Free Marathon Training Plan

Running progress stalled?
Confused by pace and heart rate zones?
Unsure how to integrate strength training?

The Adaptive Zone Free Marathon Training Plan is a dynamic training program that adjusts to your fitness as you improve. It runs for 20-weeks and is designed for intermediate runners. It is best suited to runners who have completed at least one half-marathon or full marathon in the last 12 months.

This plan incorporates fitness testing to calibrate your training zones and a sophisticated strength training plan, written by a Physiotherapist. The plan runs alongside the Running Fundamentals Course. A free online course that will ensure you understand the foundations of running performance.

Download The Adaptive Zone Free Marathon Training Plan today and start a new chapter in your running career.

Dynamic Training Plan

One of the problems with most marathon training plans is that the intensity is not calibrated specifically for you. They often ask you for your goal race time and then prescribe the pace of workouts based on that. The problem here is that your fitness should increase during the course of the training. Meaning that a workout at a given pace will provide a different physiological stimulus later in the program.

Some plans get around this by giving you heart rate zone targets. This is a nice idea as it gauges the workouts by the intensity experienced by your body (as measured by your heart rate). The problem is that we all have different resting and maximum heart rates. Also, heart rate responses will vary between runners.

The Adaptive Zone Marathon Training Plan deals with these problems through regular fitness testing. The fitness tests are used to define your specific heart rate and pace zones at that particular point in time.

Fitness Tests

The Adaptive Zone Marathon Plan uses 3 fitness tests to calibrate your training zones and monitor your fitness improvements. These are outlined on my Training Zone Calculators page. In the first week of the program you will do all three tests. I won’t go into detail here as you can read the outline of the tests on the training zone calculators page.

After you have done the 20-Minute Test you can input your average pace and heart rate into my training zone calculators spreadsheet. That will give you 5 running pace and heart rate zones that will look something like this…

Remember, this is just an example. You need to do your own fitness tests and plug your results into the training zones calculator! If you’re using a GPS watch or an app to track your runs, you may be able to input your own custom heart rate and pace zones. That is also outlined on the training zone calculators page.

How to use The Adaptive Zone Free Marathon Training Plan

You can use the heart rate and pace zones you get from the training zones calculator to match your intensity to the prescribed workout. Lets take an example from the training plan using the numbers above.

Week 2 of the training plan looks like this…

Monday – Recovery Run 1:
Runs in zones 1 and 2 are best guided by heart rate. So for this Recovery Run we want to keep the heart rate in zone 1 or 2. In this example, that would be 102-138bpm.

Tuesday – Speed Play 1:
Runs in zones 3, 4 and 5 are best guided by pace. So for this Speed Play run we would do the 4-minute interval at zone 3 pace (05:37 – 04:54) and the 2-minute interval at zone 4 pace (04:54 – 04:40). The rest of the run would be at comfortable zone 1 or 2 pace.

Wednesday – Strength Workout 1:
The strength workouts are outlined in the free strength training for runners pdf.

Thursday – Speed Play 8:
This speed play workout would have the intervals at the same pace as speed play 1, but just more reps. So there would be five 4-minute intervals at zone 3 pace (05:37 – 04:54) and four 2-minute intervals at zone 4 pace (04:54 – 04:40).

Friday – Strength Workout 2:
The strength workouts are outlined in the free strength training for runners pdf.

Saturday – Endurance 1:
Zone 2 runs are best guided by heart rate. So for this endurance run, you’re just going to keep your heart rate in zone 2 for 25 minutes. That would be 117-138bpm in this example.

Sunday – Long Run 2:
Again, zone 2 runs are guided by heart rate. So for this long run you’re going to keep your heart rate in zone 2 for the 60 minute duration of the run. That’s 117-138bpm in this example.

The Workouts

The running workouts in the training plan are designed in such a way as to ensure that you optimize your running performance. We do this by distributing your training across the intensity spectrum and hitting all of the zones. I explain this concept in more detail in this video…

The intensity distribution for The Adaptive Zone Marathon Training Plan is roughly 80/20. Meaning that about 80% of your running will be at a low intensity (zones 1 and 2) and 20% at a high intensity (zones 3, 4 and 5). This focuses the majority of your training on developing the oxidative system, also know as your “aerobic base” and the primary contributor to marathon performance. As we get closer to race day, there is more focus on zone 3 and 4 running, in order to simulate the stress of the race.

Recovery Runs

Recovery runs are set in zone 1. They are designed to allow you to add more mechanical stress to your body, while keeping the physiological stress quite low. This allows you to increase your weekly kilometres without getting too knackered. Despite the name, they don’t actually help you recover, they just don’t interfere with your recovery too much.

Endurance Runs

Endurance runs lay the foundation of your training. They are set in zone 2 and allow you to develop your oxidative system, which is often referred to as your “aerobic base”.

Long Runs

The Long Run is a staple of most marathon training programs. It’s a long run set at zone 2 intensity. Like the endurance runs, the long runs contribute significantly to oxidative system development. However, unlike the endurance runs, you will experience significant muscle damage and glycogen depletion during your long runs. This is an important stimulus to force your body to adapt to cope with the marathon distance.

All long runs should be done with the same fuelling strategy you intend to use on race day. A good rule of thumb is 60g of carbs per hour (that’s 3 gels). Obviously, fuelling is more complicated than just this. So check out my episode with Dr. Bob Murray, Fuelling your Training: Understanding glycogen metabolism.

Tempo Runs

Tempo runs are challenging moderate-intensity and moderate-duration runs. They are set in zone 3, just below your lactate threshold intensity. The idea with these runs is to focus on developing your glycolytic system. This helps you improve lactate clearance and enhances muscular endurance.

These runs are usually close to race pace and you’ll see more of them towards the end of the training plan. They help you calibrate your race pace and improve your mental toughness.

Long Interval Runs

Long intervals are very challenging workouts. They are set in zone 4, just above your lactate threshold. These type of workouts are sometimes referred to as “threshold” runs. They help you further develop your glycolytic system, improve your lactate clearance and increase your lactate threshold pace.

When you push to the higher end of your zone 4 pace, you should be in the vicinity of your VO2 max pace. This is the “ceiling” to your current fitness and an important part of improving your running performance (at any distance) is raising this ceiling.

Speed Play Runs

Speed play runs allow you to accumulate more minutes in zones 3 and 4 without the mental and physical draining associated with long-interval and tempo runs.

Short Interval Runs

Short interval runs are top-end-speed workouts and are designed to increase your VO2 Max pace and develop your phosphagen system (more commonly known as the anaerobic system). These max speed workouts are often neglected by marathoners. This results in a lot of fitness improvements being left on the table as VO2 max pace is highly correlated with running performance (Myrkos 2022, Sjödin 1985).

Hill Sprints

Hill sprints are an uphill variation of the short interval runs. The difference here being the incline. Accelerating the body up the hill allows a little more focus on muscular power development, particularly in the calf.

As the incline will vary from hill to hill, we can’t use pace to prescribe these workouts. Heart rate takes about 30 seconds to catch up to an increase in effort, so that’s no use either. So for the hill sprints, we just use Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). So a 1/10 effort is walking and a 10/10 effort is an all-out sprint.