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+4.2K avisImproving a marathon time is no small feat. This distance is not easy to tame because there are many parameters to master. Sometimes, simple adjustments during training and/or the race can save a lot of time at the finish. For more experienced athletes, improving a marathon time requires a strategic and targeted approach and in-depth work.
💡 Do you want to shave 5, 10, 15 minutes off your previous record? Experience a less difficult end of the race? No longer hit the wall? We will point out the most reliable levers to achieve this.
The first step to improving a marathon time: analyze your last race and your training.
A first tip: take the time to review your last marathon training and how your race went. Indeed, this latest experience is often rich with lessons.
🔍 How did your last training plan go?
The marathon is the culmination of long weeks of training. With well-managed training, you give yourself every chance to achieve a good performance on race day. Start by analyzing your last marathon training.
Note what worked or not: Have you been consistent? Have you missed many workouts? Have you been injured? How many long runs over two hours have you completed? Did you arrive physically and/or mentally tired on marathon day? All these answers will provide valuable insights on the elements to correct.
👍👎 How did your last marathon go?
Secondly, analyze your race. Not only the time you achieved but also how it unfolded. To verify if your time is consistent with your potential, you can use the Campus calculator. The calculator estimates your possible time for a marathon based on the ones you've achieved on shorter distances, such as the 10K or the half-marathon.
For example, with a personal record of 1 hour 45 minutes on half-marathon, we estimate that your potential marathon time is 3 hours 39 minutes after 12 weeks of training. If you completed your marathon between 3 hours 40 minutes and 3 hours 45 minutes, your time is consistent. Overcoming a milestone will involve speed work to adjust all the sliders. If your time is closer to 4 hours or even more, it’s a sign that you lack the endurance to maintain the distance.
Next, replay the race and identify what didn't work. Did you have trouble maintaining the desired pace from the first part of the race? Have you encountered any muscle problems? Did you experience a significant energy crash after the 30th kilometer? If your pace has plummeted by 20 to 25% at the end of the race, there's no doubt: you've hit the Wall.
Improving a marathon time after hitting the marathon's Wall
Hitting the marathon's Wall is a frankly unpleasant experience. That being said, there's a positive point in the story: you will cross a serious milestone in the marathon just by identifying the causes of this wall and correcting them! We have dedicated a comprehensive article to this problem encountered by many marathon runners.
🥤 Mastering Nutrition and Hydration
To summarize, the wall is primarily energy-based. It is caused by the depletion of your glycogen reserves, your main fuel during exertion. This can mean two things: you need to review your pre-race nutritional strategy and optimize your carbohydrate loading to start with your glycogen tank fully loaded. Next, make sure to have a sufficient and regular carbohydrate intake during your marathon, between 30 grams and 60 grams per hour, and to stay well hydrated.
For example, an energy gel contains an average of 25 grams of carbohydrates. For a goal of 3 hours and 30 minutes, this means consuming between 4 and 8 gels. Many marathon runners are below this range. Are you one of them?
🦵 Marathon is first and foremost a muscular challenge.
Alongside the energy wall, there is often a second wall, of muscular origin. The scenario is common: everything goes well for around thirty kilometers and suddenly, your legs stiffen. Muscle or joint pains appear, sometimes cramps, in the calves, hamstrings, or quadriceps. This is a sign that your muscles are not strong and enduring enough to maintain a constant effort for 42.195 kilometers.
👉 The countermeasures? Devote more time to strength & conditioning, expose yourself to muscular fatigue by doing more long runs lasting between 2 hours and 2 hours 30 minutes, and train on hilly terrain. The case of the Paris Marathon is quite telling. Runners who did not adequately anticipate the small climbs and descents of this demanding course pay for it at the end of the race.
⏱️ Review Your Race Management
Sometimes, mistakes in race management lead to the appearance of the Wall. A too-fast start and an intensity close to your lactate threshold will deplete your glycogen reserves more quickly. However, the marathon is a race of endurance. Remember that the race only really begins after 30 kilometers.
What preparation is needed to improve a marathon time? Our advice
Now, we will assume that you didn't hit the wall and that your race went generally well. You may have lost a few minutes on your second half marathon, but it's perfectly normal during your first experiences with marathons. Achieving a negative split, meaning a second half marathon faster than the first, requires a lot of experience and self-knowledge.
Of course, the previously provided advice on nutrition, strength conditioning, and race management still apply. In addition, we will work on other factors to raise your runner ceiling and improve your marathon pace during your next preparation.
🧐 What are the three major physiological performance factors in a marathon?
A well-structured marathon training will focus on the three major performance factors for this distance and adjust their importance based on your profile.
VO2 Max: the size of your engine
The VO2 Max is your maximum aerobic capacity. It is the maximum volume of oxygen the body can absorb and use during exercise. It is a very important indicator in endurance as it indicates your aerobic ceiling.
❌ Problem: it is partly determined by your genetics and its increase is limited.
Who is concerned?
Studies have shown that untrained athletes can improve their VO2 max by between 15% and 30% in the long term. For regular runners, VO2 Max no longer increases. The challenge then is to maintain it at its current level. If you have little running experience or are coming back from a long break, we recommend incorporating a MAS cycle in the early weeks of your marathon training, far from the deadline.
What workouts?
