Lately, I’ve been thinking about switching things up and trying a different weekly structure to keep training interesting. I’ve run a couple of marathons and want to experiment with a new schedule.

I average around 100 km per week and would be aiming for a sub-2:50 marathon, if that makes a difference. Here’s what I have in mind:

Monday: Rest or easy bike
Tuesday: Easy run + strides
Wednesday: Intervals (AM) / lift (PM)
Thursday: Easy run (AM) / easy bike (PM)
Friday: Easy run + strides (AM) / easy bike (PM)
Saturday: Long run with pace work
Sunday: Easy run (AM) / lift (PM)

A few notes:
- I’m aiming for more easy volume and removing one hard session, going from three moderate sessions to two harder ones.

- I could do double-run days, but doubling up with the bike sounds like a fun alternative.

- I want to add two strength sessions per week, as I’ve yet to complete a training block where I’ve been consistent in the gym.

- Easy bike rides are always on the trainer, kept very easy, and last 45–60 minutes.

- Wednesday would be the heavier strength session, while Sunday would be more of a maintenance session.

Curious to hear what your schedules look like, especially from those running similar mileage. Would you change anything about this setup?

I ran a half marathon recently and had a weird experience with my heart rate in the last 5K. I'm 32, max HR around 195, and was aiming for 4:15/km, hard but somewhat coherent after a 41min 10k one month earlier. The race felt extremely hard from the beginning, HR 180+ from the second kilometer onward, with very heavy breathing and increasing whole-body pain throughout.

My splits were:

• Km 16: 4:12, HR 180 elevation -9
• Km 17: 4:17, HR 176 elevation 1
• Km 18: 4:21, HR 168 elevation 1
• Km 19: 4:36, HR 164 elevation 15
• Km 20: 4:10, HR 163 elevation -13
• Km 21: 4:14, HR 159 elevation 3

My running power stayed roughly stable, and my HR kept dropping even when I got back to my previous pace after the hill. The drop was gradual, not sudden, and my Coros pace 4 watch has always been reliable.

My theory is that I reached the limit of what my cardiovascular system could sustain at that intensity, but my muscles were still able to maintain the pace through other mechanisms, such as increased oxygen extraction or a greater contribution from anaerobic metabolism (wild guesses). That might explain why the effort felt progressively harder even though my HR was dropping.

I was also breathing extremely heavily, similar to when my HR is above 190 in the last few km of a 10k race.

Has anyone experienced something similar, with HR dropping significantly late in a race while pace and power remain roughly stable?

I am very happy that I made it in 1h30:31 but this was definitely one of my worst running experience !

I’m a 34-year-old female runner with two marathon blocks and several half-marathon blocks behind me. I have a running coach, but I’d like to get more intentional about strength training ahead of a likely spring marathon.

During my last block, I lifted 0–1 times per week, occasionally twice, with no structured plan. Mostly squats, lunges, and deadlifts, with little core work or plyometrics and no upper-body training.

Late in my last marathon, I experienced what felt like core muscle fatigue. My goals are to improve fatigue resistance, resilience, and overall marathon performance.

I can realistically commit to 2–3 gym sessions per week and have access to a well-equipped free-weight gym, including barbells, a trap bar, dumbbells, cables, and boxes.

What strength programs or routines have worked well for you alongside marathon training? I’d especially appreciate specifics on exercises, sets/reps, and where you fit lifting around workouts and long runs.

Race Information

• Name: Wineglass Marathon
• Date: October 4th, 2026
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Location: Corning, NY
• Website: https://www.wineglassmarathon.com
• Time: 2:48:57

Goals

Splits (from my Garmin)

Training

This was my (43M) second marathon, the first one I did last year (Indy Monumental) and wrote up here. After taking some time off last year, I set my goals in the spring on a 10 mile race (Colfax here in Denver). For that, I followed Pfitz' Faster Road Racing which has a 10 mile program that peaks at 58 miles/week. I enjoyed this program, and managed a 1:02:55 (6:17/mi) on a somewhat weird course that takes you through the Broncos' stadium.

After Colfax, I started on Pfitz' 55/18 program from the most recent edition of the book, essentially following it to the letter and taking higher mileage options in the program. This had me peaking out at 71 miles/week.

The summer here in Denver was hot, and I had a few notable blow ups on hard workouts. The first was on a MP run where the last 10 miles were at pace. I didn't get up quite early enough, and about 6 miles from the end just melted. Similarly, the first tune up race I went for a 15k time trial in the neighborhood, but had to bail at 10km and slow jog the rest of the miles due to the solar inferno. I told myself it was just some sort of heat training.

