Running is analog
From 3:59 to 2:29. I’m here to help you through your marathon progression.
Twelve weeks of training for the competitive, non-elite runner, the one with a job and a family or a calendar that’s already full. Pick your tier, pick your race, and let’s go run a marathon!!
- Chicago '18
- 3:59
- PB
- 2:29
- cut
- 90 minutes
- per block
- 12 weeks
- per tier
- 14 videos
Most of us run our easy days too hard and start our marathons too fast.
I did both for years. A free plan tells you to run 6 miles on Tuesday. It won’t tell you why your legs are dead in Week 9, how many carbs to eat before a 20-miler, or what to do when the pace starts slipping at mile 20. That’s how you put in 12 weeks and run the same time you ran last year. Or you get hurt in Week 10 and never make it to the start line.
The stuff nobody posts on Strava.
- 01Hitting the wall at mile 20.
- 02Getting hurt two months in.
- 03Missing your BQ by 90 seconds.
- 04Going out way too fast because the crowd was loud and you felt amazing.
- 05Training that eats every Saturday your family had plans for.
Everyone feels this stuff. I still do. Almost all of it gets handled in training, weeks before race day, and we go through it week by week.
I tried to outwork the marathon. It didn’t go well.
My first marathon was a 3:50. I figured the answer was running more, and willing my way to a time under 3 hours. I started doing workouts, but fueling was an afterthought, and I didn’t intentionally run any long runs. I just tried to survive, and that’s what happened in the last 10K of every marathon: I just tried to survive.
What changed was pretty boring. Easy days got EASY. I fueled every long run. I slept. I trained under a real plan with marathon pace in the long runs. Now, my marathon PB is 2:29.
I did all of that with four kids and a career behind the camera. We’re experienced in training non-elite athletes: ones with jobs, families, other obligations, schedules and commitments. These courses are built for you, the everyday runner who wants to find their best.
— Eric
Inside the course
A video every Sunday. The plan right under it.
Fourteen per tier: an intro, one for each of the 12 weeks, and one for after the race. I tell you what the week is for and how it should feel, then you go run it.
Find your tierThe course: the Tier I outline, week by week, beside Eric's Week 1 video, filmed at his desk in front of his race bibs and his Boston poster.
The journal
Running is analog.
Your watch will give you a thousand numbers. The journal is where you write down how it actually felt. Every tier is built around it. You log each week, you note the workouts that went great and the ones that didn’t, and in taper you read back through it and see how far you came. After the race you write down every detail you can remember. You’ll want it in ten years.
We want training to be tactile and physical. Own it.
The first 250 orders get the Founder’s Edition: the companion training journal, pens and stickers. Any tier, or the bundle. We mail it to you.
201 of 250 left
How it works
Pick a race.
First one? Find a flat course, under 400 feet of climbing. Count back 12 weeks from race day and mark that Monday on your calendar now. That’s Week 1.
- London Marathon
- New York City Marathon
- Paris Marathon
- Berlin Marathon
- Chicago Marathon
- Tokyo Marathon
- Sydney Marathon
- Manchester Marathon
- Beijing Marathon
- Valencia Marathon
- Xiamen Marathon
- Osaka Marathon
- Shanghai Marathon
- Seoul Marathon
- Boston Marathon
- Mexico City Marathon
- JTBC Seoul Marathon
- Rome Marathon
- Barcelona Marathon
- Yokohama Marathon
- Athens Authentic Marathon
- Nagoya Women's Marathon
- Marine Corps Marathon
- Dublin Marathon
- Chengdu Marathon
- Hangzhou Marathon
- Guangzhou Marathon
- Los Angeles Marathon
- Wuxi Marathon
- Kobe Marathon
- Honolulu Marathon
- Amsterdam Marathon
- Rotterdam Marathon
- Shonan International Marathon
- Cape Town Marathon
- Shenzhen Marathon
- Kyoto Marathon
- Stockholm Marathon
- Hokkaido Marathon
- Nanjing Marathon
- Wuhan Marathon
- Hamburg Marathon
- Aqualine Marathon
- Okayama Marathon
- Seville Marathon
- Copenhagen Marathon
- Melbourne Marathon
- Frankfurt Marathon
- Kanazawa Marathon
- Naha Marathon
- Hong Kong Marathon
- Mumbai Marathon
- Kumamoto Castle Marathon
- Itabashi City Marathon
- Kasumigaura Marathon
- Philadelphia Marathon
- Disney World Marathon
- Xi'an Marathon
- Zhengzhou Marathon
- Toyama Marathon
Which tier are you?
Four quick questions. If the answer is “not yet,” we’ll tell you that too.
1/4 · Pick one
How much are you running right now?
The three tiers
Tier I
$24714 videos · 12 weeks
Your first marathon, or your first time on a real plan. Week 1 is three days of running. By the end you’ll run 16 miles (25.5km) and finish at marathon pace. We cover easy running, cross-training, fueling, recovery, your first threshold workouts, and how to run each half of the race.
Start Tier I
Tier II
$24714 videos · 12 weeks
You’ve done one or a few, but now we get faster. You should be holding 20–30 miles (32–48km) a week before Week 1. You’ll peak around 54–60 miles (87–97km), with marathon pace in your long runs, a 20-miler (32km), and a 10K time trial that sets your race pace.
Start Tier II
In every tier
- 01
A 12-week plan in our course portal, plus a weekly email once your block starts
- 02
14 videos: an intro, one for each week, and a post-race video
- 03
Paces built from your own time trials, rechecked mid-block
- 04
A fueling and carb-load plan you test on long runs before race day
- 05
Race weekend planning: travel, expo, shakeout, corral, bag drop
- 06
Post-race recovery and your rebuild for the next block
Marathons are not easy.
I can’t promise you a PB, and nobody honest can. Heat, a bad night of sleep, a gel that sits wrong at mile 16: all of it shows up on race day.
Here’s what I do know. A marathon can be completely lost in the first 5K if you pace it wrong, and we spend real time making sure that isn’t you. Do the work, trust your training, and go suffer well.
For you if:
- you’ve got a job, a family or both, and still want to run a real marathon
- you’ll keep your easy days easy, even when it feels too slow
- you want to know why you’re doing each workout
- you’ll actually test your fueling before race day
Not for you if:
- you’re not running yet (grab the free Base Build first)
- you want someone adjusting your plan every day (that’s coaching, and it’s separate)
- you plan to skip the long runs
- your race is under 12 weeks out and you’re not running consistently yet (start with the Base Build)
My Progression
- Chicago ’183:59
- Chicago ’193:10
- Chicago ’222:57
- Carmel ’232:48
- Boston ’242:38
- McKirdy ’252:32
- Boston ’262:29
If you read one thing on this page, read this. Somewhere around mile 20 you’re going to think: I don’t know how I’m going to hold this pace for six more miles. Everyone feels that feeling. I’ve felt it too.
One mile at a time. One checkpoint at a time. Is this a 10 out of 10? No? Okay. Keep going.
And later that day, when you’re lying on the couch, be proud of the effort.
— Eric
