marathon

Podcast: Base training for the marathon with the Seconds Flat Podcast

I just recorded a great conversation on the Seconds Flat Podcast from Columbus Running Company where we chatted about base training for the marathon, what coaches influenced me, how to set your marathon goal pace, and the merits of single vs. double threshold, among other topics. 

Find the show on your favorite podcasting platform: 

🎧 Listen on Spotify 

🎙️ Listen on Apple Podcasts

I really enjoyed this one and I hope you enjoy listening to it too! As always, if you enjoy it, feel free to share the episode with your friends and leave a review on your podcasting app of choice.

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The principles of modern marathon training

This article is adapted from my new book, Marathon Excellence for Everyone, which is available now on Amazon.

If you are trying to run a good marathon, not just get to the finish line, how should you train? That was the question I set out to answer when I started coaching marathoners over 12 years ago.

The complete answer to that question deserves (and gets) a full book-length treatment, but in this article, I want to distill the modern approach to marathon training down to its most essential core principles.

What is our goal in marathon training?

The basic proposition of the marathon is simple: our goal is to run 26.2 miles as fast as possible. Doing so requires a very specific set of physiological, biomechanical, and psychological capabilities. We need to build up these capabilities step by step, respecting the underlying principles of proper training.

Proper training for the marathon has many facets and details, but the broad strokes can be understood through five simple principles:

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Podcast: Building a marathon plan from scratch with Dane Verwey from Run Culture

I just recorded an awesome podcast on marathon training with Dane Verwey on his excellent Run Culture Podcast. I was really looking forward to going on this show because Dane was one of the beta testers who tried out the Marathon Excellence training plans before the book came out! Dane ran 2:24 at the Ballarat Marathon using the Tornado plan. 

We chat about Dane’s experience doing the plan, including some of his most memorable workouts and a breakdown of how he felt throughout the 18-week training program. 

We also chat in-depth about how to put together a marathon starting from scratch—when to schedule your biggest workouts, how to build up to them, and how different types of workouts support one another. 

If you’ve been looking for an in-depth account of what doing a full-spectrum marathon build really looks like, or what the process of building up a program from a blank calendar looks like, this podcast is a great listen. I really enjoyed doing this show and I hope you enjoy it as well! 

Here are links to the show:

🎙️ Click here to listen on Spotify

🎧 Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts 

To keep up with Dane, you can follow Run Culture on Instagram here. If you enjoy the episode, make sure you leave a review on your podcasting app of choice! Reviews are really helpful for content creators, and help more runners find good podcasts! 

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Two workouts that aren’t in Marathon Excellence

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I tested out the training plans for Marathon Excellence for Everyone with the help of a large group of “beta testers” from this very email list. Monitoring the training of these beta testers helped me fine-tune and improve the training plans in the book before it was released.

Today I want to showcase two workouts that I removed from the training plans after the beta testing rounds and explain why I cut them from the final schedules.

It’s not because they’re bad workouts—they’re great sessions! But I removed them because they were asking too much of the athlete early on in training. Not so much from a difficulty perspective, but in terms of psychological buy-in and in terms of precise pacing skills.

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New web app: a fast and simple race pace calculator for runners

screenshot of a race pace calculator for runners from running writings

I just launched a new web app: a simple and fast race-pace calculator!

🏃‍♀️ Try out my new race pace calculator here! 🏃‍♂️

After crunching pace-to-race and race-to-pace calculations by hand for about the millionth time, I decided I needed a fast and easy way to quickly play around with different paces and target race times.

There are tons of race pace calculators out there on the internet already, but I wasn’t happy with any of them. Often I want to quickly iterate on different paces or race times, or toggle back and forth between goal time and goal pace.

For example, if a runner I’m coaching has done some workouts that suggest their marathon pace might be around 6:55–6:48/mi, I often do something like this:

How fast is 6:55/mi for the marathon? It's 3:01:21. What about 6:48/mi? That's 2:58:17. It’d be nice to get under 3:00, how fast is that? It’s 6:52/mi. Is that 6:52 exactly? No it's actually 6:51.9. Ok, let's try some workouts in the next few weeks around 6:51-6:49/mi and see how that pace range feels.

