4-hour Marathon Training Plan
PDF at end of post
The average (mean) marathon finish is 4 hours and 29 minutes.
The most common (mode) marathon finish time is 3 hours and 58 minutes.
Which way will it be, anon? Mode or Mean?
The only difference between these two finishing times are 1) How many miles you run in training & 2) How on-point your recovery is (time between high mileage efforts).
The difficult part is 1) Hitting your splits mid week, & 2) Spacing your long runs out.
This is exactly what this plan does for you.
I have broken down 6 months of training into 24 weeks, consisting of six 4-week blocks. Every single day is planned for you. You can quite literally be on auto pilot as you coast to your first (or new) PR.
The trainings are all done on the same days of the week, the instructions are below each block, with pacing and heart rate thresholds laid out for you.
All you have to do is run.
Who This Plan is For:
A runner with 1 or more marathons/half-marathons in the bank that were slower than a 4 hour marathon race pace (9:09 per mile), and wants to achieve a sub-4.
An athlete that has never ran a race before, but is in general “good” shape (Resting Heart Rate <50 and/or VO2 Max ~45), who wants to add running a marathon to their achievements.
There are four rules for this program:
Run your easy runs EASY. Try your hardest to stay inside of the HR ceiling I set.
Run your hard runs HARD. Hit the splits or stay above HR floors I set. Push yourself.
Take recovery serious. I scheduled in de-load weeks every 4th week. Take it slow even if you feel “good to go”. Do not push it, this plan is designed to get you across the line with strength.
Substitute midweek tempo or higher HR efforts with easy runs IF your recovery is not keeping up with your output.
As always: Buy proper running shoes, accustom yourself to long runs and recovery, and spend time on your feet:
Glossary:
MPW = Miles Per Week
Long Run = Simply your longest run of the week. This usually falls on the weekend, with Sunday being universal long run day in the running world.
BPM = Beats per minute (heart rate). I set heart rate thresholds along with pace thresholds throughout this program.
Pace = All paces are in miles.
Tempo = A higher heart rate effort, but not completely gassed. Think 80% of max speed.
Split = The time is takes you to complete a certain distance (in this case miles)