PUBLISHED 02/07/2006
Last August we published a three-day-a-week marathon-training program developed by researchers Bill Pierce and Scott Murr called the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training program, or FIRST plan. After 16 weeks on this no-frills program, 13 veteran marathoners improved on their most recent times by an average of almost 20 minutes at the December 2004 Kiawah Island Marathon in South Carolina.
Three months ago, at the 2005 edition of Kiawah,17 more FIRST graduates--veteran marathoners all--took on the 26.2 miles once again, and 14 of them ran PRs.
Frankly, that's all the proof we needed that this program works. And not just for the marathon. With Pierce's help, we came up with a three-day-a-week half-marathon program that's just as good as the original--maybe even better.
