This schedule allows for one day off per week. It need not be on Monday. For any or all weeks, feel free to exchange the Monday off day with either the Wednesday or Friday workout. However you do it, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays are recovery days. You should run these days at a normal pace, though if the day follows a particularly hard effort (e.g., a Sunday after a 20-miler), you might want to take it a bit easier.

Tuesdays are at the track, and the specific workouts will be set forth on another schedule. For now, you should be running in the regular group. As the mileage builds on these days, it will not necessarily be in the workout itself (i.e., you might warm up an extra mile and cool down an extra mile).

Thursdays are for a second longish run during the week. During these runs, you should try to run the middle miles at tempo pace (approximately 30 seconds faster than marathon pace).

Saturdays are for your long runs. Generally, run these at a pace starting approximately one minute per mile slower than your marathon pace. The entire run, however, does not have to go at the same pace. For example, if your goal is to run the marathon at 7:30 pace, you might start the run around 8:45 pace and as you get warmed up, gradually increase to 8:15 pace.