Fitness · 15 recordsMarathon training

The training plan is the easy half — every plan agrees roughly what to run. This adds the half that gets forgotten: shoes worn in, fuelling tested in training rather than on the day, and the travel and kit sorted before race week.

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✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

Finish the marathon Month 4

Finish it well. A time goal comes after a first one.

Build the mileage Month 4

Sixteen weeks, one long run a week, nothing heroic in between.

  • Enter the race and put the date in the calendarDo firstDay 3
  • Get shoes and wear them inDo firstDay 10
  • Complete the first two-hour long runWeek 6

Everything that is not running Month 4

Fuelling, kit and logistics — where race day actually goes wrong.

  • Test race-day food on a long runDo firstWeek 8
  • Sort travel and accommodation for race weekendMonth 3
  • Lay out and test the full race kitMonth 4

Routines

  • Rundaily
  • Long runweekly
  • Stretch and rolldaily
Skills
  • RunningIntermediate → Advanced

    Logged miles, so a long block of unglamorous training has something to show for it besides a race number.

✦ It puts something in the calendar

Dates you will not have to remember

Race day

Month 409:00300 min
✦ It comes with a note

The half that gets forgotten

Every training plan agrees roughly what to run. What they leave out is the rest: shoes worn in, fuelling tested in training rather than on the day, travel booked, kit tried.\n\nThose are the tasks in the second project, dated well before race week — because race week is already full and is not when you want to be solving them.

Questions

Marathon training, answered.

Sixteen weeks from a base of regular running, which is what this plan assumes. Starting from nothing needs a base-building block first — the fitness template is the better starting point in that case.
Because race day is the worst possible time to find out a gel disagrees with you. Every long run is an opportunity to test what you will eat and drink, and the plan treats that as part of the session rather than an afterthought.
Logistics, not fitness — travel, kit, timing and food. Those are the tasks in the second project here, dated well before race week, because that week is already full and is not when you want to be solving them.
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