Marathon Crunch Time: Your 8-Week Guide to Training, Fuelling and Racing Well

If you are training for a spring marathon — or reading this with around 8 weeks to go — we are getting into crunch time. This is a guide to the key areas of your marathon preparation: training, effort-based running, nutrition, injury prevention, kit and mental toughness.

Whether this is your first marathon or your 50th, there is something here for you. The most important thing to remember is that you are an individual. Just because something works for a friend or an elite athlete doesn't mean it will work for you. Seek advice, but be your own person and experiment.

Training

The real danger with marathon training is doing too much. As a coach, I would rather you arrive at the start line slightly undercooked — healthy, excited and ready to run — than having smashed every session but carrying a niggle into race day. That is a much more powerful place to be.

Training should feel consistent and good. Not out of this world amazing every single week. Consistency is the thing that builds marathons, not individual heroic sessions.

The Long Run

How long should your long run be? Contrary to popular belief, there is no magic distance you need to hit in training to be able to run the marathon. We have coached runners whose longest long run was 12 miles — and they ran brilliant marathons. Others cover 20 miles plus. There is no magic number.

The danger with the long run is that you work too hard and get into a state of negative returns. The fitness gains from those extra miles get offset by the damage you are doing at a muscular and cellular level. Add the recovery time required to get back to training well, and it becomes counterproductive.

For most runners, the long run will sit between 2 hours 45 minutes and around 3 hours. If you are including walk breaks, up to 3 hours 20 minutes. The key point is this: don't evaluate your training on one run a week. Endurance doesn't work like that. You need consistent training over a number of weeks, and you can't achieve that if you are obsessed with the long run.

If you are following a run/walk strategy for your marathon, that is a great approach.

Marathon Pace in the Long Run

Your long run should develop into a quality session in its own right. If you are running a marathon, you need to practise running at your race effort before the big day.

Adding marathon pace blocks into your long run is the perfect way to do this. You get a solid block of marathon pace work on tired legs — which mimics what you will be doing in the race itself. Aim to build up to around 90 minutes of marathon pace running across your sessions over the next few weeks.

Phase Out the Hills

Many runners, especially those following one of our plans, will have had a period of hill work or undulating running. At this stage, we like to phase the hills out and focus on flat running. If you are running a hilly marathon, keep them in. But most will be doing a city road marathon, and we need to prepare the body for that terrain.

Speed Endurance

It is vital you have good speed endurance for the marathon. Speed endurance is the ability to run fast for a sustained period of time. The primary way we develop this is through threshold running — the holy grail of endurance training.

In Talk Test terms, threshold effort is where you could get out four or five words if someone asked you a question. Your breathing is more laboured and you know you are working. We call it controlled discomfort. If you are training with heart rate, this sits in Zone 4 (80–85% HRR).

These sessions should be building over the next few weeks into some really meaty runs at this effort level. Don't be surprised to cover 8+ miles in a threshold session, especially when you are getting to 3 x 15 minutes and beyond. If you haven't started this type of work yet, now is the time.

Training Summary

• Don't do too much — consistency is key

• The long run only needs to be around 3 hours for most runners. Don't become obsessed with it

• Start to add marathon pace blocks into your long runs

• Phase out hills (unless you are running a hillier marathon)

• Build your speed endurance through threshold running

Running to Effort, Not Pace

One of the most important things we can tell you at this stage of training: stop chasing pace numbers. Every time you go for a run, conditions are different. The weather, the surface, how much sleep you got, how well fuelled you are, the stress you are under at work — all of these affect the pace you are going to run on a given day.

By running to effort level, you take all of these variables into account and avoid working too hard when your body isn't up for it.

The Talk Test is your simplest and most powerful tool. It is free, it requires no technology, and it works every single time you lace up your shoes:

• Easy/Long Run: Fully conversational. You should be able to chat comfortably

• Steady: Short sentences with a slight pause on your breath

• Threshold: Four or five words maximum. Controlled discomfort

• Hard intervals: Two or three words. You are out of breath but could do more if forced

If you can hold a conversation on an easy run, you are in the right place. If you cannot, slow down. It really is that simple.

Heart Rate Training

Heart rate training is the next level up from the Talk Test. It takes those effort levels you already know and gives them a number. When it works, it is brilliant — it makes every session specific to you, accounts for outside influences like weather, fatigue and stress, and gives you a way to track progress over time.

But here is the key thing: heart rate training only works if you have accurate, personalised zones. If your zones are based on a generic "220 minus your age" calculation, they are almost certainly wrong. At that point, you would be better off sticking with the Talk Test alone.

