Please forgive me, I'm new at this and just started running the Hal Higdon's beginner's marathon schedule without looking at a particular marathon date. Well, I've picked my marathon date and I have four extra weeks to work into Hal's scheduled weekly runs. I'm currently at Hal's Week 7, but was wondering if I should bounce back to his Week 3 schedule OR should I consider just doing say an extra Week 10, and an extra Week 11, etc. type schedule? I guess basically the question is - should I do the extra four weeks of long runs focused on the 5-10 milers or should I do four extra weeks of long runs that are in the 12-17 miles distance? Another idea would be to just continue the mid-week sorta long runs, but going back down on the Saturday long runs? The idea being that I increase weekly milage, but not necessarily the long run milage. Currently, I feel great and I've run as he scheduled just fine. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I would recommend option 4.... "Another idea would be to just continue the mid-week sorta long runs, but going back down on the Saturday long runs? The idea being that I increase weekly milage, but not necessarily the long run milage." The reason for a standard 18 to 20 week schedule is to prevent injury. Also, toward the end of the schedule you may have to deal with motivation and energy. Choose your marathon date back up 18 to 20 weeks and stick to it... Good luck