An 18-week marathon program built to help you PR, with weekly threshold work, high mileage, and the load management to make it all work together. Around 100 pages from the coaches and physical therapists behind the Atomic Race Team.
The difference between a solid marathon block and a PR block is rarely just more miles. It is the quality of the decisions you make within the week. This guide is built around those decisions. With two quality sessions each week, how you arrange the training matters just as much as the workouts themselves. We cover how to sequence hard days, what to do when a session needs to move, and how to approach a deload week so you actually absorb the training instead of simply backing off.
Benchmark sessions return at four points throughout the program, giving you an honest read on your fitness as it develops. The guide is also explicit about the difference between LT1 and LT2, with every session clearly identified by the system it is designed to target. At 70 miles per week, what happens outside the running becomes part of the training. The strength, plyometric, and injury guidance comes from physical therapists who treat runners at this mileage every week. It is programmed to support the training rather than compete with it.
Fueling is covered from everyday training through gut training and carbohydrate loading. Race day includes a pacing strategy built around your own fitness, along with the race-week logistics to help you arrive ready.
18 weeks including taper and race week. Six runs per week, peaking at 70 to 73 miles, with long runs reaching 20 to 23 miles. Two quality sessions plus dedicated LT1 work every week. There is less room for error here than in the Intermediate program. Advanced assumes you can manage yourself between sessions, pay attention to fatigue, and make smart adjustments when needed.
The Atomic Race Team is a group of competitive athletes training out of Boulder. Between them are Boston qualifiers, elite women training at the US Olympic Trials standard, sub-75-minute half marathoners, Bolder Boulder top-five finishers, and athletes competing at USATF Championships. This program mirrors the training our own athletes actually run.
Pace charts in miles and kilometers, heart-rate and effort zones, a printable training log, and an online tracker pre-filled with every run.
An 18-week marathon program built to help you PR, with weekly threshold work, high mileage, and the load management to make it all work together. Around 100 pages from the coaches and physical therapists behind the Atomic Race Team.
The difference between a solid marathon block and a PR block is rarely just more miles. It is the quality of the decisions you make within the week. This guide is built around those decisions. With two quality sessions each week, how you arrange the training matters just as much as the workouts themselves. We cover how to sequence hard days, what to do when a session needs to move, and how to approach a deload week so you actually absorb the training instead of simply backing off.
Benchmark sessions return at four points throughout the program, giving you an honest read on your fitness as it develops. The guide is also explicit about the difference between LT1 and LT2, with every session clearly identified by the system it is designed to target. At 70 miles per week, what happens outside the running becomes part of the training. The strength, plyometric, and injury guidance comes from physical therapists who treat runners at this mileage every week. It is programmed to support the training rather than compete with it.
Fueling is covered from everyday training through gut training and carbohydrate loading. Race day includes a pacing strategy built around your own fitness, along with the race-week logistics to help you arrive ready.
18 weeks including taper and race week. Six runs per week, peaking at 70 to 73 miles, with long runs reaching 20 to 23 miles. Two quality sessions plus dedicated LT1 work every week. There is less room for error here than in the Intermediate program. Advanced assumes you can manage yourself between sessions, pay attention to fatigue, and make smart adjustments when needed.
The Atomic Race Team is a group of competitive athletes training out of Boulder. Between them are Boston qualifiers, elite women training at the US Olympic Trials standard, sub-75-minute half marathoners, Bolder Boulder top-five finishers, and athletes competing at USATF Championships. This program mirrors the training our own athletes actually run.
Pace charts in miles and kilometers, heart-rate and effort zones, a printable training log, and an online tracker pre-filled with every run.
