Many runners dream of running a Personal Record, a Sub 5 Hour Marathon, Sub 4, Sub 3 or Boston Qualifier.
Many athletes don’t know how to structure their training in a way that works for their specific lifestyle.
So many runners have been stuck in training without progress, they often experiencing injuries that set them back.
Some have heard of low heart rate training, but might not know how to integrate this the right way in their training plan for race day.
I improved my marathon time from 4 hours 11 minutes to a 2 hours 44 minutes at the Boston Marathon.
My first race was a horrible experience and I hit the wall around mile 18 (29km). In hindsight, I didn’t train right, many of my runs were at high intensity and I often felt drained after every workout. My nutrition was all over the place and I had no strategy for race day, starting out way too fast.
Once I discovered Dr. Phil Maffetone, MAF low heart rate training and cutting out sugars and refined carbs, I started seeing fast improvements.
Things I noticed:
• I started enjoying all my runs, looking forward to the next
• I felt like I could continue running – a feeling I had never experienced before
• Stayed running injury free. Fast recovery after my runs, even at higher training volume
• My paces were getting faster at the same effort level, almost every month
• It was such a great feeling to run at a pretty fast pace and feeling relaxed and in control
• My body felt in sync, I have never felt better, the planets all aligned
• I lost a significant amount of weight and felt great
• In the next race I felt much stronger and suffered much less
• I ran a PR of 76 minutes, improving from 4:11 down to 2:55 on my next marathon
For the past 8 years I’ve written about running and made videos about it, with a million views on my channels so far. It brings me a lot of joy to read success stories from runners all around the world.
I am often asked if I can coach runners to reach their marathon goals.
Instead of one-on-one coaching, I have developed an extensive video course that provides more info and value than I could with one-on-one coaching, called the Marathon PR Program.
This is a holistic approach to marathon training, running smarter, not harder. It focuses on the 5 following elements for optimal performance:
Why many marathon runners fail
Yes you can training smarter, not harder
Low heart rate training in detail
How much should you train to reach your goals?
Mapping out your specific training plan
How to fit speedwork into your training schedule
HR Training on hot and humid days
My 3 race strategies to run a personal best
Mindsets every high performing athlete has
My biggest running wins and losses
The psychology behind patience in training
My grocery list. Shop healthy and you will eat healthy
3 of my weekly go-to-meals
Integrating fasted runs in your training
Race day preparations
What strong finishers have in common
Calculating your HR training zones the right way
Ways to improve your sleep
The running watch settings you need to know
How to hold a specific marathon pace longer
How to avoid hitting the wall in a marathon
What HR and pace should you race at?
Strength, mobility and cross training
My favorite workout drills
Dialing in your race day nutrition
Sub 3 Hour Marathon Schedule
Sub 3:30 Hour Marathon Schedule
Sub 4 Hour Marathon Schedule
Sub 5 Hour Marathon Schedule
Finishing Your Marathon Schedule
That is an insane value!
More topics from this course:• Heart rate & pacing strategies to run a strong race
• What to do when you’re not progressing in training
• Getting the most out of your GPS running watch
• Measuring progress in your training in 3 ways
• How to handle setbacks in training
• How to build health for life
• Increase your chances to recover well
• Measuring progress, stress and fatigue levels
• How to change your nutrition and stick with it
• Structuring your training right
• Base building, volume in time vs miles
• Why it’s OK to skip a training day
• Avoiding injuries
• Mobility & Strength Training
• High performers mindsets for training and racing
• Marathon race day preparation
• Pre-race strategies
• Race strategies and execution
• Post-race strategies for a healthy recovery
• Training schedule for Goal: “Finish a marathon”
• Training schedule for Goal: “Sub 5 Hour marathon”
• Training schedule for Goal: “Sub 4 Hour marathon”
• Training schedule for Goal: “Sub 3:30 Hour marathon”
• Training schedule for Goal: “Sub 3 Hour marathon”
Plus there are many more additional topics and ideas shared throughout this course.
We have created a new Facebook Private Community + Strava Private Community for Marathon PR Course members only. There is a ton of value in sharing experiences with serious athletes looking to improve with the same tools. This is a great group of runners from all over the world, ready to support each other on their running journeys.
Right away! All course videos and training schedules are available right after purchase plus you can immediately request access to the Marathon PB Facebook Group + Strava group.
The program will include a flexible base building period of 3 months, depending on progress can be longer. After the aerobic base building period has been completed, there are 5 training schedules of 16 weeks with the goals Sub 5 hour marathon, Sub 4, Sub 3:30, Sub 3 and Finish marathon. These are editable worksheets, so I’ll provide the template, then athletes can move the workouts around and adjust frequency and duration based on available time to train, stress levels, fitness levels and fatigue levels. Workouts are mostly in time (minutes), not distance (miles / km).
