your training at about the pace you expect to maintain for the full marathon at the end of the program.

12. You may run a race of 5-10 miles in the second month instead of one of the long runs. But this is not a requirement.