Pfitzinger Pete: Advanced Marathoning

Growing up, I was always looking for a challenge. I ran 15 miles for my first run when I was 15, and after that I ran to the top of every mountain in the nearby vicinity. We have a course called the 5,000-foot run that climbs from roughly 6,000 feet to more than 11,000 feet in just over 10 miles. It is brutal, but the sense of accomplishment that comes with conquering it is addictive.

Challenge is what I love most about the marathon. It is the ultimate test. For some runners the draw is simply the distance, and for others it is a matter of speed over the distance, but for all of us the marathon is a test of the will and the spirit.

When I crossed the line at the 2008 Flora London Marathon, with the clock stopping at 2:06:17, I had never been so exhausted in my life. I felt like I was having an out of body experience during the final 200 meters, yet the sensation of having finished the race while leaving every bit of my mind, body, and heart out on the course is something that I hope to replicate over and over again in my career as a marathoner.

As I approach each race, it is satisfying to know that I have been well prepared by my coach, Terrence Mahon, in training and have done everything to the best of my ability, whether it be core strengthening, optimal recovery and nutrition, or nailing a well-placed long run in the training régime.

While reading this second edition of Advanced Marathoning, I was constantly nodding my head in agreement with Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas. They echo many of the “secrets” to marathoning that I have picked up from coach T (as we call him) and Olympic medalists Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor. I am confident that everyone from the seasoned marathoner looking to improve upon a long-standing personal best to the debut baby will find great wisdom in this systematic, logical, and yet artistic approach to marathoning. I myself was constantly reminded of all the ins and outs that go with achieving success in this sport.

Those of you who are just going for distance will find easy application points that will make your journey much more enjoyable and fun. “Fun” may not be the adjective most commonly associated with the marathon, but the marathon offers the well-prepared runner more enjoyment than any other race out there. In no other race is it possible to feel so good for so long. The racing section of the book will provide many keys to ensure that your 26.2-mile journey is indeed a fun one. Those of you who are going for speed will not only find out how to cycle and structure your workouts but also how to live as we pros live, taking care of the smallest details, which will give you the extra edge on race day to crack that elusive personal best.

I thank Pete and Scott for writing such a helpful aid to the marathoning world. This resource will undoubtedly be credited by marathoners all over the world as they celebrate having prepared and raced to their fullest potential.

– Ryan Hall

Welcome to the second edition of Advanced Marathoning . The positive reception to the first edition, and the direct feedback about it that we’re pleased to regularly receive, only strengthens our belief that there are tens of thousands of readers out there eager to know how to conquer one of running’s most challenging races.

The key to simply finishing a marathon isn’t a secret: Train long to go long. But what about when you want to race a marathon? Then things aren’t so simple.

Besides gaining enough baseline endurance to complete the distance, now your concerns turn to matters such as how fast to do your long runs, what types of interval sessions to do, how to manipulate your diet for maximum performance, how to schedule hard workouts to allow both progress and recovery, and so on. The best answers to these questions aren’t so obvious, and they require a solid base of knowledge. You’ll acquire that knowledge through this book.

If you’ve run a marathon and want to move beyond the basics, or if you’re an accomplished runner at shorter distances planning a marathon debut, then it’s time to graduate to Advanced Marathoning . We hope you’ll agree that this second edition, with new chapters and expanded, updated information in every chapter, will become one of the most valuable resources in your running library.

What do we mean by advanced marathoning? Simply this: that many runners aren’t content with saying, “I finished.” They want to run the marathon as they do shorter races – as fast as possible. That doesn’t mean they’re going to drop everything in their lives and do nothing but train, but it does mean they’re committed to doing their best, taking into consideration such factors as their age and real-world commitments. The runners for whom we wrote this book have goals such as setting a personal best, qualifying for Boston, or running faster than they did 10 years ago.

Competing in the marathon, as opposed to completing the distance without regard for time, requires thorough, intelligent preparation. Being dedicated to improving your marathon performance requires knowing such things as how fast to do your long runs given your goal race pace, how far and how fast your hard sessions should be, what to eat so that you’re able to run as fast at mile 25 as at the start, and so on. Advanced marathoning has to be based on more than common sense and running folklore. Advanced Marathoning , therefore, is based on sport science.

The training schedules in the second section of this book are based on a simple concept: Research in exercise physiology has revealed that the fastest marathoners have a few key attributes in common. These include an ability to store a large amount of glycogen (the stored form of carbohydrate) in their muscles, an ability to sustain submaximal speeds for prolonged periods, an ability to send large amounts of oxygen to muscles and have their muscles use that oxygen, and an ability to run faster than others using a given amount of oxygen. We know which of these attributes are most important for successful marathoning, and we know what types of training best improve these attributes. Marathon training, then, should be a matter of balancing these types of training with adequate recovery so that your body’s ability to sustain a relatively fast pace for 26.2 miles (42.2 km) improves as your goal race approaches.

We could, of course, simply present the training schedules found in the latter part of this book and say, “Just do what we tell you. Trust us.” But we think that the more you understand why you’re running a given workout, the more motivated you’ll be to stick with your training and the better prepared you’ll be to assess your progress toward your marathon goal. For that reason, before our training schedules are several chapters that explain the principles of successful marathoning. These chapters explain what is critical for marathon success and why. Digesting the information in them will help you be a better marathoner. Let’s look at the contents of the first part of this book.

Chapter 1 is the longest chapter in this book. We don’t expect that everyone will sit down and read it all at once; in fact, you could start on the training schedule of your choice right now and not have to worry that you haven’t looked at chapter 1. Eventually, though, you’ll want to read this chapter carefully and understand its key concepts because it explains the science we used in constructing the training schedules.