With other race pace calculators, this iteration was just too slow. So, I built this calculator to make it fast and easy to play around like this, even on your smartphone.

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Announcing the Metric Edition of Marathon Excellence for Everyone

Marathon Excellence - metric edition with all workouts and paces in kilometers

I’m thrilled to announce the Metric Edition of my new book, Marathon Excellence for Everyone! The Metric Edition is available now worldwide, and features training plans, workouts, and race tactics in kilometers, km/wk, and min/km.

For the Metric Edition, I redesigned all of the training plans to be kilometer-native—no “16.1k runs.” Like the US edition, there are printable PDF overviews for the metric versions of all five plans on the Marathon Excellence website. This version also features an awesome new cover redesign that’s a perfect complement to the US version’s cover.

The Metric Edition of Marathon Excellence for Everyone is available worldwide in many local Amazon marketplace—here are Amazon links for:

Many of these Amazon marketplaces will also ship to nearby countries as well. 

If you’re living in the United States but prefer training in kilometers, I’ve got you covered—the Metric Edition is available in the USA too!

Over half of the people who come to this website do so from somewhere other than the United States, so I’m super excited to share a kilometer-native version of Marathon Excellence worldwide. I know many regular readers have likewise been eagerly anticipating the metric release. Hope you enjoy the book!

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Podcast: what it means to run an excellent marathon with The Planted Runner

I just went on this week’s episode of The Planted Runner Podcast with Claire Bartholic to chat about how you can apply the principles of modern marathon training, even if you’re not an elite runner. 

We also talk about some of the most useful findings from scientific research in the last few years, and how large-scale studies on everyday runners are upending some of the training myths and mistakes that a lot of amateur runners make.

Lastly, we answer the big question spurred by my new book’s title: can everyone really achieve Marathon Excellence?

Check out the show on your favorite podcasting platform!

🎧 Listen here on Apple Podcasts

🎧 Listen here on Spotify

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Podcast: How to improve physiological resilience for the marathon

Regular readers will know that I’m a big believer in the importance of physiological resilience for the marathon—the ability to resist the decline in your effective fitness level as a race continues. This week I was thrilled to return to Jason Fitzgerald’s Strength Running Podcast to do a deep dive into physiological resilience.

In the podcast, we unpack every aspect of resilience (sometimes also called durability): what it is, why it matters, and how you can improve it.

We also discussed questions like:

  • Is resilience the most important thing for the marathon?
  • Is fueling the key to better resilience?
  • What aspects of marathon training have I changed my mind on?
  • And much more!

Regular readers will remember that I appeared on Jason’s show in August of last year to chat about “Zone 3” and the benefits of high-end aerobic training. It was awesome to come back on the show and talk about another one of my favorite scientific topics. 

You can find the show on your favorite podcasting service:

🎙️ Click here to listen on Spotify

🎙️ Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts

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Podcast: chatting marathon training with That Triathlon Show

I had the pleasure of being the guest on the latest episode of Mikael Eriksson’s That Triathlon Show, a podcast focused on the science of everything endurance-related. Regular listeners will remember that I went on this same podcast back in June to chat about the intersection of physiology and training, and it was great to come back on the show.

This time, Mikael and I went in-depth on the modern approach to marathon training that I lay out in my new book, Marathon Excellence for Everyone. We talk about periodization, mileage, workout progression, structuring your weekly schedule, and what most runners get wrong about marathon training.

We also do some Q&A from listeners on LT1 (the first lactate threshold), double threshold vs. special blocks, heat training, and more. I love doing technical deep-dives like this, so this show was incredibly fun.

You can find the show on your favorite podcasting service - check out the links below! 

🎧 Listen to the show here on Spotify

🎧 Listen to the show here on Apple Podcasts

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How beta testing improved the Marathon Excellence training plans

preview of marathon excellence 18 week training plan

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?

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Check out my new book on marathon training!