Episode 145: Fall Marathon Prep, Norwegian Strength Training, and “Feeling Alive”
In this week's episode, we dive into the key principles for fall marathon prep, from building a smart weekly structure and dialing in realistic goal paces to balancing speed work, long runs, easy volume, cross-training, and injury prevention. We talk about why feeling excited isn’t always the same as being fit, how to build toward race day without doing too much too soon, and why strength training, including the much-hyped Norwegian approach, may be simpler and more foundational than you think. We also explore the surprisingly deep appeal of chasing Strava segments, why a little low-stakes competition can bring so much joy to training, and the bigger question of whether the point is simply to get fitter or to find the things that make you feel alive. We end with some thoughts on finishing your season strong and our weekly challenges and gear picks. Check it out!
Jack Daniels VDOT Running Calculator
Building a Brick Wall (the weekly structure) for a Fall Marathon
I’m having a lot of conversations around fall goals the last couple of weeks and particularly around fall marathons. Fall is a chance to focus on one sport and make some progress toward mastering that one craft. As part of this process, we want to build a solid foundation, a brick wall that includes both the bricks and the mortar. To clarify:
Bricks — tempo/speed work and the long run. These are the bricks of the wall, the main building blocks. They are key sessions.
Mortar — short, frequent, easy runs. This is the paste that you apply between the bricks, which hardens to hold the bricks together. Mortar doesn’t get the credit it deserves because it’s just the stuff in between but you can’t build a brick wall without it. Otherwise it’s just bricks stacked on top of each other and that’s not a foundation you can build a long lasting structure on or defend your city of Troy!
Both are critical, both depend on each other. Both make each other stronger.
My pitch to any athlete who wants to run a fall marathon or trail race: run five times a week. For most athletes, this is a big jump, so let me qualify it.
Five times a week means:
1 tempo/speed session
1 long run
1 easy run with strides
2 super-easy 30–45 minute active recovery runs
Most athletes are already doing the "brick" work — the tempo/speed session, the long run, the strides. What I add is the "mortar": short, easy, active recovery runs. These easy runs add up. They help you consolidate the gains from your brick work. If you are a Big Lebowski fan, they are the rug that really tied the room together.
Short runs add frequency. In any sport, you're always rewarded for frequency.
(And don't confuse frequency with volume. They're usually correlated, but they are not the same thing.)
And short runs are mentally boosting; every time you run, you are sending a signal, or a vote, who are the type of person who does this thing well. It reinforces your goal and intentions to be a better runner. An action is a vote for who you want to be.
Finally, if moving to 5X per week of running feels like a mental challenge, make it a rule, not a choice. Rules are easy to follow i.e., “I run 5X per week” as opposed to waking up most mornings or after work and asking, “Should I run today?”. Make it a personal rule and eliminate decision fatigue and friction.
Where a Coach Helps (and AI fails): Dialing in the bricks, or key sessions, especially around speed work
Take the speed workout most athletes do on a Tuesday. This is where it gets nuanced.
Your coach should have information such as what's your run experience been over the last two to three months? Any injury history? Are you naturally an aerobic, diesel-engine athlete, or an anaerobic beast? What terrain - hills, track, flat only - do you have easy access to? All of this — and more — determines what's appropriate for speed work.
Consider four 2-minute interval sessions:
2' hard efforts on the track, at a 5–8' effort level
2' intervals at 5K pace, a 20' effort level
2' intervals at 10K pace, a 40–50' effort level
2' intervals at 15K pace, a 60–75' effort level
All are 2-minute efforts, but each places a very different demand on the body. Which one is right for you, right now?
Context matters too. 5K pace on flat terrain might not be appropriate for you yet — but add an incline, and it becomes safe, because the hill offloads the mechanical strain. Or maybe you need a few weeks at 10K effort before it's safe to bump up to 5K effort in four to six weeks.
The Long Run
A few questions I ask before setting a long run:
What's the longest run you've done in the last two to four weeks?
How did you feel during that run?
Has a long run been part of your plan all summer? (Training for an Ironman versus a sprint or Olympic-distance race sets up a very different summer run plan.)
Has your long run included any speed, tempo, or progression work?
Reading the Athlete, Not Just the Plan
As I work through these questions and decision trees with an athlete, I'm listening to what they say — and watching their body language.
If someone says "I go to the track sometimes" but visibly tenses up, that's worth exploring. Maybe the track intimidates them. Maybe they've gotten hurt there before. I want to find a run plan that doesn't put them in a stressful situation.
On the other hand, if I ask about the track and someone lights up, it might be because that's where their Tuesday night social run meets — where they see friends and feel part of a community. That turns speed work into team (or dream) work. As a coach, I want to protect that: joy, health, and community.