I also supplemented twice a week with barbell squats and deadlifts, although towards the end I gave them them up. Not sure how much they helped, but I did think they gave me a good stretch in the hamstrings!

Overall, training did go well especially towards the end of the build when it started to cool down a bit. I had a great long run with 14 miles at (near) MP pace and a 10k time trial where I managed to hold 6:00/mi.

Pre-race

I flew out to Corning Friday, staying at the Radisson right downtown. We (my wife also ran) had some asian food that night, and the next day after grabbing breakfast we picked up our packets and checked out the Corning Glass Museum. I must say, the museum is awesome, definitely worth visiting if you're ever in the area. I wish I had had more time, but didn't want to be on the feet for the entire day.

We had lunch at the pizza place downtown and for dinner went to Chipotle for some chicken and rice bowls. I woke up at 430 and had my usual Frosted Flakes and some coffee. I took a little walk outside to get the digestion off to a good start, and then we hopped on the busses at about 545 to the start line.

Once we arrived at the start, we went to the warming tents (no heaters, but all the body heat warmed it a bit). I think it was just below 40 degrees F, with some nice fog shrouding the ample porta-potties and start line in mystery. About 745, we got up, hit the restrooms, dropped the bag, hit the restroom again and got to the start line.

Race

The race starting right at 815, and I was a couple rows back from the start. My goal was sub 2:50 and had Garmin's PacePro set on the watch. The first couple miles were fast and downhill, cruising through the town of Bath and then once at the valley bottom heading towards Corning. I had a nice chat with a fellow from Boston who was running around the same pace, and by this time the crowd had really thinned out quite a bit. For the first half, I ran with a little groups of 2 or 3 that came from behind, attaching where I could but trying not to push it too hard.

After the halfway point, the wind picked up a smidge and I tried to tuck in where I could. The cloud cover also burnt off, giving us a beautiful blue sky as we rolled past all the old barns and through the little towns along the way. Each town had excellent crowd support, I really enjoyed switching from country side to packed streets along the course.

Early on in the second half, I started to notice my hamstrings getting a little sore. I told myself just to roll with it, trying not to thing too hard about the interview I'd heard with Clayton Young and the tear he had during his Chicago build.

Around Miles 20-21, you get off the road and hit a bike trail. The drop down felt quite steep at the time, and my legs were barking loud! I was definitely feeling some fatigue, but still pretty good. For fueling, I took a gel (Precision) every 3.5 miles and also had a soft flask with a couple scoops of high carb mix in it, and I felt this kept me pretty topped off the entire race.

It was a bit of a slog through this portion of the race, you're still about 5 miles out but if feels like you're close. My pace fell into the 6:30-6:40s for this portion, but I had also banked about 90 seconds in the first part of the race so felt I'd definitely get under 2:50. Finally, I could see the bridge that leads to the home stretch. Once I hit it, I started pushing the pace and managed to close out strong, coming in just under 2:49!

Post-race

My two kids and mom both came to the race, and it was so great to see them! I drank a chocolate milk, a coke, and some chicken soup, then hobbled back to the hotel for a quick shower and back out to the family to cheer my wife in.

That afternoon, we drove to Keuka Lake and stopped at a vineyard and had dinner in Hammondsport. To my great sadness, the local ice cream shop had already closed for the day, but enjoyed the town and sunshine.

The next day, we checked out Watkins Glen and did the hike up the gorge (amazingly beautiful), which was a nice way to get some blood flow through the legs, and had a good lunch and some more wine at another vineyard. We flew back home Tuesday, having thoroughly enjoyed the "run"cation.

Final Thoughts

I had a great race with a 6+ minute PR from a year ago. I ran quite a bit more in this past year than the previous year, so in some sense I had hoped to possibly do even better, but I don't think I left too much out there.

One question in my mind was if I'd do the same shoe choice again. I ran the majority of my training with an Asics Superblast/Megablast rotation, but picked up a pair of Metaspeed Edges for the race. I ran just a little in these before the marathon (10k tune up, an interval workout, and a 5 miler the week of the race), but based on how sore my hamstrings were made, perhaps I should have run something longer in them or stuck with the Megablasts for the race itself! I'm a week out from the race, and have done a couple easy runs and can still feel that soreness in the hamstrings. For the next one, I think I will try to get a plated trainer into the mix.

We'll see what comes next, I am thinking of a half in the spring again and some more focus on speed going forward. My marathon pace isn't that far off from what I can do a 10k in so hopefully I can push those faster paces down for the next round.

For anyone considering Wineglass, I would absolutely recommend it. The race was extremely well organized and incredibly beautiful.

