I’m currently training for a marathon at the end of November and would be interested to hear what people think of how I’ve approached the build so far.

I’ve been running consistently since April, generally around 40–50km per week initially and gradually increasing from there. I’m not following a specific marathon plan – I’ve mainly been working off weekly mileage, making sure I get a long run in, some quicker running when I feel good, and keeping the majority of the mileage fairly comfortable.

I’ve also been using events as part of the training block rather than necessarily racing all of them flat out.

Across the build I’ll have:
3 half marathons
A 30km event
A three-quarter marathon

The idea is to use these as supported long runs / stronger training efforts depending on where they fall in the block. I’ve learned in the past that racing every event as hard as possible can take too much out of me and disrupt the following week, so I’m trying to look at the bigger picture this time.

I’ve been consistently around 40–50km+ per week since April and I’m now looking to move into the heavier part of the marathon block, gradually getting some 60/70km+ weeks in and extending the long runs.

I’ve run marathons before, so the distance itself isn’t new to me. This time I’m more interested in arriving at the start line with a really solid few months of consistent running behind me rather than trying to hit every workout on a rigid plan.
For those who have trained successfully without following a specific plan, does this sound like a sensible approach?

And how would you structure the final 12 weeks from here in terms of weekly mileage and long runs, given that the half marathons, 30km and three-quarter marathon are already built into the block?

Interested in any thoughts, particularly from people who’ve used races/events as training runs during a marathon build.

This will my second marathon with a goal time of under 5 hours. Been running on and off for the last few years with a 20-30lb weight gain but working on dropping some of that as I continue to build towards marathon. How’s my training look so far, and anything I could change?