I dive into the art and science of setting a realistic marathon goal time and the critical aspects of marathon training that many runners overlook. By shifting focus from arbitrary finish times to performancebased goals, you can take control of your marathon training and race day. Let's unravel the biggest marathon training mistakes and how to fix them with a scientific approach.

Key Steps for Effective Marathon Training:

Setting Realistic Goals: Avoid choosing arbitrary finish times. Focus on performance, not just the clock.

Understanding Physiological Demands: Recognize the importance of aerobic capacity, anaerobic threshold, and muscular conditioning in marathon running.

Long Run Mistakes to Avoid:

• Running too hard for aerobic capacity development.
• Making your long runs too lengthy for marathon pace efforts.
• Repeating these errors in consecutive runs.
• Personalized Training Plans: Implement a plan tailored to your threshold and training zones.

Threshold and Training Zones:

Conduct a 30min Time Trial (TT) or use recent race data.
Calculate threshold using the last 20min of your TT or 10km race.
Use my calculators to determine your specific zones.
https://drwilloconnor.com/runningtra...

Marathon Training Phases:

Base Phase (more than 12 weeks out): Focus on Zone 2 heart rate for long runs, aiming for 2 2:30 hours.
Build Phase (128 weeks out): Introduce Zone 3 efforts in long runs, combining heart rate and pace/power metrics.
Final Phase (8 weeks out): Progressive runs to establish marathon pace/power, culminating in a 20 mile (32km) run 3 weeks before the race.
General BuildUp Plan: Follow a structured plan for gradual improvement and pace consistency.

Threshold and Zones 'HowTo' Guide: https://drwilloconnor.com/trainingzo...

LINKS
• My Amazon gear recommendations: https://amzn.to/42dcTLS
• Training Plans: https://drwilloconnor.com/
• Training Blog: https://runningheadfirst.substack.com/
• Podcast: https://podcasts.justcast.com/running...
• Strava:   / strava  
• Instagram:   / drwilloconnor  

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