11 weeks to NYC + 8 weeks to Chicago + 6 weeks to Berlin

Hello team,

This is the midway point of your current training block. A week ago, you were just coming out of a recovery week. A week from now, you’ll get another recovery week. That means that THIS week is incredibly powerful. This week, you’re carrying unrecovered miles piggy-back through everything you do. Imagine them piled on your shoulders—through speed, through your long run, in the weight room, and while you’re making dinner.

These stacked miles are incredibly annoying, and essential. Every run would feel better without them AND they are preparing you for race day better than your fastest, shiniest de-loaded run ever could.

This week, get the miles done, go up another 10% in weekly mileage or check out a mileage plan in  The noname Program manual, and go for a solid B+ run every time you lace up. Truly, I have trained with some of the best marathoners on earth, and great marathons are build from many consistent B+ efforts. Show up, get it done, and trust the process.

One last note: With this post-recovery week fresh in your mind, I want you to take stock of how last week felt. Following a recovery week, you should feel a little boost. Maybe one of your runs felt extra strong, or maybe your mood was up. It can be subtle. Did that happen for you?

If last week didn’t feel great, don’t fret. But, do consider how you can amp up your recovery week a little bit next time. Maybe your recovery week miles should come down a little more? Maybe you need to be a little more dialed on sleep or nutrition? Maybe it was just a tough week in non-running life and you felt zapped? How can you tweak training and lifestyle to give yourself back a few extra percentage points of energy?

We put together a list of recovery resources for The noname Program, and I’m going to share them here as well. If you’re feeling beat up, start from the top and make the changes that feel easiest. Those will lead to more energy, more changes, better runs, and a generally upward spiral:

1)    Take sleep seriously. Every space age recovery technique put together is still not as powerful as a good night of sleep. Sleep is your body’s most focused recovery period. Don’t let a few bad nights stress you out though! Setting up a long trend of good nights is what’s important.

2)    Take nutrition seriously. During a workout, you’re fueled by food. After the work out, your body patches you up into a stronger athlete using food. Not enough food and the workout will suffer, or it will leave you weaker rather than stronger.

3)    Eat enough in recovery windows. In the 30 minutes following a run, get in a simple, sugary snack. Within 90 minutes of a workout get in a big, nourishing, whole foods meal.

4)    Stay hydrated Everything in your body works better, including your brain, if you’re sipping all day. Alternate water, juices, and electrolytes to fully saturate your tissues.

5)    Chill out. I want to note that this is different from active recovery methods. It can feel more productive to hop from foam roller to a massage to cryofreeze, but your body needs passive recovery time to heal. That means be still, relaxed and peaceful. Veg.

6)    Laugh with your friends. This really can’t be overstated. When you hang out and chill, you “turn on” your parasympathetic nervous system, which moves you over from “perform” mode into “recover” mode. Even better, when you’re bantering with pals you release “social” hormones, which supercharge the process.

7)    Create a ritual around practice. Your body will respond best, both in performance levels and lowered stress hormones, if you create a regular pattern around practice. a) Before you start a run, go through a few minutes of mobility informed by Yoga, high school sports practice, or watching your cat stretch. Can you also couple this with fun music, or a phone call with someone who makes you feel happy? b) After you get back, do a nice leisurely stretch and have snack.

8)    SLOW DOWN your easy runs. Many people get caught in the cycle of running really hard, then getting tired, then opting for complete rest, then starting back with a really hard run, and repeat. Instead, run easy. SO MANY issues in running can be solved by slowing down the easy days, or dropping back a pace group for a week.

9)    Trade in a speed run for an aerobic run. Just one week off of speed can get your feet back under you. Don’t worry that you’re missing an essential day. In a good marathon program, every system is worked on multiple days and from multiple directions. You’ll be better off coning into your next workout feeling excited and ready to go.

10) Trade in a run for a cross training session. Running can be more demanding than non-weight bearing sports, because of the impact of your footsteps. If you’re feeling overtired, opt for a bike, swim, row, or elliptical session.

11) Take a run off. If you’re in an energy hole and need to stay in bed, do it. This is an entirely normal part of training. Even for Olympians, it’s a rare training cycle that doesn’t include an unplanned rest day. Taking one is a sign that you’re a mature athlete who respects your body.

