Many runners dream of running a Sub 3 Hour Marathon, a Boston Qualifier, a Sub 4 Hour Marathon or a Personal Record.

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.

Running a personal record/best in a marathon requires some luck with race day weather conditions. I believe we all play with the cards we’re dealt, and with the right framework and strategies, we can give ourselves every advantages to increase chances to reach our goals.

Hi, I’m Floris Gierman, founder of the Extramilest website, Youtube and podcast.

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 6 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, for example:

Which toxic beliefs are holding you back?

The vast majority of people will never achieve their full athletic potential. They can’t because they’re blocked by one or more of the following toxic beliefs. We learn them from our friends, family and the media.

Sometimes these beliefs are true, but most of the time they aren’t. Most people don’t know the difference and accept the beliefs without a second thought. Most people believe at least some of these toxic beliefs:

Toxic belief #1: “No pain no gain”

A common mindset is that in order to become faster, you have to train hard and do it often. The more you suffer in training, the faster you become.

Nothing could be further away from the truth. The amount of injuries and burn outs in athletes is extremely low.

There is a time and place for some higher intensity workouts, however many athletes are running their best times by training mostly at low intensity.

Patience, consistency and enjoying the process are very important elements in this journey to become a faster runner.

Toxic belief #2: “I can never maintain X pace for 26.2 miles / 42.2” 

Many athlete can not even imagine holding a specific fast pace for a long run.

For example a 9:09 min / mile (5:41 min / km) for a Sub 4 Hour Marathon Goal or a 6:52 min / mile (4:16 min / km) for a Sub 3 Goal.

When you improve your aerobic system and you are able to run faster at the same effort levels, you can learn to race at a comfortable lower heart rate.

I will never forget the feeling of running my first Sub 3 Hour marathon and at mile 20 (32km) I ran very comfortable and controlled at a consistent 6:45 min / mile (4:09 min / km), while runners left and right where hitting the wall and walking.

Toxic belief #3: “Running is bad for you and causes injuries”

Many non-runners or injured runners might share this belief. If you step back and look why these injuries happened, it can often be traced back to several things, such as weak muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones, running at an intensity and pace that is too high for the runner’s current fitness level, bad nutrition and poor fat burning, bad running form, ramping up training volume too fast, inconsistent training, high stress levels, etc.

Toxic belief #4: “Carb load with pasta / pizza before a race”

A common mindset in endurance sports is that eating more carbs increases energy and glycogen stores. Although it’s true, we can only take in a limited amount of it, while fat stores are pretty much unlimited as energy source.

Most carb foods consumed are unhealthy, which negatively impacts your metabolism. Making a switch to healthy carbs instead of refined carbs, will help improve your fat burning abilities.

Toxic belief #5: “I am too old to run a Marathon or PR”

Many runners in their forties, fifties, sixties and beyond are using age as a reason not to run a marathon or go for another PR attempt.

I have come across runners of all ages, who are running their best marathon times with a training approach that works well for them. With lowering intensity of most of their runs, which allows for faster recovery and lower risk of injuries. Combine this with the right approach to nutrition, lowering stress, right mindset and clear race strategies and you will be amazed to find out what your body is capable of accomplishing at any age!

THE TRUTH: there are ways to structure your training to enjoy your workout, to lower the training intensity for most of your training runs with some higher intensity specific workouts, and to have a race strategy in mind to run your best race.

In the past 12 years I’ve ran many marathons and ultra marathons, along the way I have made about every mistake in the books. I’ve also surrounded myself with the brightest minds in health and fitness to learn from the best.

After I identified hundreds of secrets, rules, and mental frameworks that the highest performers use every day – guidelines that most people never even consider – I tested each one exhaustively. Again and again, I was amazed to discover that even the smallest shifts in mindset can have massive impacts on your life. Slowly, I turned 25 of my journals and notebooks into a short list of the most essential frameworks.

I am often asked if I can coach runners to reach their marathon goals.

Instead of 1 on 1 coaching, I have developed an extensive video course that provides more info and value than I could with 1 on 1 coaching.

This is a holistic approach to marathon training, running smarter, not harder. It focuses on the 5 following elements for optimal performance:

Introducing…

THE MARATHON PERSONAL RECORD PROGRAM

Unlock your athletic potential and become a stronger, healthier and happier athlete.

The Marathon PR Program is an online course that gives you the tools you need to finally achieve your training and racing goals. Crack the mental and physical blocks that have been holding you back and replace them with proven, powerful frameworks that I use every day.

• This is specific — we include exact concepts, examples, and training schedules you can use right now.
• This is rapid — a 30-day course with new material that you can apply instantly. Take it at your own pace and revisit it whenever you want.
• And this is practical — if you’ve already tried the many random hacks and “trying harder” and you want to focus on what truly works, the Marathon PB program gives you the precise, actionable steps to build the right structure and inner mindsets into your everyday life.

In the course, you’ll learn…

Here is a sample of additional materials and insights packed into this course:

• High performers mindsets for training and racing
• How to handle setbacks in training
• HR & pacing strategies to run a strong race
• Measuring progress in your training in 3 ways
• What to do when you’re not progressing 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
• Getting the most out of your GPS running watch
• 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 4 Hour marathon”
• Training schedule for Goal: “Sub 3:30 Hour marathon”
• Training schedule for Goal: “Sub 3 Hour marathon”

And that’s a sample of the insights packed into this course.

Marathon PR Community

We are creating a new Facebook 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.

The Marathon PR Program is for you if…

• You’re open to admitting that the way you’ve acted in the past may need to change if you want to achieve higher levels of performance, health and happiness
• You want to stop blindly trying the latest “schemes” for improving your performance
• You’re focused on the long term and you are willing to be patient with the process. You understand there will always be ups and downs, but that you can make HUGE gains by training and racing smarter
• You’ve tried the “conventional advice” about running, nutrition and health, and they haven’t worked

You’ve gotten as far as you can on your own, but you know “what got you here won’t get you there” — and you’re open to getting an extra push to cross the bridge to success

FAQ

“When will this course launch?”

The pre-sale of this course has started. The course will launch August 1, 2019. All videos + the Marathon PB Facebook group will be available on this date. The bonus item of the Free Running Hat will ship by August 3rd from California. The coaching call can be scheduled between August 15, 2019 and April 1, 2020. 

“How can a course with videos offer me a training plan that is really customized and individualized?

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 4 training schedules of 16 weeks with the goals Sub 3, Sub 3:30, Sub 4, 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).

“Do I need to own any equipment?”

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.

“What if I fall behind?”

Don’t worry about falling behind — each video is distilled down to just the “bite-sized” essentials and includes specific examples so you can spend your time taking action instead of reviewing tons of content. Wealth Triggers also comes with lifetime access so you can take a break from the material if you’ll be out of town, on vacation, or just get swamped for a few days. You’ll have this resource for life. It will always be there when you’re ready.

“How long will this course take?”

The video can be watched on your own pace. There are 25 videos available, with different worksheets and training schedules. 30 days is a good estimate to work through the course materials and starting to apply the principles.

“What measuring system is used, metric or imperial?”

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.

“How is this course different than other video courses or traditional marathon coaching?”

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.

“Dr. Maffetone doesn’t offer training plans, because each athlete individual. How can you offer this?”

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.

“How long are the training schedules?”

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 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 4 marathon goals, I will be providing speed workout details for the different stages of training and fitness levels.

“Will every athlete succeed and reach their marathon goals?”

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 advantages 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.

For those looking for additional guidance, I’m convinced this video course can provide you with a lot of tools to increase your chances to reach your goals.