And sometimes, stepping back further, an athlete tells me they want to run a fall marathon — but it's not really a "hell yes" for them. They were just pointed in that direction because it seems like everyone runs a fall marathon, or because they think it's a required step before an Ironman. (It's not.)
As we talk it through, we might discover they actually want a trail race instead because they want to spend time in the woods and need to get away from the competitive side of sport for a bit. Or a half marathon, because they want to build speed and the training timeline fits their fall schedule better.
That's what happens when you talk to a real human. I don't think an app is going to help you explore your hopes, dreams, and desires.
The Bottom LineGood coaching means being creative with decision trees. A good coach works through the 3 Ts with you: Time, Terrain, Tools.
Hitting the Wall in Marathon Running: An Integrative Psychophysiological and Durability-Based Review
This is a 2026 review paper. Their whole pitch is: everyone assumes hitting the wall is about running out of carbs, but that’s not the complete story.
Think about it — fueling has gotten way more realistic, meeting the actual demands of the race. Runners are now taking in 90, even 120 grams of carbs an hour, way more than what used to be recommended. And yet people still blow up at mile 20. If it were purely a fuel-tank problem, better fueling should've mostly solved it by now. It hasn't. So what are the other factors?
A marathon is multifactorial:
Glycogen depletion — still real, still matters, but it's just one player on a bigger team. Low glycogen impairs muscle contraction and cranks up perceived effort, but plenty of well-fueled runners still hit the wall, so it can't be the whole story.
Gut problems — during a marathon, blood gets diverted away from your digestive system toward your legs and skin, so your gut gets worse at absorbing anything right when you need it most. Nasty loop: you're bonking, you need calories, but your gut's the least able to process them at exactly that moment. We see this a lot particularly in Ironman racing.
Heat and hydration — heart rate creeps up, stroke volume drops (cardiovascular drift), and that alone can force you to slow down regardless of how much glycogen you've got left. Heat is uncontrollable, hydration and effort are the user response (controllable). Very few people race well in high heat/humidity.
Neuromuscular fatigue and biomechanical breakdown — after tens of thousands of strides, your neuromuscular system gets worse at producing force. That’s the "heavy legs" feeling — not just tiredness, but actual ion imbalance and oxidative stress messing with muscle contraction at a cellular level. This is why general strength and local muscular endurance (LME) training is so critical in this sport.
Pacing errors — going out too hot torches your reserves early across every category above, and can even mess with gut blood flow, making fueling harder later. So a bad decision at mile 3 can set off a chain reaction that shows up at mile 22. One of the best things you can do on your long runs is to practice patience and pacing.
All of this combined is called “durability”. Durability is a combination of the above. It’s taking a lot of ingredients with the goal of cooking a well flavored, balanced, nutritious soup.
During your marathon build:
Practice your carb intake. Training is for building systems. Racing activates those systems on auto-pilot
Get heat acclimated if race day's looks to be warm
Do strength work both general and local.
Practice pacing. Don't go out too fast — conservative or even pacing beats an aggressive start
An athlete’s reflection on Strava segments:
“Such a nice loop we rode it again today. Successful mission of getting the crown. Was reflecting about what’s so exciting to me about segments…
I think there’s something uniquely exciting about Strava segments compared with races. A race gives you a fixed result: once you cross the finish line, your place is set. You won, came third, finished in a certain time. and that result becomes part of the record.
A segment crown is different because it’s inherently temporary. You can take the crown today, but you have no idea how long you’ll keep it. Maybe it lasts for years; maybe someone takes it tomorrow. There’s a kind of suspense that continues even after the effort itself is over.
It also means the competition is asynchronous and open-ended. You’re competing against people who rode the segment yesterday, five years ago, or haven’t even ridden it yet. When you take a crown, you haven’t really “won” the segment in the way you win a race-you’re just the current holder. The leaderboard is always alive.
That impermanence might actually make the achievement more compelling. A race result becomes history the moment the race ends; a segment crown remains something happening in the present. Every day you hold it adds a tiny bit of value, while also carrying the possibility that someone could take it away.
And when someone does take it, the competition can start all over again.”
Quick thoughts on a recent segment push!
Biggest draw for me = motivation to go hard when you otherwise wouldn’t!
Love the ability to “race” when conditions are actually favorable in terms of weather + time of day
Jim: Reaction to Strava segment comment
Another thing I find fun about Strava segments is competing with myelf. Because we all ride/run the same routes a lot, there are times during the summer when I'll be on a known, usually long segment, and start to notice I feel really good that day — and/or the wind is super favorable, and/or I'm just in a groove and the power is coming easy.