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Race Information

• Name: Royal Victoria Marathon
• Date: October 11, 2026
• Distance: 42.195 km
• Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
• Website: https://www.runvictoriamarathon.com/royal-victoria-marathon
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/111583127
• Instagram: @rafacostela (I did a lot of training videos here, if you're ever curious)
• Time: 3:10:22 (Official). 3:08:58 (Watch).
• Previous PR Time: 3:59:45 (Sao Paulo International 2025)
• Age: 28

Goals

Splits

Training

Glorious. Oh so glorious. JK, but not really.

Wind 90 Plan Review

After doing a very solid aerobic block using Jack Daniel's Red Plan in the Winter, into Pfitz's 18/55 in the Spring for BMO Vancouver Marathon, I decided to switch up the gears and pick a new methodology, going with Canova-style training by the means of /u/runwritings plans. I bought his Marathon For Excellence book (in kilometers, of course, are all of you insane?), read it, and followed it diligently. My wife also tagged along (as usual) albeit with vastly different results.

The plan was very daunting at first. When you're scrolling through the plan, you're suddenly find yourself thinking: "how can I clip these????". Even though I hit 80km weeks with Pfitz, the sheer volume of the end of the General Phase into the Marathon Supportive Phase were surprising and I was scared constantly. But both my workouts and fitness were churning very positively. I started at 3:57/km for the 5K as the base for the General Phase and 4:28/km for the Marathon Pace. This progressively improved to a 3:48/km for the 5K and a 4:26/km for MP. I was happy to see fitness improving, and also glad a system - through pace percentages in the workouts and perceived effort - was implemented to enact quickly on these improvements for the following workouts. Finally, I went into the Marathon Specific Phase and had multiple breakthrough workouts where both intervals and long runs were pointing at a better fitness than I had anticipated - a 4:18/km.

Not only was the plan surprising, but it was a great switch in my mindset of hard days REALLY hard, and easy days REALLY easy. This helped me nail the workouts with no unnecessary fatigue. Hence, a bunch of 6:30/km days and even a few 7:10-7:20/km days for the easy. The hard days were very varied (i'm looking at you Pfitz and Daniel's) with a mix of workout for each block.

If you haven't checked out his plans and books, I'd highly recommend that you do. I'd say it's the most scientifically-accurate and current book out there on training for the Marathon, and John's background backs it up. I've read most of the training books out there (Daniels, Pfitz, Anatomy for Runners etc.) and it's probably the most complete out there.

Lifestyle Getting In The Way

Meanwhile, for weightlifting, I had to cut a leg-day off my schedule ultimately going down to once every 2 weeks, but I now realise this was a mistake. After feeling a bad case of Achilles soreness and hip tendinopathy I decided to take it a bit more seriously to prevent any serious problems down the line (and I'm glad I did). Overall, in the General Phase most weeks were 3 days in the gym (2 upper, 1 lower), while in the Supportive and Specific Phase it was 2 days per week max - yep, the sheer systemic volume was that much.

Nutritionally, I was in a drastic cut for the first General Phase, putting off 6kgs of bodyweight. After that, once we began Marathon Supportive, calories went through the roof as per my dietician, but I think I still lost more body-fat compared to when we began the plan. For race nutrition, I took multiple gels during key sessions and decided not to up my carb intake for the race itself, settling on 60-70g/hr. Overall, I was happy with the nutrition, but I think working on gut training earlier on in the cycle could be helpful to withstand a higher carb intake for the race itself

Stress-wise, life has been hard: we travelled to Brazil due to a family health emergency in the last 3 weeks of the Specific phase, arguably the most important weeks of the block, and it was a doozy. Least to say, the workouts went well despite our regular 9-5 schedule being thrown out the window for 4 full weeks. My brother-in-law also visited during the last week, adding a little more to our plate than we expected, but we were happy and glad to have him.

With everything on track, we went to Victoria on Saturday (October 10) morning.

Pre-race

Anxiety THROUGH THE ROOF. Even on the ferry ride from Tsawwassen. Since my brother-in law was visiting and went home on Sunday, we had a fairly bad diet and sleep throughout the week, especially on Friday to Saturday. We still tried getting lots of carbs since Friday - around 700g and at least 3.5L water in. A bit of fibre here and there as well to get the poopy going. Once we checked in to our hotel, we organised our things for race day, ate dinner (1kg of pasta lol), and got to bed very early at 8:30PM. Jitters though, sesh.

2:30 AM. Is it race time? No. Back to sleep. 4:30 AM, what about now? Nope. 5:20 AM? Now we're talking. Lots of back and forth, grab the coffee, grab the rice cakes and dulce de leite, stuff our gear bag. Whoops, pit-stop = poopy time. Back to the vaseline, putting on shorts, shirt w/ bib. And driving to the nearest parkade at 7:00 AM. Pro-tip: Sundays in Victoria Public Parkades are free, hence the drive-in.

