Marathon training through the first three months

Started 12 October 2025 · 20 replies · 168 hearts · read 3.3k times

PamSouthport, UK · 12 October 2025

9 months ago

Marathon training through the first three months — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

Anyone else navigating this? I feel as though every piece of advice I read was written for someone with a completely different week.

Practical question, and possibly a silly one, but the logistics of this are defeating me considerably more than the medicine is.

This is the boring administrative kind of problem, which I gather is the kind that actually gets solved when you ask.

I keep records precisely so that I do not have to estimate, and the record says three months, which is what the title says too.

If anybody has an arrangement that works and is willing to write it out, I would be very grateful.

NolanHalifax, CA

What I found is that the first six weeks were the worst for performance and that everything after that has been ordinary.

RinManchester, UK

My rest days matter more than they used to and I have stopped treating them as optional.

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK

Speaking as a facilitator: nobody owes anybody at their own table an explanation, and this circle will keep saying so as often as it needs to.

ClémenceNantes, FR

Reading Ren, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

The thing I underestimated was hydration. My requirements changed and I noticed it in the gym before anywhere else.

7me too 4

LenaMunich, DE

The advice I got that helped most was to prioritise consistency over intensity for the first three months, and it was correct.

7me too 3

ClemmieNorwich, UK

Lena said something I want to sit with for a second.

My coach and my prescriber have never spoken and I have relayed everything, and I would do that differently if I started again.

TressaSt Austell, UK

Sitting with you on this one.

EdwynNewcastle, UK

Something practical: I have a shake ready for after training because on a low-appetite day I will not eat and I will drink.

InêsPorto, PT

Coming back at two years to say the strength held, the training is unchanged, and the fuelling took a season to get right and then became automatic.

NadineLyon, FR

#10

Reading Tressa, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

Keeping what I had built was the whole of my concern and it turned out to be almost entirely about protein and lifting, in that order.

9me too 7

MaritGroningen, NL

#11

What I would say to anybody starting is do not stop lifting. That is the one thing everybody here agrees on.

BaySt Ives, UK

#12

Nothing here is coaching or medical advice, and the fuelling side in particular is worth a proper conversation with a sports dietitian.

11me too 7

BramGhent, BE

#13

Bay — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

My training did not change. My fuelling around it changed enormously and that took about four months to get right.

RonanBelfast, NI

#14

I keep a very simple training log alongside everything else and the two together tell me more than either does alone.

BodilÅlesund, NO

#15

Marking that I am here, in case that counts for anything today.

6me too 2

TabbyMargate, UK

#16

What I found is that eating enough before a session was the hard part, and everything else followed from solving it.

RohanPune, IN

#17

I kept lifting three times a week throughout and my numbers dipped for about six weeks and then came back.

OndineLausanne, CH

#18

Rohan has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

Something practical: I moved my training to the morning because my appetite is more reliable earlier and the fuelling became simple.

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK

#19

Stepping in to say that asking for help with logistics is not a smaller kind of asking. It is most of what makes this sustainable.

BoWhitby, UK

#20

Picking up Rohan’s point rather than starting a new one.

My experience is that this is entirely compatible with serious training and requires deliberate attention to fuelling.