A marathon is almost always a big task for anybody. There are of course some people who can run a really unstructured and inefficient plan, and still run marathon times most of us could only dream of, but they’re the exception to the rule, so there are only so many of their habits we should emulate.

 

Types of goals

We all know about A, B and C goals, plus the short-term, medium-term and long-term aspect, but these should all be focused around one “top level goal”.

A top level goal is THE most important thing you’re working on right now. As always, context is not to be overlooked, but if you’re working towards a marathon personal best, all goals should be related to that, with actions that are also aligned.

A, B, C goals are all related to performance in the top level goal.

Short, medium and long term goals all build to the top level goal, with the long term goal often being the same as the top level goal.

 

Goal examples

This is what my goals for early 2022 look like at the time of writing this blog, to give you an idea of how to set your own.

Top level goal – Run the London Marathon

A, B, C goals – run sub 2:30, sub 2:32, sub 2:34

The long-term goal is the same as my Top level goal, to run the London Marathon.

The medium-term goal for me is to run the 2021 Manchester marathon in under 2:36.

The short-term goal is to run 10 miles in under 56 minutes prior to starting my marathon training block in mid-July 2021, to help predict the times I want in the marathon.

 

Once you’ve started marathon training

If you’re already in your marathon training block, then every other goal you set is detracting away from your top level goal, or will be unhelpful as you won’t be able to fully test yourself. What do I mean by this? Here are some examples which ignore any positives since they’re minor.

 

Example 1 – Running a race (apart from a preparatory one 4-6 weeks prior to your marathon).

Why it’s unhelpful – This will require easier training runs if you’re to perform your best which will reduce the quality and quantity of your marathon training. You could just not taper, but then you’ll run slower than you could have which means the race is pretty much pointless anyway.

Example 2 – Strava segment hunting.

Why it’s unhelpful – it can be good fun, but unless it just happens to fall at the right time in what would be the ideally planned run, or is at least 1-2 miles long, it will again take away from your training benefit in all likelihood. That doesn’t mean never trying hard, but aiming to run faster than people over segments 400m-800m long means jack when your top level goal is running a faster marathon. 

 

Some room for compromise

Within your 12-16 week marathon training block my advice would be to not schedule in more than 1 race. This could be a half marathon 4-6 weeks out, or a shorter distance in the early weeks of training, with an extended cool down run to keep mileage to an adequate level. Pick one thing and stick with it. 

 

Yes it should be fun running and taking part with friends etc., but what’ll be more fun is reaching your goal on marathon day, rather than missing it and wondering if you could have done better if you’d just not raced as much.

Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk