McMillan Custom Marathon Training Program

I’ve been fan of the McMillan Running Calculator for many years; the accuracy of some of “his” race predictions has been nothing short of uncanny in numerous instances.

Greg McMillan is a runner, exercise scientist and coach who has the unique ability to combine the science of endurance performance with the art of real-world coaching and his web site is chock full of outstanding information for runners around the globe. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be coached by Greg, but at $375 every three months, his online coaching program is a little too expensive for me.

However, last month I made the decision to sign up for one of Greg’s 20-week custom training plans, geared specifically towards the Richmond Marathon on November 15th. The cost? $150.99….

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never paid $150.99 for a training plan in my life. Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve never paid for any form of coaching since I started running over a quarter of a century ago (that makes me sound old doesn’t it?!). I’ve always coached myself, and if I do say so myself, had pretty good results over the years, but the time has come for me to get serious. Read on….

Several things prompted me to sign up for a McMillan Custom Training Program:

1. I’m desperate to run a new marathon PR and believe a custom training plan from a professional coach will provide a great chance of achieving it.
2. Let’s be honest, I’m not getting any younger, and at 41 years of age, I have to accept I don’t have many more PR attempts in me.
3. I’ve run Richmond three times since 1999 and believe Richmond ’08 will be a perfect opportunity for a successful assault on a sub-2:51 attempt.
4. At this years Frederick Marathon I finished a very surprising third place overall and won a whopping $300! Rather than sink the cash into my Volkswagen Bus Fund, I decided to invest it in my future as a marathon runner.
5. I’m always keen to try new things and Greg’s “perfect for experienced runners preparing for a fall marathon” description sounded ideal for my situation.

So, a few weeks ago I bit the bullet and clicked the “Buy Now” button on the McMillan web site. Several days later I received a nice email from Greg and an Athlete Questionnaire for me to complete and return ASAP. I spent quite some time answering the questions and was excited to return the Word doc the following day.

Greg soon acknowledged receipt and promised he’d perform “a complete evaluation of my previous training and racing”. He would also “determine my strengths and weaknesses as a runner”, “evaluate my goals” and “determine how to best advance me toward them”. Exciting stuff…

It took another week to hear back, but today I finally received my 20-week custom training program – a seven page document containing general information, specific workout instructions and of course a very detailed Excel spreadsheet containing workouts for every day from June 30th to November 15th.

The document is packed full of information about endurance workouts, long steady runs, stamina workouts, pace boosters, tempo runs, tempo intervals, cruise intervals, progression runs (my favorite!), strides, sprint workouts, straights & curves, ins & outs, hill workouts and more. All my planned races are included in the plan and I’m stoked to have something this comprehensive all mapped out for me. I guess all I have to do now is digest the information, read through the plan thoroughly and run!

So, I have one more week of “Steve” running before I start the “Greg” plan proper. I think I’m in pretty good shape to start the program and I certainly won’t be taking any chances this week with my training.

To say I’m excited is an understatement, and I’m looking forward to not only run the plan as it was designed, but to share my experiences here on Run Bulldog Run.

My goal is simple: run faster than 2 hours 51 minutes. Think I can do it? Keep reading to find out….it’s going to be a fun journey!