Marathon Coach · Train Smarter
Consistency Beat My “Peak Week” Mentality
Why consistent easy mileage and repeatable weeks outperform heroic peak weeks — a marathoner’s argument for boring excellence.
Fitness compounds; drama doesn’t
Three quiet months of repeatable weeks beat one spectacular week followed by burnout. I used to collect peak weeks like trophies. The races rewarded the boring seasons instead.
Missed sessions happen. The skill is returning without revenge doubles.
Design weeks you can live
If the plan only works on a perfect calendar, it will fail. Match session count to sleep, family, and job reality. Research on habit formation keeps emphasizing repeatable cues and realistic scope — ambition without feasibility is just a story you tell in January.
I measure success by how many planned weeks looked roughly like the plan, not by a single monster long run.
Adherence is a performance metric
Track completed key sessions and how easy days felt. Those predict race readiness better than a highlight-reel workout that required three days of hiding from your own legs.