The difference fits in one word: date 📅

The real problem

"I want to run a marathon"
doesn't tell your body what to do
on Tuesday morning.

SHORT TERM · WEEKS 1-4

Build the habit, not the performance

Here the goal is not running faster or further. It's simply showing up: three sessions a week regardless of pace, completing each one even if it comes out shorter than planned, and sleeping consistently to see how the body responds.

Almost entirely easy aerobic. Forcing intensity here is the number one cause of dropout and injury in new runners.

MEDIUM TERM · MONTHS 2-3

Base and structure

Variety comes in: some pace work, gentle progressions, and volume rising never more than 10% per week. Measurable but still modest goals — increasing continuous distance, one weekly quality session, and starting to log resting heart rate and perceived effort.

This is where I usually add cross-training — bike or elliptical. For joints that don't yet tolerate high impact, it isn't a compromise: it's a tool.

LONG TERM · MONTH 4 ONWARDS

Specificity toward the goal

Only now — with the base built and the body adapted — do we train specifically for the target distance and pace. Threshold work, race paces, and practising event-specific nutrition and hydration.

Why the "30-day plan" doesn't work · PMID:1406202

How efficiently your body uses fat and carbohydrate as fuel changes with consistent aerobic training. That metabolic shift doesn't happen in two weeks — it happens over months, with repeated, progressive exposure.

That's why the plan promising to transform you in a month doesn't match how human physiology works. It isn't that it's demanding. It's that it runs against the body's clock.

Finish the October marathon

Over the next 6 weeks, raise the long run from 8 to 14 km

3 easy runs + 1 long run of 12 km

Today: 30 minutes at conversational effort

The ingredient almost everyone ignores · PMID:40667749

The common error is treating rest as "what happens when I'm not training", rather than as an active phase of periodisation.

Both younger and older athletes experience structural and functional cardiac changes with sustained training — and it's gradual progression, not a volume shock, that allows safe, lasting adaptations.

If you're starting after 40 or 50: the heart adapts, but it needs the same respect for progression we give muscles and tendons.

What nobody puts in the goal, but everyone feels

When we talk about goals, we almost always think times, distances, medals. But regular aerobic exercise is associated with increases in BDNF, a protein linked to brain plasticity and mood [PMID:25455510].

When I ask my athletes why they keep running after hitting their original goal, not one mentions their race time. They mention how they feel mentally.

Worth remembering when motivation for the number wavers: the process itself is already delivering.

Define your season goal with a real date, not an approximate one

Count the weeks available and divide them into 3-4 blocks, each with one objective

This week, commit only to the short-term phase: consistency, not performance

Log something simple — resting heart rate or perceived effort — so you have data, not just feelings

Schedule rest as seriously as you schedule training

📖 Full article — 5 PMIDs · 9 min · periodisation explained from scratch

Your weekend task

Find a race with a real date and write it down.

You don't need to register today. Just the date. Reply with the one you picked and I'll tell you how many blocks I'd split it into.

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Coach Henri

USATF · TrainingPeaks · Certified Functional Strength Coach