Chapter 13 - Long Term Progression

Chaper 13

Long Term Progressions



Many people fail to reach their full potential as a marathon runner for a variety of reasons including family and job constraints, lack of commitment, lack of knowledge and failure to plan for the long term.

In this chapter, I want to talk about that last item: failure to plan for the long term, and how we can keep that from being a limiting factor in our development as a marathoner.

Asking yourself what your long term goals are for your running career is every bit if not more important as asking what your goal is for this training cycle. If the answer for you is to reach your maximum potential as a marathon (or half marathon) runner, which is the case for many advanced and elite runners, than it’s important for you to begin planning for the long term now and then figuring out how any each training cycle fits into that longer term vision.

Reaching your maximum potential as a marathon runner is something that can take years and years and maybe even decades and decades (depending on your age) to achieve. As such, long term planning is the key to our ultimate success.

Aerobic Development

Aerobic development is a major key to success in the world of marathon running and it takes many years of proper training to build our aerobic development to an elite level. So the sooner we can start the better off we are. I believe that one of the reasons why the east African’s do so well in the marathon and other distance races is that they have a pedestrian lifestyle from a very early age and many of them (particularly those in the Rift Valley) do this at substantial altitude; both are which are great for starting aerobic development at a young age.

Maximum Effectively Mileage

Mileage level is a key component in aerobic development and so it is one of the tangible ways we track our progression from training cycle to training cycle. As discussed in the first chapter, in the section on capacity, each runner has a maximum effective mileage that will be unique to them and in most cases take years to reach. Reaching our maximum effective mileage level needs to be done in balance with the other tenets (consistency, frequency and mixture) in order to be most effective. In order to maintain this balance we have to slowly and incrementally work our way toward our maximum one cycle at a time over the long term.

Using Training Cycles As Building Blocks

Within the framework of the MPR training philosophy, training cycles will be progressive in nature until the maximum effective mileage level for the individual is reached. Because of this we can look at training cycles as building blocks built one upon another.

For example, if we have a promising young marathon runner fresh out of college who currently averages 80 miles per week, it may well take numerous years for that runner to reach his/her maximum effective mileage if that mileage level is ultimately 120 miles per week. If we envision that this runner has 2 training cycles per year (common for a marathoner) then his/her progression may look like this:

Year 1 – Cycle 1: Fundamental Phase - 80-85 miles per week; Specific Phase – 85-90 miles per week
Year 1 – Cycle 2: Fundamental Phase - 85-90 miles per week; Specific Phase – 90-95 miles per week
Year 2 – Cycle 1: Fundamental Phase - 90-95 miles per week; Specific Phase – 95-100 miles per week
Year 2 – Cycle 2: Fundamental Phase - 95-100 miles per week; Specific Phase – 100-105 miles per week
Year 3 – Cycle 1: Fundamental Phase - 100-105 miles per week; Specific Phase – 105-110 miles per week
Year 3 – Cycle 2: Fundamental Phase – 105-110 miles per week; Specific Phase – 110-115 miles per week
Year 4 – Cycle 1: Fundamental Phase – 110-115 miles per week; Specific Phase – 115-120 miles per week
Year 4 – Cycle 2: Fundamental Phase – 115-120 miles per week; Specific Phase – 120-125 miles per week

As we see in this example it took a full 4 years for this marathoner to approach his/her maximum effective mileage, even after starting out at 80 miles per week after their collegiate career. This progression very closely mirrors the progression Olympic Bronze medalist and American Record holder Deana Kastor underwent under the tutelage of Coach Joe Vigil. She finished college running about 80 miles per week and slowly and incrementally added about 10 miles per year until she reached about 130 miles per week by the 2004 Olympics. During those years of building she got stronger and stronger as her aerobic development improved and her race times at distances from 5k to the marathon got faster and faster. Coach Vigil, being the mastermind that he is, didn’t rush her progression at the expense of the other key tenets of training, but rather slowly and incrementally increased her mileage a little at a time from training cycle to training cycle and the results were undeniable as she held every American record from the 8k to the marathon at one point.

The athlete can be extremely successful along the way in this progression because all 4 tenets of training are kept in balance, and yet their full potential will not be realized at least until their maximum effective mileage is reached. Such was the case for Deena when she ran her 2:19 American record for the marathon, while winning back to back major marathons, a few years later after she had reached her maximum effective mileage.

Progress Beyond When We Reach Our Maximum Effective Mileage

Once the runner has progressed to their maximum effective mileage in a balanced and incremental approach, further improvements may still be possible. These improvements can be made due to shear time at maximum effective mileage, and through shoring up areas of weakness and exploiting areas of strength.

It is at this point, that tweaks within the training cycles themselves can be the most key to obtaining maximum performance. We may find a more effective in-race fueling strategy, a better nutritional plan during our training, or sequence our stress workouts in a new and more effective manner. While we will surely be fine tuning all these things each cycle during our climb to our maximum effective mileage, this process will continue throughout our career and so the potential for further improvement always exists.

Big Picture

In the MPR philosophy we keep the big picture in mind when designing the current training cycle. While we want to maximize our results in this current cycle, it needs to be done in a way that continues to keep us track for reaching our longer term goals as well.  In this way our long term progression looks like a staircase with each cycle building off the previous ones.