I'm training for 2.49 marathon later this year (having run 2.57 a couple of months ago). Mentored (a little!) by the London marathon winner in 55+ age group (I'm much younger!) who ran 2.38. I'm starting to have opinions... My biggest problem is seeing the mentions of 12-week, 16-week or whatever-week plan. I could never understand these "plans". You might run a good marathon, but it's not sustainable to stay a good runner by taking this short-term view. I've achieved excellence at running by running consistently day after day, month after month, without any marathon goal in sight (you do eventually end up wanting a race, but it's an outcome, not a goal). As far as training goes, one interval session a week (different kinds but mainly 10x kilometer repeats), one tempo run (6- 8 miles); the rest are easy runs. I'm currently working on reducing the speed of my long run so it's closer to easy versus threshold

Anyway, that's my approach! my like all things running so thanks for the story