FIRST marathon plan

I've used a modified plan of theirs.  And I like it.  But I'm alot slower, so I don't think I would be of any help.

Good luck.

Plenty of people use it and are successful (in their opinion) with it.

But imho, there is not enough volume or frequency and too much intensity to be a truly effective plan.  Yes, it will get you through a marathon while allowing you to cross train.  But a lot of people reduce the program intensity or just stop it completely because of the intensity levels.

If you want to run a solid/fast marathon you would be better suited and more prepared using a solid plan like a Daniels, Higdon or Pfitzinger-Douglas one.  This requires more of a running focus.  If you can stand cutting back your swim/bike to just maintenance mode then that would be the way to go.

Edit: I used a P-D plan to get my 3:12 BQ and just said "f" the bike and swim.  Then I used an even more intense P-D plan to go for my sub-3 attempt this year but got sidelined because of the flu.  I was on training pace to hit that goal though.  Then I got back on the bike and in the water for tri training and even with only 400 miles on the bike put up a top 2% bike split in an oly. relay.  My bike fitness obviously didn't suffer than much by running 200+ a month and not cycling!

Like I said, people have used it to their own personal success ...... I'd say your improvement in time may have been more based on the work you've done since the marathon before (assuming consistant running and workouts) and less the FIRST program itself.

Coming from almost as much of a running background as I do cycling I do not like the plan myself.  I'm only getting in 3 or 4 runs a week right now and I can feel my run fitness slipping away from what it was when I was marathon focused at the beginning of the year.

As for getting in the more workouts?  That is always the trick but for me it is a lot easier to get a run in then it is to swim or bike.  And you can always brick up your bike with a run right afterwards and make that one of your recovery runs.

I would put out that unless you are running 5 to 7 times a week that you will have a harder time knocking off minutes ....... unless you are nowhere near plateauing and the 3:20 was easy.