It is my position that when you are in the specific phase of marathon training, you are not really trying to improve your overall fitness. Rather, you’re trying to shape and mold your general fitness to the specific demands of the marathon distance and produce the best performance that your fitness can give you.
Understanding the specific phase of marathon training is all well and good, but it certainly begs the question, how do develop the general phase of marathon training and get in great shape to start training for the marathon?
Before moving on, I think it’s prudent to define what I mean by specific and general training, which are terms many of the coaches here at RunnersConnect use. Simply speaking, every race distance has a specific set of physiological demands. “General” training refers to developing all the energy systems and becoming a more well-rounded runner as a whole. “Specific” training means you focus a greater percentage of your training time on the specific demands of your goal race.
Both the specific phase and general phase are important. Think of general training as the foundation to your house; the bigger your foundation, the bigger you can build your house. Specific training is the house itself – the fine details; however, you can only make your house look so good if it’s built on a crummy foundation.
Background on this marathon base training phase
This is two weeks from the middle of my summer training block in 2007. That fall I would finish 7th at the USA Olympic Marathon Trials. I had spent the spring coming back from a six-week layoff due to mono. In early July I was the top American finisher at the Utica Boilermaker 15k, and I knew I was fully recovered and fit enough to start my training for the marathon. So the miles came up, and the workouts began in earnest.
The Marathon base training in detail
July 23 to 29
Monday
PM road 20-1:56:28, first Methuen road 10 loop with Garcia, then lake road 1
loop solo- hamstring bad! From a 1:15 on. Tot.20
AM ART and chiro adjustment
Tuesday
AM 9 solo at mines falls, easy, 59:11 tot. 9
PM 8 shakeout with Shannon at mines falls, 1:01:03, springing/bounding/straight leg bounding after tot. 8
Wednesday
AM 3 warm up, 22:36, 20k on Tewksbury track, warm 85 degrees, 1:07:38 (major splits 5k-17:08, 8k-27:15, 10k-34:00, 15k-50:52, 16K-54:15) 1 ½ mile cool down tot. 17
2PM 18:56 warm up, 12×15 second hills, very tired, HOT!, 18:23 cool down, tot. 8
6PM 42:33 shakeout with Shannon on Tewks trails- tot.5
Thursday
AM rd. and trail 9 in Tewks solo, 1:01:02, tot.9
PM Duffy 5 with Gary 36:22, bounding and stuff, then duffy 5 solo, 34:45 tot.10
XT 2x70y springing, 2x70y bounding, 5x70y straight leg bounds, 2x short hill Springing, 2x short hill bounding
Friday
AM rd. and trail 9 in Tewks solo, 1:01:02 tot. 9
PM trail 10 in Tewks, 1:20;54, first 5 with Shannon, tot. 10
Saturday
AM in Keene, NH, on track, 3 warm up, strides 200m in 35, 10k on track first 3k with Josh, first 8k with mark, 30:05.8 (splits 3:00.3, 6:00.3, 8:59.4, 12:01.8, 15:01.9, 18:03.4, 21:02.8, 24:03.2, 27:06.2) 27:28 c/down tot. 12++
PM 3 w/up, 15×13 second hills, 3 cool down, tot. 8
Sunday
AM rd. and trail 27+ in Tewks, 3:03:05, warm but I took water, tot. 27
PM rd. 5+ shakeout, first 3 with Shannon, 43:47 tot. 5+
Summary 157 miles for week.
July 30 to August 5
Monday
AM 2+ jogging at camp, some light drills
2PM 9+ easy on road, 1:02:09, tot.9
PM 5+ shakeout with Shannon, 40:22 tot. 5
Tuesday
AM 6ish at camp, including 1 mile with Keith Kelly in 5:20/30 range, tot.6-
PM 3 warm up, strides, 10k at 95% goal mp- 32:45, on track, supposed to go 15K but had bathroom issues 3 cool down, tot. 12+
PM 6+ shakeout with Shannon in Tewks, tot. 6+
Wednesday
AM rd. and trail 9 in Tewks, 59:19 tot.9
PM 10 shakout in Tewks, 1:18;08, 2x100m bounding, 4x100m straight leg bounding after tot. 10
Thursday
AM 3+ warm up, 18K on tewks track at 90% mp, F-ing Hot 90+ and humid, 1:01:56, (10k in 34:32) mile cool down 7:41 tot. 15++
PM at mines falls, 26min warm up 20×9 second hills, 19min cool down tot. 8
Friday
AM rd. and trail 9 in tewks, 59:34 tot.9
1PM duffy 5 with Gary, 36:39, 2x110y springing, 2x110y bounding, 4x110y str. leg bounding, 3 cool down tot. 8
6PM trail 5+ in Tewks, 41:53 tot. 5+
Saturday
AM 3 warm up 22:30, 12x400m with 200 jog rest, fastest 65.2 slowest 68.0 average about 66 mid, 3 cool down, 21:26 tot. 11
PM 3 warm up, 10k on track at 95% mp, breezy and hot 90+ but low humidity, 32:26(5k-16:21, 8K-26:02) 2 cool down tot. 11+
Sunday
AM 30 easy on roads in Lowell, 3:16:26, first 16 with Rex, tot. 30
Summary 156 miles for week
What you can learn from this base training example
Modulation
No matter your volume, the most important element to a good base phase is that you are training many different aspects of your fitness. Remember, you are trying to get in the best overall shape possible. In this two week block, there are 20-mile long runs, 15-second sprints, and quick 400m repeats.
