This is super solid, sound advice Sarah. Only thing I’d add is that I believe it’s beneficial to race a half-marathon 4-6 weeks out, for 2 main reasons: 1. It will give you a pretty honest fitness assessment (and boost!) while you’re in pretty deep. 2. It’s helpful as a “dress rehearsal” to go through the race day motions, time meals, work through nerves, etc.
Thank you so much, Mario—that means a lot coming from you, since you're the coach & resource I always recommend for marathoners! That's interesting what you note about doing the half 4 - 6 weeks out, which is what I traditionally did (e.g. the San Francisco Half on Superbowl Sunday five weeks before the Napa Marathon the first Sunday in March). However, in my "Plan Ahead" section, I suggested doing the half as a dress-rehearsal a little earlier, 6 - 8 weeks out, the reason being I now, in my later years, have switched to doing the peak long run—by time, equaling the time of your goal marathon time—earlier in the block (~5 weeks before marathon day).
Clearly I did not read closely enough! 6-8 weeks or 4-6 hardly matters too much. Honestly I think a lot of it comes down to what's available and/or works for your schedule. Either way, getting in a tuneup 1-2 months out is helpful.
Great foundational advice, Sarah. I recently had a co-worker ask for training advice for his first marathon. Even though I'm taking a year off from the roads, it made me giddy. 26.2 is such a fun, mysterious distance. I feel like "mastery" (whatever that means) is perpetually one marathon away.
My only goal for my first marathon was to cross the finish line smiling so I’d want to run another. So many runners I talked to said “one and done.” They all had a time goal they didn’t achieve, and they felt terrible compared to the half marathons they had ran. They all had stories of the great first part of the race that fell apart. So I always recommend not having a time goal for the first. Just enjoy it. Its research. Have fun. Want to come back for more. As you can tell, I also don’t care about super shoes, sodium bi carb, or endogenous ketones 🤣
Fantastic advice! You (almost) got me excited to train for another road marathon. I will say, this spring I paced a couple of road marathons (a 3:10 finish and a 3:25), and it was remarkable how my mountain legs were able to adapt to the task of running a flat road marathon. For the 3:10, I did 3 weeks of dedicated training, and for the 3:25 I just winged it. I guess if we stay consistent in our training, we can be capable of stepping up on a moment's notice.
Great advice, Sarah. I've bookmarked it, so the next time someone asks me how to prepare to run a marathon, I won't say "just sign up for a 50K and do the marathon as a training run."
I love your newsletter, Sarah! It's so fun to relive my running days by reading about yours, and I was actually inspired to do a few intervals (one minute of running followed by one minute of walking) on my walk last night. Maybe my knee will allow me to do a couple of trail races over the next couple of years.
Thank you! That's great you're playing around with some spontaneous bits of running—see how it goes, and have fun with it. Trail races are great because the variability of terrain, pace, and hills, which means you're rarely engaged in repetitive motion, so maybe that would keep your knee functioning.
Thanks for this post! I was curious about your advice run 5 to 6 times a week: I currently run 3 times a week (one interval/speed training, one long run and one easy run) and cycle to work daily. Should I add more running when I am going to train for a marathon or can the cycling to work substitute the easy runs? (I am in my forties and afraid of injuring something because running is also the thing that keeps me sane and happy)
Hi, good question. I really believe in five to six, or at least four, runs/week for adaptation of the musculoskeletal system, which actually can help prevent injury. The key is to keep the easy days easy—meaning, relaxed pace, not too much downhill pounding, gentle terrain. Stick to just two hard days/week (your speed day, and your long run) and have the other runs be at a sustainable conversational pace (meaning, your heart rate and breathing are low enough that you could carry on a conversation). TBH I have mixed feelings about cycling, because I know countless runners who've been injured in bike accidents that sabotaged their run goals, but a spin bike is great! I don't think it translates all that well to running fitness however, other than boosting cardio if for some reason you can't do speed workouts running. Cycling can help with "active recovery," working through fatigue, but so can walking and yoga, which are less risky. But do what feels good and is practical, so if bike commuting works well for you, go for it.
I did a marathon a few weeks ago on short notice(about 6 weeks) it went pretty well and made me excited to try another road marathon later this year.
This is honestly the most comprehensive post I have seen of gimmick free, sensible and realistic advice. Also love the positivity, great read, now I want to try Yasso 800s again!