Suddenly I become much more engaged with my body, mind, weather, and terrain, and I'll just go for it — a very organic interval. It's like this moment of magic arrives unexpectedly and suddenly it's game on. It's pure fun, and it's just you vs. you. Maybe you get a PR, maybe you don't. I've had days where it felt magical and I was way off my PR, but that didn't diminish the magic of the moment.
The result isn't the point — it's the recognized opportunity to practice my craft at the highest level.
And in general, this is what I most enjoy about racing: it's a very specific time where I focus on being the best I can be at my sport. I get to apply all my knowledge, skills, and fitness during a very specific block of time.
At its best, it puts me into a flow state where I'm present for the experience, and mind and body are working together to be the best me. I love the opportunity to show my stuff — mostly to myself. To show myself how much all the consistent, mindful practice has been for this moment, and to have the chance to express it all.
What Norway’s Champion Endurance Athletes Can Teach Us About Strength Training
Everyone is fascinated with Norwegian threshold workouts. When it comes to strength training, what does going Norwegian mean?
Strength and Speed Training Practices for Olympic Endurance Sports: Insights From World-Class Coaches — Haugen, Sandbakk, Bucher Sandbakk & Tønnessen, J Strength Cond Res, 2026.
The setup: This is a follow-up to the same research group's earlier "best-practice training characteristics" paper. This time they zoomed in specifically on how 12 elite Norwegian coaches — collectively responsible for athletes who've won roughly 400 international medals across long-distance running, biathlon, rowing, cross-country skiing, speed skating, road cycling, swimming, and triathlon — actually program strength and speed work. Data came from questionnaires, training logs, and in-depth interviews, cross-checked back with the coaches for accuracy.
Key takeaways:
Strength as a foundation. Coaches implemented strength and speed training primarily to reduce injury risk, improve work economy, boost finishing/acceleration capacity, and support skeletal health — not to build endurance capacity per se.
Periodize. The highest volumes and loads occurred during preparation phases, tapering as the season moved toward competition — consistent with classic periodization thinking.
The strength prescription. Sessions typically used 4-8 exercises, 2-4 sets per exercise, 5-10 reps per set, with up to 10 reps left in reserve — so relatively low-fatigue, quality-focused strength work, not to-failure bodybuilding-style training.
Speed training specifics. Speed work was done in the sport-specific modality at intensities above 90% of maximal velocity — real speed, not just "fast-ish" tempo work.
The philosophy: supportive, not central. Coaches treated strength and speed training as supportive but secondary to endurance development, often delegating the actual implementation to the athletes themselves or to specialized strength staff.
Quote from Alex Hutchinson Outside article: “Is there anything uniquely Norwegian in these routines? Not that I can see. Instead, what seems most notable to me is the focus on fitting in strength and speed without disrupting the meat-and-potato endurance workouts. This, too, is not exactly a hidden secret that only Norwegians have figured out.
But you could say the same thing about the broader Norwegian method: threshold workouts aren’t new, and neither is the idea that you shouldn’t push so hard in one workout that it compromises the next. What the Norwegian method does is transform this from one useful insight among many into the central commandment of the whole system.”
Finishing Your Season Strong
As we head into the last triathlon races of the year for most people, there's a theme I come back to every season: the importance of finishing strong.
What does "strong" actually mean? It's that feeling of having dialed in your race week — the 1-2 days leading into the race, smart pre-race morning prep, fueling, and hydration, and solid swim/bike/run pacing and fueling on race day itself.
A good indicator of a strong finish is a negative run split — running the back half of the race faster than the first half. A negative split almost always means you nailed your last training block, race week, and race day execution.
It doesn't have to be your fastest run pace of the year or your best bike watts. What matters is that feeling of having made a good plan and executed it well.
That's what builds mental momentum heading into next season — the fire to keep getting better.
Finishing strong also means you can look back on the season objectively: see where you improved, and make smart strategic and tactical decisions for next year.
Finishing weak works against you here. When things fall apart late in the season and you're staring at a blank race calendar for the next six months, it's hard to stay objective — and easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
In sum, really think about bringing it all together for the last triathlon races of the year. That doesn’t mean they can’t be fun or an end of the season celebration. It’s just being mindful that you have learned a lot this season, are fit and mentally it’s a huge win to head into the fall / winter feeling like you have moved that much closer to mastering your craft.
Challenge or Resource of the week
Katie: Find time to add in one exercise snack with 3 Ts principles!
Jim: Flagging this for efficient, fun winter workout: 30’ at 3mph at the 8-12% treadmill incline. Percent incline is determined by what you can do for 30’ at 3mph.
Gear pick of the week
Katie: S-Lab Genesis (the shoes Courtney Dauwalter won the 2023 Western States, Hardrock, and UTMB in)