Marathon Training

[jacksquat]

imo, 3:10 would be a pretty ambitious goal for 6 months, natural or not. i did my first marathon in 3 hours and 40 seconds with about 9 months of serious training, but i was already in excellent physical shape. along with some occasional running, i moved furniture for a living, and played softball two days a week in the summer, and ice hockey two days a week in the winter. as you can see i already had a very sound base to build upon, and was able to train fairly hard from the beginning. i was also able to avoid any injuries and/or setbacks.

the training program i used was very similar to what has already been described. mixing up longer runs with short ones,and one day a week of hill training. i gradually increased my mileage and did the one slow long run per week, peaking at 22 miles two weeks before race day. i trained 6 days per week, and was up to 45 or 50 miles per week not including the long run. i also did 7 or 8 races during that time frame, mainly 10k, and a couple of ten milers.

last but not least, "hitting the wall" is a very real probability, and trying to put an exact number on your time is at best, unrealistic. i know that i trained to go faster, but at some point i just started slowing down, and had several miles near the end that just didn't feel very good.

anyway, good luck