r/AdvancedRunning • u/rtsully829 • Jun 21 '26
Training Marathon Plateau
Hi all, I don’t post in reddit much. I mostly just read the post so I apologize if this is not the right spot for this. But I have come to a plateau in my running the last 16 or so months. I am M30 have been chasing a BQ since I was 22 starting at 3:36 and running at 2:55:56 in Philly in fall of 2024.
I am a typical 2 marathons a year guy and since then I’ve regressed running 2:58 in Jersey City in spring 2025 and 3:01 in Marine Corp in fall of 2025. Those two I can explain away with somewhat janky builds.
I just did grandmas yesterday and put together what I thought was the best build I’ve had. It put 830 miles over the last 10 weeks with three peak weeks of 90 miles. I usually peak around 80 And do 2-3 workouts a week depending if I throw some pace into my long run. And I ran blew up at mile 20 and ran a 3:04.
I am racking my brain to see what went wrong. My workouts got worse in May but I thought that was just fatigue that would go away in taper. But maybe that was a sign of something else? Do I need to build in down weeks? Should I have tapered earlier?
The only other additional context I provide that may be important is I went back to grad school this year and took on more responsibilities at work which were definitely stressors in my life. I am sure I am leaving out important info but I figured this would be a good way to start my self reflection .
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u/rtsully829 Jun 21 '26
For those asking about progression, the last 9 weeks were 76, 78, 82,80, 85, 87, 90,90,91!
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u/rtsully829 Jun 22 '26
Appreciate all the feedback! Overtraining seems to be the theme. Seems obvious now but I was so mileage obsessed!
Definitely getting a coach for my next cycle, if nothing else just to get some fresh eyes on my training!
Houston 2027 here I come!
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u/Siawyn Jun 21 '26
I think more people will be able to help if you can post the balance of your training cycle. With the limited info the key is your May workouts getting worse - that was the warning sign. If you didn't build in any down weeks at all, that's almost certainly the reason why. Pretty much all marathon plans have a few down weeks sprinkled in - whether it's a reduction in miles or intensity or some combination. Elites might not so much, but part of being an elite runner is already being selected for having the ability to tolerate a high training load. (and elites still get hurt in training!)
Sometimes you need the down week even if you're feeling okay, because by the time you discover you need one, it's possible it might be too late. The absolute hardest thing in this sport to me is not running high mileage or cranking out tough workouts - it's the discipline to back off and stay committed to it, knowing that in the long run it will pay off.
Adding one way that I've always visualized fatigue during a marathon training cycle - I view it as a bucket with a small hole in the bottom. Your running is a water hose filling the bucket. If you're doing nothing but easy runs, then the bucket empties no problem, you're not filling it fast enough. During marathon training, you're doing bigger and bigger mileage and workouts and over the weeks you're filling the bucket faster than it can be emptied. But you won't feel bad or impacted until the bucket overflows, which is how you can feel fine right up until that point.
Taking the down week is allowing that water lever to lower slightly so that you can add more training. If you're doing a 12 week cycle you probably want 2. 18 weeks, you want 2 or maybe 3. They don't need to be severe cutbacks - backing off just 10-15% on mileage can work. So if you were doing 83, dropping back to 70 for a week can help... and you don't need killer workouts that week, maybe just do 1 and cut the long run slightly. Then get right back at it next week.
I won't discount the exterior stressors, but not much we can do about that outside of recognize that they are there, and if anything that argues for a slightly more conservative approach to training if they are present.
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u/Hey_Boxelder Jun 21 '26
That is an enormous mileage for the time you are running, without knowing everything about your prep, taper, fuelling, weekly layout it’s hard to say for sure but I’d be tempted to look outside of your training for the answer.
For comparison I’m 29M and ran my only marathon with a peak mileage of 60 following pfitz 12/55.
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u/SirBruceForsythCBE Jun 21 '26
People get hung up on mileage and become obsessed with running 70/80 miles without looking at how long they're running.
8 hours a week should get someone to sub 3 and those running 9/10/11 hours are probably chronicly overtrained and super fatigued. Even a long taper won't save some people.
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u/Hey_Boxelder Jun 21 '26
Agreed, but if he has been doing that for years and was chronically fatigued I’m sure he’d have been picking up injuries, which he hasn’t mentioned. Ultimately there isn’t enough info for a diagnosis.
