Marathon journey

Hi. What is the best journey to prepare for marathon? Are you going to add one if it is not available?

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Hey @papi welcome to the forum!

I think “run further” would be the most appropriate one:

Enjoy!

Hi buddy.
As a marathon runner, running coach and used all running journeys, I can ensure you (sadly) there is no journey available to cover a proper marathon training.

I would like to have it or defining a goal before starting the running journey.
The distances in run further, even set to (50km+) the longest distance I’ve seen was 15k.

I would propose Hybridrunning, as it covers bodyweight (strength training you definitely need) and intervals/„long“ runs.
But definitely add another marathon plan.

Here’s why, you need to get mileage for a marathon and at least long runs covering 2-3 hours. The intervals for that distances are limited. A marathon is „easy“ until you pass the 30km mark. Long runs are essential to keep you going.

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Thanks for clarifying @Latarion !

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I completely agree, @Latarion

The Run Further journey seems to me to be focused on 10k training, much too short for proper marathon training. For my last marathon, I used the hybrid running journey for all of my speed work and accessory strength training, then added easy, aerobic, runs to get my weekly mileage up. Weekly mileage and long runs will be the focus of any good marathon training plan. For mine, I did 4 days a week of the Freeletics hybrid running journey. On the bodyweight training days, I would add an easy run at the end of the workout, before the cooldown. On the running days, I would do intervals as prescribed (usually trying to hit marathon pace of faster at a minimum), and the distance runs would be threshold runs (trying to run the distance at a set, challenging, pace). Then I would add an easy run every week on 2/3 of my rest days, with one being more of a recovery run and one being a weekly long run, so my weekly schedule looked like this:

Monday: Freeletics Hybrid Running - Bodyweight Training & Easy Run
Tuesday: Freeletics Hybrid Running - Interval Run
Wednesday: Easy Recovery Run (Focus on time spent running, not mileage)
Thursday: Freeletics Hybrid Running - Bodyweight Training & Easy Run
Friday: Freeletics Hybrid Running - Threshold Run
Saturday: Long Run (Slowly build up the weekly long run to about 21 miles 3 weeks before your marathon)
Sunday: Rest (often times active recovery like Yoga, hiking, household chores, etc.)

I hope that helps!

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Thank you guys. I’ve got the same feeling. I’ve just finished the Run Further journey and the max distance there was about 17km which is definitely not enough, so I need to combine it with longer easy runs. Maybe admins will notice and add a new journey where it will be possible to define the desired distance :slight_smile:

Hi TomG,

Totally new to this forum, so correct me if I’m doing something wrong here.
I just finished my first training journey and was very satisfied with it.

Now I would like to start this run further journey as I would like to go back to my original running distance of 15K. But can you set that goal of 15K somewhere so the training can built up to that? I don’t seem to be able to find out how.

Many thanks!

Koen

Hi Koen! Welcome to the forum!

You can’t really set up a distance to build towards unfortunately.

But 15km is achievable with the run further journey, you should definitely keep going! :muscle:

Thanks! That’s helpfully. We’ll see how it goes.

Hi TomG,

I’m coming back to the above mentioned question. I’m now at session 26 and I’m still getting runs that do not go beyond 4km (even at the hardest setting). Am i doing something wrong here? I would have expected it to present already some longer runs by now.

Thanks,

Koen

Hi @koenlowet , from what I’ve heard, the maximum people get in this journey was 10-15km. Do you give proper feedback to the coach after each session? saying the session was too easy?

Yes, systematically. I also select the hardest possible session, but still my “longest” proposed run now is 2km for this week and I’m now at session 31

So not sure what I’m doing wrong here?:man_shrugging:t2:

May I ask what journey are you currently on?

I am on a HIIT and run atm and longest run so far was 3km.
Have you gave feedback to your coach at the end that session was easy? Maybe that would bump up the distance.

I haven’t tried it yet as for me 3km is just enough for now.

I’m on the run further journey, so expecting to do a bit more km’s than the current 2 or 3 km.

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I know what you mean. Haven’t tried that journey but the name itself implies that you should get further distances. Especially if you are on session 31 as mentioned.

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Hi @koenlowet , I’m not 100% sure of the AI behavior in this Journey. Have you tried going for a free run and enter the distance you ran? That could push the AI to adapt.
I would have thought telling the Coach that the run was too easy every time would fix this.

@Ben or @melaLetics would you have any insights?

Doing a Free Run wouldn’t help. This kind of tracked activity isn’t taken into account by the coach (that’s why a lot of free athletes are tracking not running activities as free run).
Don’t know if the fixed distance runs would push the coach. My husband tracked some half marathons and a marathon with the fixed distance runs - the longest distance he ever got assigned by coach was 10K.

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Indeed, I did 2 longer free runs: 10 K and 8 K but that didn’t have any effect on the program.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the time settings for your training moments? I remember that at the start of my freeletics training I indicated for 1 hour training sessions, but I don’t now how to change that to longer sessions.

What do you mean? In more than nine years with Freeletics, I never indicated for a certain coach day time frame (accept of adapting a session with Quick Adapt or the Express Journey). There isn’t any option to lengthen a session - just to shorten it.

I seem to recall when I first started with Freeletics I had to give a number of settings such as “the furthest I had run” or “how much time that I could spent on a training session”.

I’m not sure wether that was when I created my freeletics account or when I started a new journey. I’m nearly done with this journey so maybe I’ll know more when I start a new one.

But I’m still looking for answers why the “run further” journey doesn’t take my any “further” :slight_smile: