Which Daniels’ Marathon Plan to Follow?

The last week, I’ve been meaning to work backwards from G’ma’s marathon (June 18th) to see when I’d officially have to begin the Daniel’s marathon plan.

Good thing I did… because turns out, I should be starting THIS WEEK.

Oh, man.

I still haven’t decided which of the Daniels’ marathon programs I’ll attempt: 1. stick to the general program I did for TCM? Just add mileage and bump down the target times? Or 2. Move to the elite program?

What are the major differences, you ask? Good question.
In the Elite plan, Phase 2-4 are one continuous 18 week phase. The plan is set up to steadily increase the various types of stress being imposed on the runner rather than changing which system is being stressed during different periods of time.
Looking through the program, it mixes up interval pacing, marathon pace, and tempo pace workouts throughout. You can see that in the first two workouts (week 1):

1. 2 mile WU, then 30 minutes MP, 4:45 tempo pace, 25 minutes MP, 4:45 tempo, 4:45 MP, 2 miles easy (~14 miles)
2. 2 mile WU, 8 miles at MP, 2 mile CD

Vs. the General plan, which focuses first on interval training, then adds marathon and tempo pace. (Working one system at a time).

With that said, I don’t know which one will work better for me. I feel like I have a good interval/VO2 max base from this winter’s plan, which are what the first 6 weeks of the General plan works on… is that a good thing? Or is it unneccessary to continue to work on that system for that long? We’ll see what Jerry has to say, he’s very objective & is smarter than me when it comes to an overall plan. I’m pretty sure either will work really well, as long as I can pound out the mileage, get the quality in, and remain healthy and motivated.

Whichever it is, though, I’m excited (although also apprehensive) to begin! Let the mileage/work/general feeling of exhaustion begin! 🙂 (Oh, crap…)