The Marathon Method: The 16-Week Training Program That Prepares You to Finish a Full or Half Marathon in Your Best Time

I bought this book with HUGE apprehension last year. I had just finished the 111th Boston Marathon in 3:04 and was looking for a new running plan. My previous running plan had me running in 10 day cycles with little to no weight/core training and VERY few off days. I had no problem putting the time in because I believed the more days you spent running the faster you will get. So when I bought this book and saw that I would be only running 4 days week I felt very nervous that I would not better my time. How could running less days make you a faster runner for a marathon? I was going to run another marathon that October (2007). I followed the plan as directed only missing a couple of days. In October 2007 I ran my fastest marathon to date: 2:54. 10 minutes faster than earlier in the year! Since then I have been sold on this plan. My endurance has been increasing and this fall went looking for another marathon plan in order to break 2:45. I felt like I would need to run around 70-80 miles during my peak in order to reach my goal. After much research I decided to stick with this book adding mileage to the days without increasing the number of days running. I will be sticking to the 4 day running plan with core workouts in between. I have been doing more research on the 4 day a week running. I noticed that even the running plans on runners world have started to move to running less days during the week. Also, there are many articles coming out on this subject. About the book itself. I found it to be a good read. He gives advice for the newbie marathon runner and information that the veteran runner could brush up on. He gives three different training plans for the novice, intermediate, and advance runner. Also including the training for a half marathon. He gets very specific on the training days, telling you how long of a rest in between tempo runs, which I enjoy. I enjoy the specificity of the training plans and the information he gives you in the chapter to tweak the plan to your goals. I consistently refer to this book also have referred this book to friends. This book has worked for me and I will continue to use it during my marathon training. It is great for the newbie and advance runners alike. I challenge advance runners who are running 6-7 days a week to just try this for a 16 week period and see how your next marathon goes.

I originally got turned onto Tom Holland at his Nantucket Beach Boot Camp. I really liked his style. During the hour long session he gives great advice in an easy going manner. His workouts are tough, but they are full of variety and full of fun. I sat down with this book, expecting it to be like a text book- tons of information to be learned and studied. I had my highlighter in hand and paper on the desk to take notes. MARATHON METHOD is so much more than that! Tom shares his knowlege of exercise combined with nutrition in a very clever manner. His expertise of the sport paired with a great sense of humor made this a pleasure to read. I stayed up late to finish it because it was that good! I have a good base to start training for the Paris Marathon!

I'm a 42 year old father of 2. Mid-July I decided to run the Long Beach Marathon with my best friend, who had run 2 marathons previously. It would be my first; I had done a little bit of running, but didn't even own running shoes. I bought Tom Holland's book "The Marathon Method", then I bought shoes. To make a long story short, using only this book as a training guide, 12 weeks after buying shoes and taking up running, I ran the Long Beach Marathon last Sunday in 3:59:12, beating my friend by 6 minutes. My time would have been even better if I'd not ignored one of Tom's marathon "commandments" about staying hydrated (I didn't like energy drink provided at the race). Bottom line is, Tom Holland's training marathon training methods, in my opinion, have you running just enough miles to properly prepare you for the race while still keeping running pleasurable!! I enjoyed and looked forward to all my training runs and definitely got benefits from the strength training in between runs. Additionally, the other race preparation advice (mental strategies, diet, supplements, equipment, etc.) were extremely helpful. I highly reccomend this book.

I used the advanced marathon training program in this book to cut my marathon time in 4 months from 3:45:17 in Prague to 3:13:55 in Berlin. I ignored his strength/core workout and did the performance training program from [...] instead on strength and core days. This book was excellent for me. The only disappoinment for me was the lack of detailed information on the mysterious taper period before the race day. Two thumbs up though.

Just what I was looking for in terms of detail, easy-read...everything I wanted to know as a first time marathon runner.