> I don’t give a shit about super shoes, sodium bicarbonate, or exogenous ketones
Someone should put this on a t shirt
Haha maybe Brendan Leonard could
This is super solid, sound advice Sarah. Only thing I’d add is that I believe it’s beneficial to race a half-marathon 4-6 weeks out, for 2 main reasons: 1. It will give you a pretty honest fitness assessment (and boost!) while you’re in pretty deep. 2. It’s helpful as a “dress rehearsal” to go through the race day motions, time meals, work through nerves, etc.
Thank you so much, Mario—that means a lot coming from you, since you're the coach & resource I always recommend for marathoners! That's interesting what you note about doing the half 4 - 6 weeks out, which is what I traditionally did (e.g. the San Francisco Half on Superbowl Sunday five weeks before the Napa Marathon the first Sunday in March). However, in my "Plan Ahead" section, I suggested doing the half as a dress-rehearsal a little earlier, 6 - 8 weeks out, the reason being I now, in my later years, have switched to doing the peak long run—by time, equaling the time of your goal marathon time—earlier in the block (~5 weeks before marathon day).
Clearly I did not read closely enough! 6-8 weeks or 4-6 hardly matters too much. Honestly I think a lot of it comes down to what's available and/or works for your schedule. Either way, getting in a tuneup 1-2 months out is helpful.
Great foundational advice, Sarah. I recently had a co-worker ask for training advice for his first marathon. Even though I'm taking a year off from the roads, it made me giddy. 26.2 is such a fun, mysterious distance. I feel like "mastery" (whatever that means) is perpetually one marathon away.
My only goal for my first marathon was to cross the finish line smiling so I’d want to run another. So many runners I talked to said “one and done.” They all had a time goal they didn’t achieve, and they felt terrible compared to the half marathons they had ran. They all had stories of the great first part of the race that fell apart. So I always recommend not having a time goal for the first. Just enjoy it. Its research. Have fun. Want to come back for more. As you can tell, I also don’t care about super shoes, sodium bi carb, or endogenous ketones 🤣
Great advice that I wished I had before running my marathon! I'll apply this to my next (half) marathon!
Fantastic advice! You (almost) got me excited to train for another road marathon. I will say, this spring I paced a couple of road marathons (a 3:10 finish and a 3:25), and it was remarkable how my mountain legs were able to adapt to the task of running a flat road marathon. For the 3:10, I did 3 weeks of dedicated training, and for the 3:25 I just winged it. I guess if we stay consistent in our training, we can be capable of stepping up on a moment's notice.
That’s speedy!
Great advice, Sarah. I've bookmarked it, so the next time someone asks me how to prepare to run a marathon, I won't say "just sign up for a 50K and do the marathon as a training run."
haha ... I think a casual trail 50K that takes ~6-7 hours is so much easier than a goal-oriented road marathon in half the time!
I love your newsletter, Sarah! It's so fun to relive my running days by reading about yours, and I was actually inspired to do a few intervals (one minute of running followed by one minute of walking) on my walk last night. Maybe my knee will allow me to do a couple of trail races over the next couple of years.
Thank you! That's great you're playing around with some spontaneous bits of running—see how it goes, and have fun with it. Trail races are great because the variability of terrain, pace, and hills, which means you're rarely engaged in repetitive motion, so maybe that would keep your knee functioning.
Thanks for this post! I was curious about your advice run 5 to 6 times a week: I currently run 3 times a week (one interval/speed training, one long run and one easy run) and cycle to work daily. Should I add more running when I am going to train for a marathon or can the cycling to work substitute the easy runs? (I am in my forties and afraid of injuring something because running is also the thing that keeps me sane and happy)
Hi, good question. I really believe in five to six, or at least four, runs/week for adaptation of the musculoskeletal system, which actually can help prevent injury. The key is to keep the easy days easy—meaning, relaxed pace, not too much downhill pounding, gentle terrain. Stick to just two hard days/week (your speed day, and your long run) and have the other runs be at a sustainable conversational pace (meaning, your heart rate and breathing are low enough that you could carry on a conversation). TBH I have mixed feelings about cycling, because I know countless runners who've been injured in bike accidents that sabotaged their run goals, but a spin bike is great! I don't think it translates all that well to running fitness however, other than boosting cardio if for some reason you can't do speed workouts running. Cycling can help with "active recovery," working through fatigue, but so can walking and yoga, which are less risky. But do what feels good and is practical, so if bike commuting works well for you, go for it.
Thanks for your answer! (And I live in the Netherlands so commuting by bike is sort of the standard here 🙂)
I did a marathon a few weeks ago on short notice(about 6 weeks) it went pretty well and made me excited to try another road marathon later this year.
This is honestly the most comprehensive post I have seen of gimmick free, sensible and realistic advice. Also love the positivity, great read, now I want to try Yasso 800s again!