Running Plan Review Greg McMillan Marathon: Advanced (Combo)

Does it build you up smartly?

Twelve weeks leaves no room for a long, easy base, so the order of the hard work has to carry the build. Training that shifts its emphasis from block to block produces better race results than training at one constant load, and lighter weeks every so often let fatigue clear so the body absorbs the work.

McMillan gets the order right. The plan opens with short, fast repeats and threshold work, moves goal pace into the middle weeks, and saves the longest goal-pace runs and the longest Sundays for weeks 7 to 9, before 3 weeks of stepping down. The build breathes, too. Bigger and smaller weeks take turns all the way through, so you're rarely more than a week from an easier one.

But the schedule tells you what to run and never why. A progression run of 80 to 90 minutes, with the last 20 to 30 fast, appears with nothing about what that fast stretch builds. The reasons live in the book's chapters, not on the schedule. And because the stages carry no names, nothing on the page tells you that week 4 is where the plan turns toward race pace. Runners who read those chapters first will follow the logic week by week. Runners who open the schedule each morning and just run it will be doing good training without knowing what it's for.

Does it protect you from injury?

Mostly, but two jobs fall to you: strength, and getting through week 9 in one piece.

Big mileage on its own isn't the danger. Runners who build to high weekly mileage gradually tend to get hurt less, not more. The risk comes from a sharp jump above what you've been running.

Week 9 stays short of the jump the research warns about, but it's the plan's biggest rise from one week to the next: about 30 percent more running than week 8, packed into 3 big days: 90 to 105 minutes of steady running on Tuesday, 10 to 13 miles at goal pace on Thursday, and the longest run of the plan on Sunday. Week 8 was lighter, so against the month before it, the step is smaller than it looks. But it's still the week to arrive at healthy, and the week to back off if anything aches. Week 3 has a smaller version of the same problem, but it's easier to miss: the first threshold repeats arrive in a bigger week, alongside the longest run so far.

The plan also assumes you're already at its starting load. Week 1 opens above 60 miles with a 14 to 20 mile long run, so it suits only runners who are already near that.

Strength is the other job. The book has a sample routine and sends you to McMillan's website for the full program, but the calendar never gives it a day, so finding room around 3 demanding days a week is left to you. That's a real gap, because strength work substantially lowers injury risk in sport. Warm-ups are similar. The book describes them, but the workout days don't print one.

The rest of the protection is good. Hard days never fall back to back, and lighter weeks come often. The book also gives a whole chapter to warning signs and what to do about them, and another to recovery. Read the first one before week 1, so you know a small ache that hangs around between runs for what it is.

What happens when you miss a day?

Twelve weeks leaves little slack. Lose a week in the middle and there's no spare week later to give it back, so the useful question is which runs to save.

Here the plan doesn't help enough. The schedule never ranks the week's runs, so in a short week the choice of what to drop is yours. And there's no rule for a missed week: whether to repeat it, skip it, or pick up where the calendar says. Most experienced runners would guess the long run and the Thursday session matter most, and they'd usually be right. But the book leaves that implied rather than saying it.

Day to day, the plan bends well. Nearly every run is a range, which hands you a small decision every day. The book tells you to take the low end when you're tired, and to skip or move a key workout on a bad day. Friday is always yours to run, cross-train or rest. Effort guides the training more than the watch does: McMillan uses four training zones adapted from his mentor, the physiologist David Martin, and the book asks you to judge each day which runner showed up before deciding how hard to go.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Yes. If you came wondering whether the last 6 miles will feel different, the long runs, the threshold work and the taper are what this plan builds for that, and they're its strongest parts.

Long runs that grow over the build are essential for the marathon, and shorter, harder sessions can't stand in for them. Here the Sunday run grows from 14 to 20 miles in week 1 to 22 to 28 miles in week 9, three weeks out. At the top of that range, it runs past the marathon distance. Most runners will land somewhere in the middle, and that's still enough that the last miles on race day won't be new ground.

The plan also carries two kinds of race work. For most runners, marathon pace sits below threshold, and gains at threshold come from training at that pace. So goal-pace runs that reach 10 to 13 miles teach race rhythm, while the threshold repeats and tempo runs work on the ceiling above it. Three Sundays also offer a 10K to half marathon race in place of the long run. Tune-up races don't reliably improve marathon times, but McMillan uses the result to re-check your goal, so your paces can keep up with your fitness. The last 3 weeks step down, with race week cut hard, and a taper of 1 to 3 weeks improves race performance over training straight through to the start.

But the peak is big. Week 9 comes close to 80 miles, a lot of running even for an advanced runner, and only the ranges can make it smaller. If you aren't already comfortable near 60 miles a week, take the low end in weeks 7 and 9.

But the race work doesn't build steadily toward the race either. It comes in waves, heavy one week and lighter the next. A runner who wants each week's race practice to feel a step closer to race day won't find that rhythm here.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Yes. Few weeks look like the one before.

About 84 percent of the running is easy, and the hard days change almost every week: repeats of 400 and 800 meters, repeats of 1000 meters and a mile at a hard but controlled effort, surges of 1 and 2 minutes inside a longer run, tempo runs, progression runs that finish fast, a long steady run, and goal-pace runs of up to 13 miles. Weeks 5 and 8 bring a set of 10 to 12 half-mile repeats that many runners use to predict their marathon. That mix is well supported: easy running paired with clearly hard sessions builds endurance better than steady, medium-hard running, and the easy miles are the base that lets your body absorb the hard ones.

Even the long run changes shape. On the biggest Sundays you choose how to run it: steady, with surges, or switching between paces. Some Sundays finish at goal pace, and one runs in thirds, from easy to steady to goal pace. Strides show up in weeks 4 and 8 and in race week, short relaxed bursts that keep your legs quick while the mileage drops.