If you are using heart rate, your long runs should sit in Zone 2 (65–75% HRR). If your heart rate is creeping into Zone 3 towards the end of a long run, that is fine as muscular fatigue builds — but you should not be starting there.

For a deeper dive into how we use heart rate at Full Potential, have a read of our blogs on the value of training to heart rate and getting heart rate training right.

Staying Injury Free

During this training phase, you do not want to let a niggle get any more serious. Keep up with the body admin: stretch and foam roll regularly, and complement this with a sports massage if you can.

Alongside this, do some conditioning work to strengthen your body for the rigours of the marathon. It only takes 10–15 minutes after a run, a few times a week. You don't need a gym membership or expensive equipment. Check out our YouTube page for efficient bodyweight conditioning workouts.

Nutrition

Nutrition is a vast subject that deserves its own articles, so we are only going to cover what matters around your running here.

The Night Before

Your evening meal the night before the marathon does not need to be an all-you-can-eat pasta party that leaves you bloated and uncomfortable. Add some extra carbohydrates to your plate and take out heavy protein, fats and fibre. Stick to foods that are kind on your stomach. See the whole day as your chance to top up fuel stores, not just that last meal.

Race Morning

Whether it is your first marathon or your 50th, race morning is a nervous affair. Make sure you eat something you know you can stomach. Everyone is different — how much food, what type, what time. Use the next few weeks to test this out on your long run mornings. There is no perfect meal and there are no magic foods. Find what works for you and stick with it.

On-the-Run Nutrition

Getting your fuelling right during the race can be the difference between a personal best and an OK run. The current guidance is to aim for 60–90g of carbohydrates per hour, depending on your pace and what your gut can handle. Faster runners will be towards the higher end. If you are running closer to 5 hours, you will not need as much, as you are not burning energy at the same rate.

There is an incredible number of gels and blocks on the market. Broadly, you have liquid-style gels and more viscous ones that need to be taken with water. The most important thing is to train your gut to take on fuel by practising with gels and nutrition over the coming weeks of long runs. If gels do not work for you, there are alternatives — energy bars, flapjacks, real food. Experiment now, not on race day.

Caffeine

Caffeine is a powerful and proven performance aid for endurance runners. If you react well to it, look to take a caffeinated gel or two towards the later stages of your race.

Electrolytes

If you are a salty sweater — you often finish a run with white salt marks on your face — you are losing a lot of electrolytes. Look into replenishing them during your long runs. It might be a tablet you drop into your water or a gel with added electrolytes. Whatever it is, plan this in now.

Kit

The kit you wear on race day matters more than you might think. Many runners race for a charity and will be wearing the charity vest on the day. Find your perfect racing kit before race day by wearing it on your longest runs. If it is still cold where you are, there is no need to force shorts and a singlet until the weather warms up.

Shoes

If you are buying new running shoes for race day, buy them with enough time to break them in. Wear them for a few short runs, then your last two or three long runs, and then a few shorter runs before the race. Do not buy brand new shoes for race day.

The shoe market has changed hugely in recent years, with carbon-plated super shoes now widely available. Lighter, faster shoes can be brilliant — but only if they suit your running style and you have tested them properly. For many runners, more cushioning is still the smarter choice. Get advice if you are unsure.

Mental Toughness

A good marathon runner is mentally tough. Mental toughness is not something you either have or you don't — it is something you develop over time. Training is the perfect environment to build it. See each session as a chance to practise.

Here are some strategies to work on over the next few weeks:

• Break the run into chunks. Don't think about the whole distance. Focus on getting to the next mile, the next landmark, the next water station

• Stay positive. Talk to yourself. If your internal voice turns negative, it will slow you down. Catch it early and redirect

• Have a goal and a backup goal. Research shows we push harder when we are working towards a specific target. Have a Plan A and a Plan B

• Focus outward. If you focus on how much discomfort you are in, it becomes harder to run. Look around you. Count to 100. Count backwards from 100. Distract yourself

• Keep a note after each session of what worked mentally and what didn't. Over time, you will build your own personal toolkit

Find other runners to bounce ideas off. Talk to a coach if you have one. Your mental preparation is just as important as the physical training.

What Does Not Matter Over the Next Few Weeks

• The distance of your long run. Everyone is different. Don't get wrapped up in someone else's training

• The pace of your long run. The only day your pace matters is race day

• Being tired. The marathon is hard. There will be times in training when you are tired. This is OK

  
  

The best of luck with the rest of your training. And always remember:

Believe. Run. Achieve.