Flip Your Training to Go Faster for Longer

If you’re chasing a sub-3 marathon (or similar), you’re probably already training with intention. You’re not just trying to finish - you’re trying to race. But if your training plan looks like 16–20 weeks of building up long runs, adding in some marathon pace efforts, and hoping you can hold that pace for 42.2K - you might be building your race on the wrong foundation.

Here’s the truth: Most sub-3 marathoners don’t fail because they can’t go long enough. They fail because they can’t go fast enough aerobically — and then they try to hold that pace for too long. Let’s fix that.

The Problem: Too Much Marathon Work, Too Soon

Most traditional marathon plans are based on marathon-specific training from the start:

• Long runs every weekend

• Marathon pace tempo runs

• Moderate weekly mileage

• A bit of threshold, maybe a sprinkle of 5K pace work

This structure makes sense if your only goal is surviving 26.2 miles. But if you're aiming to run a sub-3 (or even close to it), that pace requires some banked speed, and here’s the kicker:

Marathon pace is not a training zone — it’s an outcome of your fitness.

So when you spend 16–20 weeks grinding marathon pace sessions before you've even built the engine to support that pace, you’re building the roof before the walls. You might get away with it — but it’s fragile, inefficient, and fatiguing.

The Fix: Train Like You’re a 5K or 10K Runner First

This is where your critical power (CP) or functional threshold pace comes in.

Your 10K pace represents the upper limit of sustainable aerobic power. It’s your ceiling. The higher your CP, the faster your marathon pace can be - even if you’re only running at 85–88% of it. So if you want to run a marathon at 4:15/km (for a sub-3), that pace has to feel like sub-threshold cruising, not near-redline tempo.

You need to train to raise CP before you train to hold a high percentage of it.

What Most Runners Do (and Why It Fails)

What You Should Do Instead

Think of Your Marathon as a Tent

Your CP is the centre pole — the higher it is, the taller your tent can be. Your marathon pace is the canopy — held up by the pole and stretched with durability. Most runners just stretch the canopy as far as possible and hope it holds. But without a tall pole (CP), the whole thing sags at 32K. Raise the pole first. Then tension the canopy. Then race.

How to Structure Your Season (Big Picture)

Let’s say you’re training for Valencia Marathon on 7 December 2025. Instead of 16–20 weeks of marathon work, use up to 12 months of 6-week training blocks to layer the right physiology:

Blocks 1–5 (Jan–July): Raise the Ceiling

• Hill reps, strides, tempo runs, 5K/10K intervals

• Cross training to augment aerobic training without running stressors

• CP goes up → Marathon pace becomes more efficient

Block 6 (Aug): Transition

• Start longer runs, small MP efforts

• Keep threshold in play, prep for next phase

Blocks 7–8 (Sept–Nov): Marathon-Specific Work

• Long runs with MP segments

• High carb practice, race sim pacing

• Extend the % of CP you can hold

Taper (final 1 to 2 weeks): Sharpen & freshen

• Reduce volume, keep intensity, arrive fresh

Wait — Isn’t This Different From What Elite Coaches Recommend?

Yes — and no. If you’ve read the training philosophies of elite coaches like Renato Canova, Pfitzinger, or Lydiard, you’ve probably seen marathon training laid out with clear, phase-based periodisation:

• General phase → aerobic base

• Specific phase → race pace emphasis

• Sharpening phase → reduced volume, increased specificity

This structure works incredibly well — for elite marathoners.

But here's the key: most elite athletes already have massive aerobic engines, high CPs, and years of threshold work in the bank. For them, marathon training is about holding 88–90% of an already sky-high CP.

For the 3-hour marathoner?

• CP is much lower and less developed

• Speed reserve is small or non-existent

• And lifetime mileage is limited

So, following a Canova-style approach that assumes high CP and durability from the start is like trying to race a Ferrari with a Prius engine. You're using the structure of elite training but without the prerequisites in place.

Your periodisation adapts that structure to the real-world needs of ambitious age-groupers by:

• Spending more time developing CP up front

• Avoiding early overuse of marathon pace (which fatigues and plateaus mid-packers)

• Building toward specificity only after the aerobic engine can support it

• Using cross-training modalities to compound aerobic adaptations

So yes - it's different from textbook elite models. But it's not a rejection of them. It’s a translation of their core principles into a model that works for real runners with real lives and real limits.

Final Thought

If you’re training for a marathon PR, your speed reserve is your insurance policy. Without it, target marathon pace is barely sustainable, and the final 10K becomes a death march.

But if you build the engine first - and learn to extend it second - marathon pace becomes something you own, not survive. Train like a 10K runner - race like a marathoner.

Envol has started a collaboration with Boulder Co based Marathon Coach Max Frankel. Together, we have created a coach-supported global training group targeting late-year marathons in 2025.

Want help structuring your season around this philosophy? Drop a line to [email protected] or [email protected] to find out more. 💬