Spring Marathon Plans

I've spent the last few days debating on what training plan to follow and what marathon to run in the spring.  I had originally planned on Bayshore but now I'm leaning toward the Carmel Marathon, four weeks earlier. I'll still run up in Traverse City but the goal will be to BQ at Carmel and use Bayshore as a back up plan.

As for training plans, I'm more than likely going with the FIRST program.  I like the concept of focusing on three quality workouts a week (speed, tempo, long) and supplementing the off days with cross training.  Of course, every training plan depends on how well you stick with it and seeing it through to completion has always been an issue that I've had.  After running eleven marathons, I haven't PRed since marathon # 2, the last time I followed a training plan faithfully.  Hopefully the flexibility of the FIRST plan and the fact that it's only a 16 week program as opposed to 18+ will keep me on track.