[mikereedell]

4 marathons here. Three were Ironman marathons and one just-a-marathon (Philly 2007, 3:48).

I followed a similar program for the standalone as I did for the Ironman marathons: one hard run (hills, tempo, fartlek, etc), one long run, and 2-3 easy-ish runs. Each run will get longer as you progress until you're at the point of doing 15-17 miles as your long, 8-10 as your hard workout, and the rest being as short as 3 and as long as 6 miles.

I personally never ran more than 2 hours (~15-17 miles) at a time when marathon training. Others, like my wife, would run three hours as their long run. For me, the recovery and wasted days after a three hour run weren't worth it. I'd rather run 2 hours then another hour the next day than run three hours and not be able to run again for two days.

And since you're still a ways out, weight train now to avoid injury later. You don't need to do massive weights and you can avoid bulk using higher rep sets but getting some lunges, squats, and dead lifts in now could save you from injury during your key training period.