Modern marathon training principles and preparation with running coach John Davis

Running your best marathon is about more than just logging miles. In this episode, I’m joined by running coach and author John Davis to dive deep into the periodisation, workouts, and science of marathon preparation and running performance. You can expect plenty of actionable takeaways whether you’re targeting your first marathon, chasing a Boston qualifier, or even thinking about bringing some marathon training principles to your triathlon training.

HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS: 

• John's five principles for marathon training success
• How to use periodisation for optimal marathon results (and what it means for your training)
• Creating your marathon training plan: structuring weeks, mileage, long runs, and key workouts
• How to build the right base before shifting toward marathon specificity
• When and how to integrate marathon-specific intensity into your training
• Practical guidelines for setting and adjusting marathon race pace
• Taper tactics: why less isn’t always more for marathoners
• Canova inspired special blocks and double threshold training
• Listener questions

DETAILED EPISODE SHOWNOTES: 

• We have detailed shownotes for all of our episodes. The shownotes are basically the podcast episode in written form, that you can read in 5-10 minutes. They are not transcriptions, but they are also not just surface-level overviews. They provide detailed insights and timestamps for each episode, and are great especially for later review, after you've already listened to an episode. Naturally, as great as they are, they do not cover absolutely everything in as great detail as we can do in a 45-90 minute podcast episode.  
• The shownotes for today's episode can be found at www.scientifictriathlon.com/tts472/

LINKS AND RESOURCES: 

• Marathon Excellence for Everyone - John's brand new book
• Running Writings - John's website
• All of John's calculators

WHAT SHOULD I LISTEN TO NEXT?

If you enjoyed this episode, I think you'll love the following episodes: 

• John Davis – Coaching, physiology, and running calculators | EP#464 - John's previous appearance on That Triathlon Show, with more general running topics (less marathon-centric), and a special focus on some of the sceince and physiology of running, as well as John's excellent tools and calculators
• Q&A on run training (part 1) | EP#385 - listener questions, and answers from Scientific Triathlon coaches Mikael Eriksson and James Teagle
• Q&A on run training (part 2) | EP#388 - listener questions, and answers from Scientific Triathlon coaches Mikael Eriksson and David Dhooge
• Michele Zanini (part 2) | EP#394 - a deep-dive into Renato Canova's training methods, from somebody who spent a lot of time working together with Canova
• David Roche – The training and racing strategy behind his epic Leadville 100 course record | EP#444 - inspiring episode about ultra-running, with lots of interesting thought experiments for any endurance athlete

You can find our full episode archives here, where you can filter for categories such as Training, Racing, Science & Physiology, Swimming, Cycling, Running etc.

You can also find separate archives for specific series of episodes I've done, specifically Q&A episodes, TTS Thursday episodes, and Beginner Tips episodes. 

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