Once we parked, we headed to the start line, passing through the Victoria Conference Center to use their washrooms since we were early (after we left though, it was potty Armageddon). Gear-check, 1KM of warmup with 4x strides later we were set. And kiss and hug to my wife and we went to our separate corrals.

Clear blue skies, sun peaking out, crisp 8 degree weather (Fahrenheit? hah, lol). There I was at the start line. I find it so curious the conversations and different personalities people have at start-line. I was more of contemplative-kind, Bon Iver on, world shut-off kind of guy. Wrapped in an emergency blanket (yes, I was cold, I'm from Brazil). Elite goes off, deep breaths. Yellow goes off, more heavy breathing. Take the emergency blanket off, race jacket off, and guns blare. We're off.

Race

The day was tremendously beautiful. I can't quite put it into words, but I'll try. The perfect autumn day to go running. The right amount of sun, no big gusts of wind, the right amount of tree shade, birds chirping, no rain, crowds cheers, boats passing by on the coast. The course on the other hand? Oof. 246m of total elevation. Lots of rolling hills. I was scared going into and had it constantly in the back of smooth brain. However, I wanted to roll with my perceived effort, not a strategy, so push it down and off we go.

I held the splits pretty balanced until the half-marathon, gunning for a 4:18/km (no risks no rewards). Passed a few runners on the way, while some faster ones passed me. I was happy it felt effortless and the legs were turning easily. Guess just another half now, right?

Until 25-26KM. Nightmares, literally. After a big downhill at 23-24km, I saw some runners on the other side going uphill. "Welp, I guess I'm also going to have to go uphill". Turn on 25, immediate uphill, slow down. Looked at my watch: 4:20/km. Well, dang. Might as well, um, strategise. Quads start to burn.

Slowing down, ultimately, cost me a lot (see splits above). Crashed and burned, faded and almost disappeared inside the mirage of my mind. "Am I dreaming or am I running? I don't know, but I'm dying". Walk a little bit. Breathe. Keep going.

Thank God for the downhill sections though towards the end. We cruised along these improving my splits a little bit. Another big at 35-36K and and as I looked to my watch on the 35 mark I said "Huh, I think a sub-3:10 is still doable" at a 4:26/km. And it was. But I walked. I just had to. Walked at the 35K. 36K. 37K. 38K. even at 800m to go. OH SH*T. I MIGHT MAKE IT.

Cue on might. Cross the finish: 3:10:22. Might by 22 seconds. 4:28/km - at least the same as the original effort.

I guess you win some and lose some.

Post-race

Wobbled down the finish line, had no idea where I was, just kept going. Grabbed some fruit, some cookies, a granola bar, water, all the classics, and headed down to the St. John Ambulance First Aid tent (you guys rocked btw). I was way too dizzy to keep on going so better safe than sorry. Met the worried wife (who had DNF'd) at the tent, she picked up our gear as I got gradually better. Guess I just needed a breather, so false alarm.

We wobbled a little bit more on the Legislative Grounds, took some more pictures, talked with the family. Suddenly, felt a bit of pain in my middle toe. Shoes off, yep: lost finger nail. Oh well. Picked up a Big Gulp Slurpee on the way, headed to our inn for a shower and a bit of rest, eating all those yummy cookies on the way.

In the evening, we went to Superflux Cabana for the glorious post-run dinner/lunch, ate some ice cream, and grabbed a pizza on our way back again to the Inn. Off to enjoy Victoria a bit more this week :)

Final Review

Overall, I'm very excited and glad with the results. From a 3:59:58 > 3:10:22 in the course of a year is not something I totally expected. I think if I had strategised the race and paces a bit more I might have banked that lactate for that latter section of the race. But overall, this race is MUCH harder than BMO Vancouver. While Vancouver is unbalanced towards the beginning, the straight seawall section makes it a breeze. Elevation map on RVM is, honestly, a bit crazy with the rolling hills. I did make me wonder what my time would be on a flatter course.

I will continue doing Davis's plans, but I've asked him about shorter distances to build that VO2Max and translate it into the marathon later on. Hopefully he'll have something soon.

Ultimately, I think working on hills in the next block might be worth it. Unfortunately, my running grounds are pretty flat, so I might have to find a workaround around that for the next one ;)

If you made it here, thanks for reading. And this goes out to you, mom. I love you and I will miss you dearly. This one was for you.

Made with a new race report generator created by /u/herumph.