To prevent injury, the recommendation is to increase your total mileage each week, as well as the distance of your longest walk of the week, by no more than 10% each week.
If you presently do no walking at all, begin with:
Absolute Beginner Walking Tutorial
This tutorial will progress you from being a non-walker to walking comfortably for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
The Commitment
Before you begin marathon training, you must be able to:
- Walk for an hour at a time at a moderate pace.
- Walk every other day for at least an hour.
- Do one longer distance walk each week, from 2 hours to 4 hours.
Base Mileage Buildup
You may switch around these days, for example your longer day could be Saturday, switching Saturday to Sunday or Monday. Or your longer day could be one of the week days. The goal is to build your total mileage safely. The days off between walking days allows your body to rest up and build muscle. You could safely walk for a half hour to an hour on those days as you progress, but lay off a day if you are feeling overly tired or sore.
Work on distance rather than speed to start. As you progress, you may find yourself speeding up, that is OK. But do not build speed until you can handle the distance comfortably.
Find that one week is too hard? Don't progress, go back to a previous week's distance or repeat that week until it is comfortable.
Next page: > Building Mileage
19-Week Marathon Training Course by Email
| Week | Sun. | Mon. | Tue. | Wed. | Thur. | Fri. | Sat. | Total |
| 1 | 4 | Off | 3 | Off | 3 | Off | 3 | 13 |
| 2 | 5 | Off | 3 | Off | 3 | Off | 3 | 14 |
| 3 | 6 | Off | 3 | Off | 3 | Off | 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 7 | Off | 3 | Off | 3 | Off | 4 | 17 |
| 5 | 7 | Off | 3 | Off | 4 | Off | 4 | 18 |
| 6 | 7 | Off | 4 | Off | 4 | Off | 4 | 19 |
| 7 | 8 | Off | 4 | Off | 4 | Off | 4 | 20 |
