Puttin' Money In The Bank (L.A.D.)

It's always a balance with mileage versus days of week. One thing you don't want to do, though, is run every day if it means increasing your mileage too fast, increasing risk of injury. I usually do 2 quality work outs per week (either hills, tempo, or speed) plus a long run. The other 3 days are easy. If you do 50 mpw, with a 20 mile long run, you could do 2 easy runs of 3-4 miles each, with the other 3 days about 7-8 miles each. But I would not recommend just adding easy runs to run every day if your mileage goes up too much.

After your marathon, though, I highly recommend running 6 days/week, like Sasha says, with probably 2-3 easier days. You can increase mileage as appropriate. Your example is a bit off the norm since you are asking for specific advice for a race only a few weeks away.

I think Jon's advice is spot-on. I too was skeptical when Sasha first suggested to me to run 6 days a week and gradually work up to 50-70 miles a week. I thought there was no way my body could handle that, but I've becoming a big believer. From what I've read and heard others say, you get anywhere from 75-85 percent of your speed from nothing but mileage base that you mostly run at very conservative pace. The key for me, especially as I've gotten older is to keep the pace the day or 2 after the hard workouts VERY easy (1 1/2 to 2 minutes slower than marathon pace) and when in doubt, go even slower. You'll feel like they are just wasted/junk miles at first but in reality they work there own kind of magic and may be just as important as the tempo/speed workouts in helping you reach your potential at any race distance, but perhaps especially for the marathon.

I know a few folks who work in some type of cross-train on a couple of the days rather than running as an alternative to pounding the legs 6 days.

Of course everyone is different and we all have to find what works for us.

First of all best of luck with your upcoming marathon. I'm sure it will be a great experience and you are probably in better shape than you think, so go after your goal and get that BQ. Similar to what Jon wrote I had a lay off for a few years and just got back into running in 2006. I've been able to increase my mileage slowly and have found success in having Monday as a speed workout day (intervals, tempo run, hill workouts), followed by Tuesday and Wednesday being as easy as they need to be, then I usually do a medium distance run on Thursday with a few miles at tinman tempo pace which I understand to be tad bit slower than marathon race pace, followed by a recovery/easy day Friday, then a long Saturday run with maybe a few miles at Marathon Race Pace. Then I always take Sunday completely off and focus on other things. I think once you find what your body can handle then you can experiment a little with increasing mileage.