12) Schedule a massage and/or PT session. Massage brings increased blood flow to healing muscles and gets rid of any adhesions that may be slowing down the process. PT, even if you’re not experiencing pain, can help correct imbalances in your running form that can lead to more efficient, easier miles.

13) Visit your doctor. Blood tests are a normal part of training for many athletes. Because you are relying on your body in a special way, you may feel deficiencies more acutely than you would otherwise. A little supplementation could leave you feeling transformed. 

LFG!

Coach + Coffey

Fall Marathoners, this week you will run 3-6 times:

These runs may be done on any days, with two caveats: 1) Run the Speed Run earlier in the week than the Long Run, and 2) if you’re running 3-4 days a week, try not to run them all back-to-back-to-back. Your efforts will be safer and more effective if separated by rest. 

Speed Run: 12-16 x 400 @ 5k pace w 1:00 rest

Method:

1.    Run 5-20 minutes of easy warmup running.

2.    Do 5-10 optional minutes of dynamic warmups + strides.

3.    This workout is a right of passage. It’s not faster than you’ve run this season, and it’s not farther. It’s a hard workout, and a new combination of speed + distance, but the real challenge is that it’s just so many laps.

This one wears on the mind. It’s a grind. Lap after lap, you’ll feel your focus fade and you’ll create your own personal tools to snap back to attention. What image, what mantra, what line in a song repeated a thousand times keeps you in that peculiar place between focus and relaxation? How can you hypnotize yourself into peak performance? Come prepared for a kick in the ass, and you’ll leave with a new page of notes on what makes you tick.

Physiologically, this workout targets 1) form development and 2) lactate clearing.

1) Form development: At faster paces, your stride extends; your toes push off harder, your knees come up higher, and your deep core muscles come to life to offset the torque you produce by pushing off the ground more powerfully. By running 16 x 400 at a pace that requires a more powerful stride, you’ll carry some of those patterns into your every pace, including your Marathon pace.

2) Lactate clearing: whereas last week we held you at a single pace that required you to tolerate the byproducts you were producing, this week you’ll produce MUCH more of those same byproducts every interval, and then your body will spend each 1:00 rest clearing aka buffering that lactate. It’s just another way to teach your body to efficiently handle late-stage marathon legs!

12-16 x 400 @ 5k w/ 1:00 rest — Richmond, Philly, Valencia, CIM, Honolulu, Kiawah

16 x 400 @ 5k w/ 1:00 rest — New York, Marine Corps, Dublin, Indianapolis, Athens

The core of this workout is simple: either use a recent 5k time or find an estimate of your 5k time using the Race Equivalency Chart on page 17 of The noname Program manual.

Got your pace? Run that for 400 meters (1/4 mile). Take 1:00 standing/walking rest. Repeat for a total of 12-16 reps, as indicated above. If you’re feeling good at half way, you can start shaving seconds off your laps. There are some workouts where it’s important to stay on pace to fulfill the purpose of the day. This isn’t one of those workouts—today, go fast and have fun. Maybe even go a little too fast. What’s the worst that could happen? (caveat: Hold back from an “all out” sprint. We don’t want to risk a pulled hamstring!)

16 x 400 @ 5k “base pace” + 4th, 8th, 12th “rip intervals” @ mile pace — Berlin, Chicago, Wine Glass, St George, Twin Cities, Milwaukee, Portland, Amsterdam, Columbus, Detroit Free Press, Baltimore, Great New York State, Toronto.

You have an extra challenge. You’ll complete the workout as above, only every 4th interval you’ll “rip” a 400 at a faster pace. Run these—#4, 8 +12— as fast as you can while staying smooth and maintaining control and realize you’ll only have 1:00 to recover before the next interval!

The rip intervals will create a more focused, peak-specific workout and, more importantly, the interval after the rip interval will require you to tolerate the byproducts your body wasn’t able to clear in the 1:00 recovery. This will be tough! And fun!

4.    5-20 minutes easy cooldown running + dynamic cooldown, just like at the start. 

Aerobic Runs: 1-4 easy runs for aerobic development 

Find your aerobic pace on page 19 in the noname manual. This wide pace range is determined by your prospective Marathon pace, and is the pace at which your system is fueled almost exclusively by aerobic metabolism. That means at this pace your energy comes an oxygen-based system; any faster and it start to rely on chemical reactions within your muscles, which produce byproducts like lactate. The majority of your training miles should be run in this pace window in order to develop your body's reliance on oxygen-based metabolism and limit the production of leg-burning muscular byproduct.