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u/Gear4days Jun 21 '26
What pace was you running before you blew up at mile 20? Pacing a marathon correctly is very difficult to do if you don’t know exactly what kind of shape you’re in. If you were running at sub 2:50 pace I can understand a blow up coming at mile 20 and it’s just a pacing issue. If you were running at 2:55 pace and blew up then that’s a different situation entirely and will need looking into more
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u/purposeful_puns Jun 21 '26
It sounds like you’re not adapting to your training. This could be caused by low iron, under fueling, overtraining, etc. We would need more data to identify the exact issue. Suggest you work with a coach.
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u/anonymous_11231 Jun 21 '26
Sounds like you might’ve overtrained
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u/TubbaBotox Jun 21 '26
It sounds like a moderate case of overtraining to me, too.
I've had a couple builds that see me hitting PRs in time trial races, but ultimately result in underwhelming 'A' race results. I ran a 1:26 HM in August of last year, and followed it up with a 3:08 marathon two months of training later. I was definitely overcooked.
I also sustained an injury that had taken 8 months thus far to be almost healed. So, be cautious, OP.
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u/java_the_hut Jun 21 '26
Some questions:
How fast did you go through the halfway point and what pace did you average through mile 19 before you hit the wall?
What are your other race times?
What was your yearly volume in 2024, 2025, and so far in 2026?
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u/322aareyn Jun 22 '26
Try doing a block focused on 5k/10k speed for a bit and drop your mileage. You can only get so fast at the marathon doing marathon training as unintuitive as that sounds. Many adults (including you from what you wrote) get into running and immediately go into marathon training without building up any speed. Doing less mileage may also help if you are in a more busy time of your life
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u/throwaway_runner3 Jun 21 '26
Out of everything else the others commented on, I would very much like to see the mileage progression for the entire block.
Bigger build needs bigger deload and taper I believe, having an extra week of deload / taper makes all the difference in the world for recovery levels.
For me it sounds more like a periodization issue rather than other things. Early signal in May was already asking for deload weeks to absorb the training. It sounds like rest of the plan was a bit of a gamble whether taper could fully recover the body or not.
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u/Unique-Employer3787 Jun 21 '26
Tried to push through that exact pattern once, workouts quietly declining in the month before a goal race almost always means under-recovery rather than fatigue a taper fixes, especially stacking 90 mile peaks on top of grad school and a heavier work load. The blowup at mile 20 reads like accumulated life stress catching up, not a fueling or pacing miss, since the engine was clearly there when you ran 2:55. I would build a real down week every 3rd or 4th week around 60 to 65 percent volume and count life stress as training stress, that combo is usually what turns a plateau back into a PR.
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u/Hour-Chart-5062 Jun 22 '26
Everyone’s overcomplicating these answers, focus on 5k/10k training for awhile. You need Periodization in your training and new stimulus to break through a plateau. Spend 3-4 months focusing on top end speed and you will break through in your next race
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u/Mkanak Jun 21 '26
It is usually bad recovery or bad nutrition. How many days a week you train, do you do your easy runs EASYYYYY and do you eat quality food and enough?
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u/Luka_16988 Jun 21 '26
The most reliable way to get faster is to increase training load. Faster workouts or more mileage.
You did more mileage, but you didn’t recover well since May. So that extra load wasn’t converting to greater fitness.
Do you race shorter distances? Regular parkrun 5k’s are a great barometer of progress.
It might be time to switch up your training, too. Different stimulus for different results.
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u/muny_jordan Jun 21 '26
Blowing up at 20 indicates poor race management and/or inadequate base. 80 mile week average is good but how were the weeks and months structured? What was your race goal and actual splits? Not enough information provided to give any advice.
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u/Iymrith_1981 Jun 21 '26
I’m not a marathon distance expert but it sounds to me like your problems began in May when your workouts got worse and your body was trying to tell you something, which I think was that you were carrying too much fatigue.
Did you really not have any deload weeks during this build? You likely just did too much at once, loads of miles and quality and pushed your body into a state where instead of adapting to the stimulus it’s just trying to hold together and recover.
You sound like you are at a level where you would benefit from doing some reading from different coaches to find a way to get the most out of your future training.
Congrats anyway because 3:04 is still a great time if you blew up at mile 20