To get the most out of this program, we highly recommend that you own or buy a GPS running watch and heart rate monitor since several of the videos refer to heart rate training.
I’ve tried my best to include both imperial and metric measuring systems for measurements, so paces and distances are described most of the time in miles and kilometers.
This course is focused on a holistic approach to marathon training and racing. Not just looking at the running component, but also teaching you to fully understand the other components of nutrition, lowering stress, having the right mindset and the best race day strategies. This course is focused on running most workouts at a low heart rate, with some added higher intensity workouts, drills, cross-training and strength training integrated.
Many traditional marathon coaching programs prescribe certain paces for each run. The workouts during this program are more flexible and customizable to day to day life stress, current fitness and health profiles, available time to train. No need to kill yourself in training with many high-intensity workouts to reach your goal. This video course teaches you a more enjoyable approach with a very high success rate of thousands of athletes with success around the world.
I fully agree that each athlete should learn to listen to their body and adjust training plans accordingly to stress levels and life circumstances. I do however see that many athletes can experience from specific training plan templates that can be modified to fit in their specific situation, based on available time, stress levels, race goals, fitness levels, etc. Combining this with the right mindset and clear race strategies based on HR and pace, and you have a strong formula for success.
This program includes the base building phase of 3 months (that can be adjusted based) plus the main 16-week training cycle. The two goals here are to improve aerobically and peak at the right time before your specific goal. Remember, it’s a long game strategy. When you’re able to think further ahead with both a base building.
I fully believe every training schedule should be personalized to your race goals, fitness background, available time to train and life circumstances.
I will be providing the tools and templates for training schedules for:
• Finish marathon goal
• Sub 5 hour marathon goal
• Sub 4 hour marathon goal
• 3:30 marathon goal
• Sub 3 hour marathon goal
I often hear things like “I want to run Sub 3 but I am nervous about losing speed by running at lower HR. I need clarification of exact speed workout details.”
For all 5 marathon goals, I will be providing speed workout details for the different stages of training and fitness levels.
To be honest, no. Running a Personal Best in a marathon requires some luck with things lining up for you and race day weather conditions. But I believe we all play with the cards we’re dealt, and with the right training framework and racing strategies, we can give ourselves every advantage to increase chances to reach our goals.
Every training cycle and race teaches us something new. Even if we don’t reach our race goal first try, it will help us grow as a stronger, healthier, happier athlete. When you have an open mind, train consistent and patiently, this course can absolutely help improve your chances to reach your goals.
I have created a lot of content already and it’s great to read a lot of positive feedback and PR stories from around the world.
There are a lot of great materials in this course and I want to make sure this program is really working for you. From the moment of purchasing this Marathon PR Program, I want to give you 60 days to let it sink in and start using the training materials on your runs and in your daily life. Try the entire course. If you don’t love it, I insist that you get 100% of your money back. So you can join the program and try it for yourself. If the exercises, strategies and mindsets don’t help improve your training and overall health within 60 days, I want you to email me. Show me you did the exercises, and I’ll give you all your money back.
We have a lot of confidence in the quality of this training program.
You have absolutely nothing to lose here, and have everything to gain!
When I qualified for the Boston Marathon, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to run the best race given my life circumstances and really enjoy the race.
Many runners had explained to my the high energy at this race and how spectacular this race really is.
The days leading up to this race, the weather started looking worse and worse, with a 30 miles (48km) per hour headwind.
The day of the race, the weather was indeed very challenging and many athletes around me were complaining, in a negative mindset, saying how much slower this race was going to be.
Because I had trained very well, both physically and mentally, I felt calm and in control. I had my race plan based on heart rate and feel, and planned to run the best I could given the challenging race conditions.
While others started out fast, I held back at the beginning of the race, running at a controlled effort level, knowing I needed to save my energy for the last stages of the race.
The wind and rain was very strong, my focus was on preserving energy, so we ran in small groups, drifting on each other.
Heartbreak Hill at mile 20 (32km) is a famous hill where a lot of runners get in trouble and hit the wall. I ran up the hill very comfortable, when my HR would go to high, I’d slow down in line with my plan. Many runners were walking, unable to keep up their fast pace. I ran to the top of the hill and said to a runner next to me, “Was that it? Was that the hill every runner has been fearing?”
I couldn’t believe how good I felt, even with these poor race conditions, I had to work for it, but was enjoying every step of the course. Mile 25 (40.2km) came around, the million+ spectators and bands were so loud. This in return gave me even more energy. I started getting emotional, what an amazing race I was running.
The finish line came in sight. I picked up the pace and wanted to give it one last push as I passed runners left and right.
When I crossed the finish line, I saw my race time, 2:44:15. A personal record/best by 9 minutes, even in the most challenging conditions. It was an amazing race experience!
If you have any questions about the course, please email us:
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