The marathon starts to get difficult long before race day. It happens when a busy week disrupts your routine, when your legs feel flat after a long run, or when the pace you thought was comfortable suddenly is not. Good marathon training prepares you for those moments, not just for the distance printed on the race bib.
Whether you are aiming to finish your first 42.2 km, run a personal best, or simply arrive at the start line feeling capable, the plan has to fit your current fitness, timetable and recovery capacity. A programme copied from the internet may look convincing, but it cannot know how much you travel, how you sleep, what training history you have or how your body responds to load.
What marathon training needs to do
A marathon is an endurance event, but endurance is only one part of the job. You need the aerobic fitness to keep moving efficiently for several hours, muscular strength to maintain form when tired, a fuelling strategy your stomach accepts, and enough resilience to handle the training itself.
That is why simply adding more kilometres is rarely the answer. More running can help, but only when it is absorbed. If every session feels like a test, your easy runs become too hard, your quality sessions lose purpose and small aches become persistent problems.
The best plan is not the most punishing one. It is the one you can complete consistently for months. For some runners, that means four runs a week alongside strength work. For others, particularly experienced runners with time and a solid base, five or six runs may be appropriate. It depends on your background, goals and life outside training.
Start with an honest assessment
Before choosing paces or entering a race, look at where you are now. Can you run comfortably for 45 to 60 minutes? Have you been training regularly for at least several weeks? Are you returning from injury, carrying excess fatigue or trying to fit running around a demanding job and family commitments?
There is no prize for beginning at a level that is too advanced. Building from shorter, repeatable runs is far more effective than forcing a big week, missing the next two, then starting again. If you are new to structured running, your first target may be establishing a routine rather than chasing a finish time.
A recent 5 km, 10 km or half-marathon can help guide training paces, but it is not the whole picture. Hills, heat, sleep, stress and strength all affect what you can sustain. Use race results as useful information, not a label you need to live up to every session.
Build marathon training around the week you can repeat
A sensible training week usually includes easy running, one focused quality session, a long run and strength work. The exact days can move around your schedule. What matters is the relationship between the sessions: hard efforts need recovery, and long runs should not be squeezed in on exhausted legs every weekend.
Easy running builds the engine
Most of your running should feel genuinely manageable. You should be able to speak in full sentences and finish with the sense that you could have continued. This is where many runners lose discipline, because easy running can feel too slow compared with their target pace.
Yet these runs build aerobic capacity, improve efficiency and allow you to accumulate useful volume without constantly digging into recovery. Save the hard work for the sessions designed to be hard. If your easy pace changes from day to day because of fatigue, hills or Barcelona heat, that is normal. Effort matters more than forcing a number on your watch.
Quality sessions should have a clear purpose
A weekly faster session can develop threshold fitness, running economy and confidence at pace. This might involve steady tempo blocks, controlled intervals or sections run around marathon pace. It should challenge you, but it should not leave you wrecked for three days.
For a first marathon, controlled sustained running is often more valuable than repeated all-out efforts. You are preparing to hold a rhythm for a long time, not win a sprint workout. More experienced runners may benefit from more specific sessions, but even then, the goal is quality you can recover from.
The long run is practice, not punishment
Long runs teach your body and mind how to stay relaxed when the time on your feet builds. They also give you the chance to practise clothing, shoes, hydration and fuelling before the stakes are high.
Longer is not automatically better. A long run that takes too much out of you can compromise the following week and create a cycle of fatigue. The right distance depends on your running experience and overall weekly volume. For many runners, consistent long runs with a few carefully planned marathon-specific sections are more productive than trying to prove fitness through one huge effort.
Strength training keeps your form together
Running is repetitive. Strength work helps prepare your calves, hamstrings, glutes, hips and trunk to tolerate that repetition, particularly when fatigue changes your mechanics late in a race.
Two focused sessions a week can be enough. Squats or split squats, hinge patterns, calf raises, single-leg work, pulling and pushing movements all have a place. The aim is not to leave the gym unable to walk. It is to become stronger without interfering with key runs. As race day approaches, strength work normally becomes shorter and easier to maintain freshness.
Set a pace goal that respects the distance
A marathon pace should be based on evidence, not optimism. If your target requires every training run to feel difficult, it is probably too aggressive. Use your recent results, long-run performances and the ability to complete marathon-pace blocks under control to guide your expectations.
Course profile and conditions matter too. A flat, cool route supports a different plan from a hilly race or one likely to be warm. If you are travelling for an event, factor in sleep, unfamiliar food and the disruption of getting there. A small adjustment to your target can make race day much more enjoyable and often leads to a stronger finish.
It also helps to have more than one outcome in mind. You may have an ambitious time goal, a realistic target and a finish-focused plan for a difficult day. That is not negative thinking. It is smart preparation.
Fuel before you need it
The wall is not always a mysterious event. Often, it is the combined effect of starting too fast, under-fuelling, poor hydration and fatigue catching up at once. Your nutrition strategy should be trained just like your legs.
For long runs, practise taking in carbohydrate early and regularly rather than waiting until you feel empty. Test the gels, drinks or other products you intend to use, and find amounts your stomach tolerates at running effort. Do not make race day the first time you try a new gel because it was handed out at an expo.
Your everyday nutrition matters as well. Training hard while consistently under-eating makes recovery harder and increases the risk of low energy, poor sleep and injury. You do not need a perfect diet, but you do need enough carbohydrate to support running, enough protein to recover and regular meals that suit your routine.
Respect recovery and respond early to problems
Rest days are training days without running. Sleep, lighter movement, mobility and proper meals allow the fitness from your sessions to take hold. Ignoring recovery may feel disciplined for a week or two, but it is rarely sustainable.
Pay attention to changes rather than panicking over every minor ache. Stiffness that eases as you warm up can be common. Pain that alters your stride, worsens during a run or remains sharp afterwards needs a response. Reducing volume early, changing a session or taking a rest day is often the sensible move. Trying to run through it can turn a manageable issue into a long interruption.
Tapering deserves the same discipline. In the final weeks, running volume comes down while a little quality remains. You are not losing fitness by resting. You are giving your body the chance to arrive fresh enough to use the work you have already done.
Train with accountability, not guesswork
A tailored programme gives every run a role and adapts when work, travel or fatigue gets in the way. That is particularly useful if you are balancing marathon preparation with strength goals, body composition targets or a packed Barcelona schedule.
At AB Fitness, I build race preparation around the runner in front of me, whether we train outdoors, at home or remotely. I bring experience from marathons and Ironman events, but your plan should never be a copy of mine. It should be built around what will make you fitter, healthier and ready to race.
Race day is not the moment to find out how tough you are. It is the opportunity to show what consistent, well-paced training has made possible. Keep the next session achievable, complete it well, then return for the one after that.