Training for a marathon, or any long distance running event, is fairly simple: run consistently each week, mostly easy, sometimes hard. There are no magic workouts that will catapult your fitness forward, rather success comes from stringing together days, weeks, and months of solid work.
Now, although training can be that simple, I know that you clicked on this article for a bit more depth and nuance. While this post is focused on training for the marathon, these four principles of marathon training can be applied to most endurance events.
Disclaimer: there are many ways to train for a marathon, these are a few pillars that I employ in coaching my athletes.
1. Good Enough is Good Enough
A phrase I often repeat to my athletes is: “good enough is good enough.” In all training, I think it is important to improve with the minimum effective stimulus. You do not need to go deep into the well very often. Save that for race day. This principle can be applied across the board in endurance training.
For example, on a broad scale, when looking to increase running volume. If you’ve been running 40 miles per week, try increasing to 45 or 50 for your next training block. There is no need to jump to 80 miles per week when increasing to 50 will give your body the stimulus it needs to improve. Narrowly, the same principle can be applied to a specific workout. Consider progressing a 20 minute threshold run to 25 minutes for the next workout, not 40. You need to leave yourself somewhere to go in the future.
2. Easy Days Easy, Hard Days Hard
You may have heard that slowing down your easy runs is the key to getting faster. Running truly easy will help you recover, yes, but only running easy is not going to improve your speed. To improve overall you also need to incorporate some reasonably hard running in your training schedule. Remember good enough is good enough, so your hard days do not need to leave you questioning everything. Rather, they should be challenging but manageable.
Your easy days should be truly easy. Your run should be conversational and relaxed. The rest of your day should be fairly relaxing too. Be sure to take care of the small things like fueling well, foam rolling, yoga, and sleep. For a more in depth look into recovery check out Recover Harder to Run Faster by TRR Coach Miles Bennett-Smith.
Your hard days should be challenging. Your run workout is the most important piece of this puzzle: train hard enough and with enough volume to get the adaptation your body needs. You are only able to go hard on this day because the one or two days before were actually easy: your body is now ready for the next challenge. If you incorporate strength training into your routine, adding your lift after a running workout is the ideal way to schedule this in. Hard days hard.
3. Move From Less to More Specific
In training for a marathon, you want to move from less specific to more specific as you approach race day. If we zoom way out and look at training in terms of a calendar year, what you are doing 6 months away from your target marathon should not be very marathon specific. But in the 10-16 weeks before race day, training becomes increasingly more tailored to the marathon. Your long runs increase in duration, you dial in race pace and effort, and total training volume increases relative to what you were doing before.
Keys Marathon Training Workouts
- Long runs
During these 10-16 weeks, I typically incorporate marathon effort (later defined by a pace once we dial things in) into athletes’ long run workouts. At first I break up marathon pace into smaller sections, then gradually, the total duration at marathon effort increases.
E.g. Starting with 4 x 2 mile repeats, then 4 mile-2 mile-2 mile, then 4 x 3 mile, then 2 x 6 mile, etc. Finally, this might culminate in 12-14 miles at marathon effort within a 20+ mile long run, usually 3-4 weeks out from race day.
- Threshold workouts
I target accumulating 30-40 minutes at threshold pace in various formats.
E.g. 6 x 6 minutes with 1 minute recovery between each.
- VO2 max and faster speed workouts
Done on a track (or a hill), these are speedy sessions targeting 5 km pace down to mile pace. The goal of these workouts are increasing leg turnover and changing up the stimulus.
E.g. 10 x 400 meters with 90 seconds recovery between each.
In addition to the long run workout, I usually assign another workout each week targeting threshold, VO2 max, or even faster paces, depending on the athlete, their experience, and needs. As you get closer to the marathon race, the threshold sessions get a bit bigger and the speedy stuff is emphasized a bit less.
4. Running Economy is Everything
To get faster at the marathon, spend time getting faster at the mile.
If you are already signed up for a marathon and your specific marathon training period has begun, then this isn’t quite for you, yet. You need to prepare for the race that is coming up. But if your marathon is still far off, it’d be beneficial to train for a shorter event like the 5 km or mile. Increasing your speed over these short distances improves your running economy which will translate up to the longer distances when you switch training focus.
Running economy is your body’s ability to use oxygen most efficiently at a given pace. Therefore, if your mile personal best improves, you can expect your 5 km, 10 km, half marathon, and marathon to improve as well (with a specific training block of course).
Throwing different stimuli at your body throughout the year (in a structured and well-thought through manner), forces your body to adapt to a variety of challenges, and prevents your body from going stale and plateauing. I have also found this to be a very effective tool in keeping my athletes engaged and excited about running. Trying out some different race distances can be scary at first, but changing up the type of training is fun and refreshing. Not only that, it will help you in the long term when you refocus on training for a marathon.
What’s Next?
If you are feeling lost in your training approach and want some more guidance, consider hiring a running coach! Team RunRun has a coach for every athlete. Reach out today and get started!
Evan Covell is a coach with Team RunRun based in Santa Barbara, California. He helps runners set and achieve their goals through personalized, science-based training and injury prevention. TRR coaches Evan Covell, Miles Bennett-Smith, and Jamie Spruiell have also partnered with the Oakland Marathon helping runners train for their best race.