Running Plan Review Hal Higdon Marathon: Novice 2

Does it build you up smartly?

A marathon build usually changes character as it goes: a stretch of mostly easy running to lay the base, then harder work, then running shaped like the race, then a taper. Shifting the emphasis from block to block like this produces better race results than holding one kind of training steady.

Higdon gets the arc of the long build right. The long run grows steadily and steps back every few weeks, so a big weekend is followed by a shorter one. The pace runs lengthen, then shrink as the long runs peak, and the last 3 weeks taper down. For a runner on a second marathon cycle, that arc is easy to trust.

But Novice 2 never changes gear. There's no base stretch to settle into: on day 3 of week 1, before you've found the rhythm of the schedule, you run 5 miles at goal marathon pace. And the Wednesday run in week 16 asks the same thing of you as the one in week 1, only over a different distance.

The grid also leaves each session bare, but that's a choice with a cost. A pace day gives you a distance and the word for goal pace, with no warm-up, no cool-down and no line on what the run is for. Higdon keeps the page spare by design, so a newer marathoner has one new thing to learn. But the reasons live in the book, and on the morning of the run, all you have is the distance.

Does it protect you from injury?

Partly. The shape of each week protects you, but the build has a sharp jump in it, and some of what keeps runners healthy is missing from the schedule.

What it gets right: the Wednesday pace run never sits next to the Saturday long run, and the long run steps back to a shorter one every few weeks. The book also covers injury in depth, with one chapter on warning signs and overtraining and another on pool running to keep your fitness while you heal.

But weeks 7 and 8 load you fast. In week 7, the long run goes from 9 miles to 14, the pace run grows and the easy runs get longer: more than a third more running than week 6. The next weekend brings a 15-mile long run, and the one after that a half marathon, run as a race. Sharp jumps in weekly running raise injury risk, and many injuries that look like slow wear actually start suddenly, set off by the week before. For a runner coming off a first marathon, this is the stretch where an ache turns up after a long run and is still there on Tuesday. Take it seriously: a niggle that lingers appears to raise the risk of an injury that stops you running. Week 15, with the 20-miler, is the second place to listen closely.

But strength never appears on the schedule. The book offers general guidance and lets first-time marathoners skip it, so when to do it and what to include are up to you. That's a real gap, because strength training substantially lowers the risk of injury in sport. The pace runs share the same blind spot on a smaller scale. The book covers warming up, but no warm-up is written into any of them, so it's easy to start Wednesday cold.

What happens when you miss a day?

Higdon's rule for missed runs fits in one line: miss one day if you have to, but never two in a row. With Monday and Friday already off, there's room to move a run, and the book lets you swap days. It also names the long run as the one to protect when a week gets crowded.

But that's where the guidance on missed training stops. The book covers adjusting around an injury, but a missed week, or a longer break for illness, comes with no return plan: nothing on whether to repeat the week, carry on, or ease back in, and no table for returning after time off. Fitting the schedule back together after a missed week is yours to work out.

Effort has a similar gap. Easy runs go by feel, at a pace you could talk through, which is simple and forgiving. But the Wednesday pace is a single target you set before week 1, and nothing on the schedule updates it. If you get fitter, or the goal turns out to be too ambitious, the grid doesn't know. The book tells you to check your goal against the half marathon in week 9, and to set pace from a short race. But the grid itself never changes, so any new pace you take from that result is yours to carry through the remaining weeks.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Yes, for most runners. Readiness is the plan's strongest area.

The long run carries most of it. Long runs that build week by week are essential for the marathon, and shorter, harder sessions can't replace them. Here the Saturday run climbs to 20 miles in week 15, three weeks out, so you reach race day having already spent a morning on your feet for most of the distance. Then the running steps down over 3 weeks, and a taper like this improves race performance compared with holding training steady, so you start the race with fresh legs.

The Wednesday runs keep race effort familiar right up to week 16. By the taper, goal pace is something your body knows, not a number you're hoping to find on the day.

But the Wednesdays do less for your fitness than their place on the schedule suggests. For recreational runners, marathon pace usually sits below lactate threshold, and race-pace training earns its benefit mainly when race pace lands near a threshold. In coaching terms, that makes these runs mostly practice at holding a rhythm. Outside the week-9 half marathon, nothing in training runs faster than goal pace, so the threshold work that would lift the pace you can hold is missing.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Somewhat. The easy running is right, but the harder running comes in one form only.

Easy running makes up most of a runner's weekly mileage, and it forms the base that carries harder training. Around three quarters of this plan's running is easy, and the week has a clear shape: easy Tuesday and Thursday, the long run Saturday, an hour of cross-training Sunday.

But apart from the half marathon in week 9, every harder session is the Wednesday pace run, a steady effort between easy and hard. Mixing easy running with clearly hard intervals builds endurance better than long stretches of steady, moderately hard running, and there are no intervals, hills or strides on this schedule. Strides would cost almost nothing: a handful of short, relaxed pickups at the end of Tuesday's run. Short, fast efforts like these make distance runners more efficient. The book suggests them as part of a warm-up, but they never make it onto the grid.

Eleven Wednesdays of one session is a long run of sameness. If you like a fixed reference point, it lets you feel goal pace settle in over the weeks. If you need variety to stay interested, it will wear thin by the second half.