Put a different way, at this pace your body can both recover from your hard runs and develop your endurance at the same time. Some people refer to these days as recovery runs or easy runs. We like to use the technical term: aerobic—adj, relating to, involving, or requiring free oxygen, to remind ourselves that even though these miles are easy, they are just as purposeful and scientifically-informed as any speed day.

Long Run: find your Marathon Below

18 miles @ Aerobic Pace — Berlin.

As much as possible, use this as a dress rehearsal for the marathon:

Hydrate and fuel well all week. Do something fun and relaxing the night before. Pack your bag and lay out your clothes before you go to bed. Get a good night’s sleep. Wake up with plenty of extra time. Test out your pre-race breakfast. Be diligent with your gels.

This will be an adventure. It’s going to be hard and you’re ready for it. You’re nervous. That’s good. Feel what you’re feeling. It’s evidence that you care, and it’s excellent practice for feeling and handling nerves on race day. From now until the Marathon (and forever), everything you do is practice, and an experiment: the music you wake up to, the clothes on your back, what you eat and drink, and the things you tell yourself.

Take full advantage of this opportunity: mimic every element you can in terms of food, water, music, mantras, feelings, timing, etc, etc, etc. and take notes on what works and what isn’t. Then, recognize that there will be elements you can’t control, both this week and in the race—that’s when you’ll practice gracefully letting them roll off your back. You’re prepared.

1:30-2:00 @ Aerobic base pace w/ 5 miles @ Marathon Goal Pace — Chicago, Wine Glass, St George, Twin Cities, Milwaukee, Portland

Start in your Aerobic Pace window, which you can find in The noname Program manual. For the last 5 miles shift into Goal Marathon Pace. Hold that pace as smoothly and gracefully as possible. Your goal here is not to run as fast as you can, but to really feel marathon pace. Get it into your muscles, into your movement patterns, and into your sense memory. Don’t expect it to feel easy—you’re untapered and have yet to run your longest runs. This pace will feel both very different and entirely like home on race day.

Decide between 1:30 and 2:00 based on energy levels. There’s no wrong answer here, and you don’t have to make the choice before you start running.

15 miles @ Aerobic Pace — Amsterdam, Columbus, Detroit Free Press, Baltimore, Great New York State, Toronto

13.1 miles @ Aerobic pace — New York, Marine Corps, Dublin, Istanbul, Indianapolis, Athens, Richmond, Philly, Valencia, CIM, Honolulu, Kiawah

We continue to climb! This is just like last week, only now you’re not coming off a recovery week. It takes 10-14 days to entirely heal and rebuild from a hard run. That means you’ll go through this run with last week’s long run still kicking around in your legs. That compiled fatigue and incomplete recovery is by design, and make up core principals of marathon training. Just be ready for it! Mid-run you may think to yourself, why is this so hard??? This is why. It’s preparing you, so that longer runs will feel easier.

My advice: romanticize the heck out of it. Tell yourself the heroic story behind every heavy footstep and every muscle ache. Your consistency now will result in faster times and future runs that feel like flight. That is coming. But, along the way remember that you’re writing the back story. What worthy triumph comes without a training montage of early mornings and small failures and wrestling matches with the hero’s own self-doubt? What fun would that be? Appreciate what’s happening now.

As always, hydrate with varied liquids, including fruits and electrolyte drinks. Plan a relaxed night. Eat a colorful, nourishing dinner the night before. Go to sleep early. Get up with an eye on finishing your run before the heat peaks. Eat breakfast, even if it’s just a little. Pack gels if you’re running longer than 1:30 and take one at :45—more on this soon! Plan water stops. Visit this hot weather readiness post for tips on running in the heat.

We owe you a Marathon nutrition guide! That is coming!

One last reminder—the mileage assigned here assumes that we all want to run together, either remotely or in person. If you’re running a marathon later in the year than NYC, don’t assume your mileage needs to be this high yet. If you’d prefer to stick to our standard 16-week build, check out The noname Program manual. You’re can also use a combination of the program in the manual, the cooperation spreadsheet, and this Substack to create your own fusion plan. It’s running! Don’t overthink it.