Pete Pfitzinger won the 1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and was the top American in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic marathons. He holds a master's in exercise science and worked as an exercise physiologist, and he wrote Advanced Marathoning with Scott Douglas, a contributing writer for Runner's World and Outside. Every plan we review from the 4th edition is here: 8 marathon schedules at 12 or 18 weeks across four mileage levels, and 5 plans for racing a second marathon soon after the first.
Each plan is graded on the same 31 measures we use for every plan, Buena Vida's own included, with the research behind each measure linked. The ladder is strict. A C is a decent plan with gaps worth knowing about. A B clears the bar every Buena Vida plan has to clear before it's published, and an A goes a step beyond it. Open any plan to see what it does well, where it falls short, and who it suits.
- Plans reviewed
- 13
- Goals
- Marathon
- Length
- 4–18 weeks
- Run days
- 5–7 a week
- Peak mileage
- 50–101 miles a week
Marathon plans
Twelve weeks at 55 to 70 miles, holding near peak volume for nine straight weeks.
IntermediateRequires purchaseTwelve weeks to a marathon on five running days, peaking near 54 miles a week.
IntermediateRequires purchaseSix running days a week for 18 weeks, with a half-marathon most Wednesdays.
IntermediateRequires purchaseFive running days a week, building to 14 continuous miles at goal marathon pace.
IntermediateRequires purchaseFour weeks between marathons, with two weeks of recovery folding straight into taper.
AdvancedRequires purchaseSix weeks between marathons, built around six named sessions that carry the whole plan.
AdvancedRequires purchaseEight weeks between marathons, with only two of them given over to real training.
AdvancedRequires purchaseTen weeks between marathons, rebuilding to 68 miles without a single marathon-pace run.
AdvancedRequires purchaseTwelve weeks from 66 miles to 84, with easy doubles carrying the recovery days.
AdvancedRequires purchaseTwelve weeks from 81 miles to 100, with doubles on most days from week one.
AdvancedRequires purchaseTwelve weeks between two marathons, opening with four weeks where recovery is the training.
AdvancedRequires purchaseEighteen weeks at 70 to 85 miles, built around a single 24-mile run in week 11.
AdvancedRequires purchaseEighteen weeks past 100 miles, with more than half the days carrying two runs.
AdvancedRequires purchaseTraining with Pete Pfitzinger
Pfitzinger's plans rank the work. Endurance comes first, then lactate threshold (an effort you could hold for about an hour), then hard repeats, then speed, and every kind of run in the book has a stated purpose. The weekend long run anchors the week, and a medium-long run in midweek, the second-longest run of the week, often sits beside it. You choose your goal marathon pace yourself. Each day's distance comes as a range, so a tired day can land at the short end, and the book explains how to pick up again after missing fewer than 10 days.
The plans are sorted by mileage, and the book means it. The plans up to 55 miles a week ask you to arrive already running 25 or more. The 55 to 70 plans ask for 45, the 70 to 85 plans for 55, and the plans over 85 for 70 to 75 miles plus a recent 15-mile run. The lowest tier runs 5 days a week, the next 6, and the top two every day, with two runs on some days. There's no first-marathon plan in the book. The 5 multiple-marathon plans, from 4 to 12 weeks, assume you've just run one.
Seven of the 13 earn a B or better, and the 12-week plan for 70 to 85 miles earns an A. Structure and variety are where they shine: phases in a clear order, varied hard sessions, long runs that build toward race day, plenty of marathon-pace work, and a real taper. The points they lose sit mostly in injury prevention. These plans open close to their own mileage, and a plan's first week should match what you already run. The 12-week plan for 55 to 70 miles starts at about 55 miles, with 8 miles at marathon pace on the first Sunday. Some climb in jumps with few lighter weeks, and strength, which the book covers in its own chapter, never reaches the calendar. Four of the five plans between marathons earn Cs, mostly because the climb back after the first race is steep.
These plans suit an experienced marathoner who wants a faster race, not a first finish, and already runs close to the mileage in the plan's name. Pick the tier you run now, not the one you hope to reach.
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In research studies, runners on plans fit to them improved as much as or more than runners on fixed plans, and fewer of them stalled.
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