In your own base, even for the marathon, you don’t want to be leaving any type of training completely out. You can certainly minimize the anaerobic work, but you need to also be working your speed. Speed and power are how you improve your efficiency, and the marathon often becomes the ultimate test of your efficiency.
Long Tempos
The thing you see the most of in this training is tempo work. Most of these tempos are run at slower than marathon pace. Part of that was because of the heat. So often 95% goal marathon pace was in fact marathon effort. You are, after all, still looking towards a marathon.
The most important thing you need to be doing is increasing your ability to run quickly for a long time. That means long tempo work. This will build your aerobic capacity, and it will build the endurance in the muscles of your legs. The long tempos should be the bread and butter of the training.
Threshold Tempos
The 10k on the track in 30:05 is a 10k tempo at half marathon goal pace. This is your threshold paced tempo. No single workout does more for your overall performance in events from 3k to the marathon. It should be a regular part of every distance runner’s base phase. You can also do long intervals at threshold or progression runs starting a bit above threshold and finishing a bit below. Whatever you choose, though, it is key that you are trying to improve your threshold.
Speed Work
This is the short hill sprints and the ballistic sessions. These sessions improve your efficiency, as I mentioned above. They take very little out of you, but they give so much back. Whether it is short hills, diagonals, strides, or 100s on the track, everyone should be touching on this in every micro cycle year round. The short hill sprints have the added benefit of improving your heart’s stroke volume. That may not sound impressive, but improved stroke volume means improved performance at pretty much every distance.
Anaerobic Work
You may be wondering why I didn’t include the 400m repeats in the speed section. Very simple: they are not speed work. Speed is alactic, less than 15 seconds. This is anaerobic, and lactic acid is built up.
Often you see intervals in marathon training cycles. There are many ways to explain why, such as you want to teach your body to use lactic acid as fuel, or you want to make your race pace feel “slower” or easier. They are all true. The mistake is doing these workouts in the specific phase. Perhaps if you are doing four workouts a week as well as 150 miles a week, then you will have a spot to slide anaerobic work in the specific phase; but for most runners, that is a poor choice. So mix them into your base.
Internal Effort, Not External Performance
During the base, the key thing is the effort you’re putting in. I noted above that I made the pace of the tempos slower because of the heat. You also see notes where I cut tempos short of what I had planned on or ran slower than planned. When you get into the specific phase, if you are tired and can’t hit the paces, you should go home and rest and try again another day. In the base, what matters is the internal load. Simply put, you should be running for effort, not for the watch.
Ask your questions
I welcome any questions you have about building the perfect marathon base and transitioning into the specific marathon training segment. Please leave a comment and I will definitely answer your questions.
4 Responses
Love the article but cannot read the ebook, it is all in code and cannot change it into something decipherable..thanks anyway
What would you do for a half marathon base? I want to race 5/10k through the summer and then do a tuneup hm in October and then my goal race in the end of November. FWIW I just ran a 1:29:37 hm. I started running 6 months ago and have averaged 33 miles a week with my highest being 49 miles twice.
Elijah- It is tough to use a 5k/10k specific phase as a base phase for the half. That works better for the marathon. Basically you are going to do some anaerobic work in the specific phase for the half so if you are doing a lot of it in the base it is tough. Now you can race fairly well at 5k/10k during a regular half base but it isn’t the stuff PR’s are made of. If you are focusing on a late fall half then I would do a specific 5k/10k, take a week recovery then do a 12 week half phase with 5 weeks base, 5 weeks specific. For half base work I tend to do much of the same work that I do for the marathon. I do more progressions around threshold and threshold intervals rather then steady thresholds. Only because I do more steady thresholds in the specific phase. I also like to add a few sessions of 10xmile at half marathon pace as a build up workout to 2 mile to 4 mile repeats at hmp that I’ll do in the specific phase. I also drop the anaerobic work. Those changes though are fairly small in the scope of the whole training as honestly a good base phase for the marathon will certainly work for the half, and a good base for the half will work for the marathon.
nate
Excellent article and rationale, Coach Nate.
I’m coaching several of our best club runners for the London Marathon beginning in September, working 3 weeks hard and 1 week easy, with no quality sessions. Two should go under 2-50, based on last year’s training and half-marathon times.
I intended to use Super Sets in the six weeks before their taper period (of 4 weeks). They will have been running 60+ miles per week from September to March.
Super Sets are very fast 200s, followed (without stopping) by 400 @ 5k speed. Then a walk-jog recovery. Target 10 reps before adding 800 @ 10k pace.
You seem to suggest the opposite: using these sessions earlier in the programme.
I’d like your comments, please. Thank you again. These articles are a great resource!
Jack Singer, London, England.