Love is lovelier, the second time around.
Just as wonderful, with both feet on the ground. Frank Sinatra sang those words a long time ago, but they prove true today when it comes to running multiple marathons. Marathons can be lovelier the second time around too.

With only four weeks between marathons, you really don't have time to do much training. Nevertheless, run 3 miles today at an easy pace. You define what easy is. In terms of nutrition, maintain the same high-carbohydrate diet between marathons 1 and 2 that you did before the first. It's also a good idea to schedule a massage 48 to 72 hours after the first marathon.

You ran 2 miles on Tuesday and 3 miles on Wednesday. Today, go 4 miles at a gentle pace. You may want to do as much walking as running in the workouts between marathons. Don't worry about pace. You are still in recovery mode.

The 6-mile run suggested for today very definitely should not be fast. In fact, you might want to leave your watch at home when you head out the door to run. Despite your hard effort last weekend, you should be able to cover a half dozen miles today as long as you don't push the pace. In fact, most of my 5-week marathon recovery programs have a run of this distance scheduled the weekend after the big race.

Well, you are a long distance runner. And I assume you are not a newbie if you scheduled two marathons in this short a time. So it's not unreasonable to tell you to go for a long run today. But I don't want to prescribe miles; I would rather prescribe time. Make today's long run 90 to 120 minutes. Two hours max! I really don't care how far you run during that timespan.

A day of rest yesterday signals an easy week. You are ready to begin your 1-week taper for this weekend's race, your second marathon in a single month. Although I'm not sure taper is a word we can use conveniently in this program for 2nd-Time marathoners. The entire four weeks might be considered a single taper between two races. Run 2 miles today at an easy pace.

Run 3 miles today. And while doing so, consider this fact. A survey of V-Teamers reveals that many run two or three marathons a year. They succeed by maintaining a training base near 25 miles a week year-round, which allows them to ramp up to 50 weekly miles during any marathon build-up. My training programs run 18 weeks. Do the arithmetic (3 x 18 = 54), and it does become possible to squeeze three marathons into a single year.
But there are probably more efficient ways to run multiple marathons, particularly since you don't have to back all the way down to the first (low-mileage) week each time you set your sights on a 26-mile race.