In late December of last year, readers who were subscribed to my email newsletter got an email that started like this:
I’m currently developing a set of marathon training plans as part of a larger marathon-focused project. I’m looking for runners who are interested in giving these plans a “test drive” and providing some feedback…
That “larger marathon-focused project” was of course my then-in-development book, Marathon Excellence for Everyone. A core part of Marathon Excellence is the five training plans, which span peak mileage levels from 40 mi/wk (65 km/wk) up to 100+ mi/wk (160+ km/km).
I’ve been coaching and advising marathon runners one-on-one for over 12 years, but writing “universal” plans for a wide range of different runners posed its own set of challenges. Could a complete stranger actually use these plans to improve in the marathon?
Getting beta reviewers for the Marathon Excellence training plans
To get some data, I borrowed an idea from the world of tech startups: beta testing—hence that email to my newsletter subscribers.
I got nearly 100 responses to that email from runners all around the world with spring marathons coming up and big goals they wanted to achieve. I shared the training plans and the first three parts of the book as a Google Doc so the beta testers could leave feedback on the plans and the workout instructions.
What I changed in the Marathon Excellence plans
These comments gave me a first-person view into how training was going, which sessions were effective and which sessions were not. The beta testing feedback also made a huge difference in making the book as a whole more effective. To give just a few examples:
- Beta testers in Australia (where it can be brutally hot in February and March) asked for more info on heat adaptation, which led me to add a new chapter on the topic and develop my heat-adjusted pace calculator
- International readers helped me spot idioms and phrases that were confusing or hard to parse, leading to cleaner prose throughout the book
- Elite-level runners and coaches asked for more guidance on the logic behind building a plan from scratch, so I added a chapter walking exactly how to construct a plan
- Feedback on individual workouts helped me tweak the paces, recovery, and workout volumes to work for both speed-oriented and endurance-oriented marathoners
Success stories with Marathon Excellence training
Easily the best part of the beta testing process was hearing about the success stories: nearly every Monday morning from mid-April through June, I’d wake up to emails about new PRs, BQs, and podium finishes.
I was especially happy to see that the training plans were working for a wide range of athletes: beta testers used the Marathon Excellence plans to break 4:00, 3:30, 3:00, 2:45, 2:30, and even 2:20! Some beta testers were running their very first marathon, while others had been doing marathons for decades.
Many of the success stories that I was most excited about weren’t even personal bests—they were from athletes coming back after a long stretch away from the sport, or who had recently given birth, or who were racing on a very tough course in hot conditions.
If you want to hear about some of these success stories from the beta testers themselves, check out some of the training testimonials here on the Marathon Excellence website.
By the summer, it was pretty clear that the answer to “will these plans work for complete strangers?” was a resounding yes—and the fine-tuned versions of the Marathon Excellence plans are even better.
Learn more about the Marathon Excellence plans
You can check out one-page PDF overviews of all five training plans here. In the coming months I’ll be releasing tools for generating customized plans that are pre-populated with workout paces based on your current fitness, as well as versions you can sync with your calendar app and of course metric editions of all plans.
If you haven’t already, check out marathonexcellence.com to get your copy of Marathon Excellence today!
Be the first to find out about my new running projects
Do you want to be first in line to be a beta tester for my next project? If so, sign up for my free email list! It’s the best way to find out when I’ve got a new article on training, exercise science, or when I have another new web app coming out -- and as you just saw, email subscribers get early access to whatever big project I'm working on next.
In addition to Marathon Excellence, I also have a book, Modern Training and Physiology for Middle and Long-Distance Runners, that focuses on the science of performance and training for events from 800m to the 10k. Make sure to check them both out!
