Why marathon training breaks people
Most runners who don’t make the start line aren’t short of fitness — they’re injured. The usual cause is load rising faster than muscles, tendons and bones can adapt: mileage jumps, long runs grow too quickly, or every run is done too hard.
1. Build gradually, with lighter weeks
Increase weekly mileage in small steps, and every third or fourth week drop back for a lighter week. Adaptation happens during recovery, and the lighter week is where a lot of it catches up. If a week goes badly, repeat it rather than pushing on.
2. Keep most of your running easy
A common approach among endurance coaches is to keep the large majority of running at a genuinely easy, conversational pace, with a small amount of harder work. Easy running builds the aerobic base with far less wear. If you can’t hold a conversation, it isn’t easy.
3. Grow the long run steadily
The long run is the key session of a marathon block, and the one most often overcooked. Build it gradually, run it easy, and practise race-day fuelling on it rather than discovering problems at mile 20.
4. Strength train twice a week
Heavy lifting, single-leg work and loaded calf raises make your legs more resistant to the pounding of high mileage. Two short sessions a week is enough — more on that in the strength work that makes runners faster. Reduce the volume in the last two weeks before race day.
5. Listen to niggles early
Pain that changes how you run, gets worse during a run, or is still there the next morning is a signal to back off for a few days — not to push through. A few missed runs now costs far less than a missed race.
6. Taper, then trust it
Reduce volume over the final two to three weeks while keeping some pace in your legs. You won’t lose fitness in that time; you’ll arrive fresh.
What a mid-block week can look like
Every plan is built around the runner, but the middle of a marathon block often looks something like this:
- Several easy runs — conversational pace, the backbone of the week.
- One quality session — intervals, tempo or marathon-pace work.
- One long run — easy, with fuelling practice.
- Two short strength sessions — on easy-run days or rest days.
- At least one full rest day.
Hard days hard, easy days easy. Most injuries come from the grey zone in between, where every run is a bit too quick.
Fuel the training, not just the race
Under-eating during a big training block is common and it catches up with people: fatigue, poor recovery and a higher risk of injury. Eat enough to match the work, get carbohydrate in around longer and harder sessions, and use the long runs to practise what you’ll take on race day so your stomach isn’t meeting it for the first time.
If you miss training or pick up a niggle
Don’t try to win the missed miles back. If you lose a few days, pick up slightly below where you left off. If a niggle lingers, swap some runs for cycling or swimming to keep your fitness while it settles, and see a physio if it isn’t improving after a week or two. A race run at 95% fitness beats one you don’t start.
I coach runners 1:1 in Peterborough and King’s Cliffe, and through online coaching anywhere in the UK. Book a free consultation and bring your race date.