June: Miracles

   Do you smell fraud in a training program that promises to prepare any runner for a marathon in 12 weeks' time by running only three days a week? As with Internet college degrees or miracle hair restoration, you should examine the fine print before you hand over your money.

   To be fair, there's great efficacy in exchanging miles for intensity in your workouts. Coaches everywhere are finding that they get more from their runners - in both speed and endurance - by dialing back the distance in favor of interval sets, tempo runs, and cross training. This is not a fad. Lowering weekly mileage reduces the risk of injury. It allows for more recovery time, which is how muscle is forged. It also lets you have a life beyond running.

   The trick to low-mileage workouts is to recognize when you're slipping into folly, which isn't always readily apparent. The two best-tested programs for the less-is-more path to a marathon focus on the weekly long run, gradually adding one mile, then two, per week until you're running 17 miles or more. Former Olympian Jeff Galloway trains his marathoners with thrice-weekly workouts, dedicating two of them to intervals and tempo runs - methodical, graduated sets that require stopwatches and fierce dedication. He emphasizes lots of one-minute walk breaks. Galloway doesn't promise miracles (it's a six-month program for beginners), but over the years, his clinics have helped thousands of people cross the finish line for the first time. He's helped many more shave minutes off their personal-best marathon times.

   The other proven type of low-mileage program augments running workouts with aerobic cross training, typically through non-weight-bearing exercises such as swimming, bicycling, using elliptical trainers, and the like. The best of these comes from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. As with Galloway's regimen, the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) program features a weekly long run, a shorter workout of tempo runs, and a day of interval training. It also adds two days of cross training. While the FIRST program demands more of your week for workouts, it promises to put you on the starting line of a marathon in four months flat.

   Does this invite disaster? Before embarking on the FIRST program, you should be comfortable running at least eight miles, a prerequisite that requires interpretation - the "comfortable" part, that is. What we know about injury is that the number or years you've been running is a better indication of your stamina than the number of miles you run each week. What we know about disappointment is that the marathon is an unfathomably long distance to ramp up to quickly. Crash programs won't get you there.

   The genius of both the Galloway and the FIRST programs lies in how they inform your workouts, not your goals. It is undeniably true that distance runners can get more for less. Perhaps you can even run a marathon after four months of dedicated effort. A smarter bet: let your legs tell you when it's time for a marathon.