The main workouts to target VO2 Max are high-intensity workouts, with fairly long intervals, at least two minutes, and short recoveries. Overall, all so-called severe intensities, beyond the lactate threshold 2, allow reaching VO2 Max after a certain duration.
Running Economy: use less to go faster
Running economy is the amount of oxygen required to run at a given speed. It is a very powerful lever for performance. Imagine two athletes with the same VO2 Max. The one who is more economical will perform better in the marathon.
Who is concerned?
Absolutely all marathon runners can benefit from working on their running economy. You can continue to improve your economy to a very advanced level. The potential gains are considerable.
What workouts?
A better Running form (good use of arms, keeping the upper body relaxed, a good step cadence, placing the foot under the center of gravity etc.) enhances running economy. Correcting your running form often requires an outside perspective.
Second focus area: specific strength and conditioning with core training, single-leg strength, light plyometrics.
Third focus: hill workouts to improve your specific strength and elastic recoil. For example: 10 x 10 to 12 seconds almost at maximum effort on a 6-8% uphill with a long recovery by going back down.
The most obvious method to improve your running economy is simply to run long at your marathon pace. You see the benefit of focusing on a long marathon training.
Running economy is also related to your body mass. You will naturally slim down during your marathon training. Beware of pitfalls and caloric deficits! You should not experience a significant weight loss. If this happens, gradually increase your calorie intake.
Finally, although it has nothing to do with training, we can mention the choice of shoes. Carbon-plated shoes provide a 2 to 4% gain in running economy for the fastest runners. A +3% improvement in running economy is equivalent to about five minutes gained in a marathon run in 3 hours. Not negligible, right?
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4.8
+3.2K avisLactate Threshold Level: pushing back fatigue
The third performance factor in the marathon is your lactate threshold 2 pace. Recall that this threshold is an intensity zone that delineates the high range of the severe domain where a significant lactate drift is observed. It is possible to maintain this second threshold for between 40 and 60 minutes before exhaustion. The marathon pace is around 90% of lactate threshold 2. The higher this threshold, the longer you can maintain a high pace in the marathon.
Who is concerned?
Again, all marathon runners benefit from pushing their lactate threshold as far as possible by doing threshold workouts throughout their marathon training.
What workouts?
In Campus marathon plans, you will find workouts at the 60-minute and 30-minute thresholds. These two paces bracket lactate threshold 2.
👌 Here is an example of a workout at threshold in the beginning of a marathon prep: warm-up of 20 minutes, then 6 x 5 minutes at 60' Threshold, recovery of 1 minute 30 seconds, and finally a cool-down of 10 minutes. It is possible to perform a continuous workout with 20 minutes at 60' Threshold.
🧠 An overlooked lever to improve a marathon time: your mental strength
Successfully completing a marathon isn't just about physical and/or physiological capacities. The psychological approach to running is very important. Often, it’s the mental strength that limits our performance and pushes us to slow down during tough moments. A good mental freshness is needed to tolerate prolonged effort for several hours and maintain intensity despite fatigue. Don't forget that your brain is in control!
Numerous tools and techniques to boost your mental strength
A set of tools and techniques are at your disposal. We particularly consider visualization or preparing counter thoughts in case of tough times. We also build our mental strength through long runs with blocks at marathon pace, through interval workouts where we challenge ourselves mentally, and simply by gaining marathon experience.
We learn from each of our races. We are no longer destabilized when our legs become heavy after 35 kilometers and we know how to react. Each marathon experience is a learning process.
As you have seen, there isn't one unique method to improve a marathon time. It is better to work on a set of well-targeted levers based on your past experiences, which will help you improve your weaknesses to progress on this distance.
💡 However, several key points should be noted: mastery of the marathon pace, a good level of lactate threshold, good recovery and nutrition throughout the preparation to assimilate the workouts, and strength & conditioning.
To orchestrate it all, a long and structured preparation is highly recommended. The plans Campus marathons last at least 12 weeks.
In the end, breaking through a plateau in your marathon performance isn’t about luck — it’s about how smartly you manage your marathon training and prepare for race day. A well-structured training plan that balances training load, includes consistent easy running, and builds up your confidence with regular long runs is essential for sustainable progress. Don’t underestimate the value of strength training to support your muscles through the toughest parts of the build-up, and make sure you practice your race pace during key workouts so that you arrive on the start line confident and ready to perform. With thoughtful planning, steady progression, and the right mix of workouts, you’ll be better equipped to cross your personal finish-line goals and make your next marathon your strongest yet. This may be sufficient for some runner profiles. Nevertheless, we are convinced that a 16-week (or longer) plan will offer you more flexibility and more chances to improve a marathon time.
In the end, breaking through a plateau in your marathon performance isn’t about luck — it’s about how smartly you manage your marathon training and prepare for race day. A well-structured training plan that balances training load, includes consistent easy running, and builds up your confidence with regular long runs is essential for sustainable progress. Don’t underestimate the value of strength training to support your muscles through the toughest parts of the build-up, and make sure you practice your race pace during key workouts so that you arrive on the start line confident and ready to perform. With thoughtful planning, steady progression, and the right mix of workouts, you’ll be better equipped to cross your personal finish-line goals and make your next marathon your strongest yet.
Antoine
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