Running Plan Review Greg McMillan Marathon: Advanced (Speedster)

Does it build you up smartly?

McMillan's order suits a Speedster: speed first, goal pace later. The first 3 weeks open with the work you already like, fast 400- and 800-meter repeats and short surges. From week 4, the hard days shift toward marathon goal pace, building to a run of 10 to 13 miles at goal pace in week 9. Training that moves through blocks like this beats training that holds one load throughout, and here the blocks carry you from your strength toward your weakness.

The rhythm is sound too. After the first 3 weeks, every other week is lighter, so each big week is followed by a break. Those lighter weeks are when recent work turns into fitness, and the plan never makes you wait long for one.

But there's no easy-running block at the start. Week 1 opens with 14 to 16 fast 400-meter repeats, a long run of 14 to 20 miles, and about 60 miles in all. A 12-week plan has no room to build a base, so you have to arrive with one.

The schedule also tells you what to run, not why. A Tuesday session is listed as a 70- to 90-minute run with the last 15 to 25 minutes fast, and nothing says what it's for. The book explains each kind of workout in its own chapter, and once you've read it, the order makes sense. On the day, you're working from memory.

Does it protect you from injury?

Fairly well, but with 2 gaps you'll need to close yourself.

The first is strength. The book gives you a sample routine and sends you online for the full program, but no strength session appears anywhere in the 12 weeks. On a plan that climbs into the high 70s in weeks 7 and 9, that's a real omission, because regular strength work substantially lowers injury risk in sport. About two sessions a week, on non-consecutive days, is enough for most runners to get the performance benefit. Slotting them onto easy days away from Thursday is up to you.

The second is week 9, where three big days stack up. Tuesday is 80 to 100 minutes at a steady effort, Thursday is the longest stretch at goal pace so far, and Sunday is 20 to 26 miles. A big new session lands most safely in a lighter week, but this one arrives in one of the biggest weeks of the plan. For a Speedster, Thursday is the risky one. Goal pace will feel comfortable at first, and holding it, without drifting faster, for 10 miles or more takes more discipline than a set of 800s.

Beyond those gaps and the missing warm-ups, the load is well controlled. No week jumps far above the month before it, and that matters, because sharp spikes in weekly running are a common trigger for injury. The hard days never fall back to back.

The book also has a chapter on the warning signs of overdoing it, and another on recovery. Use them. Injuries tend to build along a sliding scale, from full health through small aches to a problem that stops you running, and a lingering ache often comes before the bigger one. On a 12-week plan, losing two weeks to an injury costs far more than skipping one workout.

What happens when you miss a day?

Not much. This is the plan's weakest area.

Say you miss Thursday in week 9, the 10 to 13 miles at goal pace. Do you move it to Friday, two days before 20 to 26 miles? Drop it? Fold some goal pace into Sunday instead? The schedule doesn't rank the week's sessions, so it can't tell you which one to protect, and it has no rule for a missed week. Those calls are yours.

But the plan does give you room inside a week. The book tells you to take the low end of a run when you're tired. Friday is always optional, and so is Monday in a few of the lighter weeks. On a bad day, the book lets you skip a key workout or move it. And it teaches you to start each day by asking which runner showed up today, then training that runner rather than the one on paper.

For a Speedster, that question matters most on the workout days you enjoy. Showing up tired to a set of 800s and running them hard anyway is the habit this plan asks you to break.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Mostly, yes. The long runs and the taper are well judged, but the goal-pace work doesn't build toward the race.

The most goal-pace running in the whole plan comes in week 4, one of its lighter weeks: 3 repeats of 3 miles at goal pace on Thursday, then a 105-minute run on Sunday whose last third is at goal pace. After that, the amount rises and falls rather than growing. For a Speedster, goal pace is the skill to learn, the effort you'll hold for hours, and the rehearsals would teach more if they got steadily longer as race day came closer.

The long runs climb to 20 to 26 miles in weeks 7 and 9, with the last big one 3 weeks out. Long runs are the part of marathon training nothing shorter can replace, and these are the runs where a Speedster learns to keep going past the usual fade. But the top of that range is a full marathon in training, 3 weeks before the real one. The low end gives you what the run is for.

Several long runs end with 6 to 10 miles at goal pace. That's a long coaching tradition, though no controlled study has shown it beats a steady long run. Either way, it's practice at holding the effort on tired legs, which is the late-race skill this runner is short on.

Then the running eases off for 3 weeks, with a light race week, and a taper of 1 to 3 weeks improves race-day performance.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Yes. Across 12 weeks you'll run 6 different kinds of hard session, from 400-meter repeats to 10 miles or more at goal pace, and around 84 percent of the running stays easy. Keeping easy days easy and hard days clearly hard works better for most runners than a steady diet of medium efforts.

The short, fast work is where a Speedster feels at home. It keeps your top gear sharp while the long runs and goal-pace sessions build the endurance you're shorter on.

Strides, fast and relaxed 100-meter pickups at the end of an easy run, show up in weeks 4, 8 and race week. If you like them, adding a handful after an easy run once or twice a week is a small extra, and short fast efforts like these make your stride more efficient.