Nathan Pennington Running in The Distance

4 Months To A 4 Hour Marathon

If you desire to prepare for 4 months to a 4 hour marathon you have come to the right place.

My name is Nathan Pennington, founder of rundreamachieve.com. I've been competing in distance races for the past 26 years and own a 2:19:35 marathon best.

4 months to a 4 hour marathon

What does this do for you? Nothing but what I can promise you is what I have been taught will help you. It isn't about what time I have run.

You think me writing Ive broken a 2:20 marathon helps you get any closer to a sub-4 hour marathon? No.

It isn't to impress you. It is to impress upon you the possibilities are endless as to what you can achieve.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care – Zig Ziglar, entrepreneur

This site was built over 7 years ago on three premises. One, running. Our sport. Two, dreaming. What is it you are thinking about and have a goal to attend and last but not least, achieving those goals.

How To Run A 4 Hour Marathon

The advice that I share with everyone here on this site is this. Make 9:09 per mile or 5:41 per kilometer your little bitch. Excuse my french.

The only way you can do that is by training at speeds that are faster than that. There are no breaks in the marathon. How can you run a marathon under 4 hours if you have done the sufficient work?

The reasons so many people fail at breaking the sub 4 hour marathon is not for a lack of trying. Why do people fail? One, because it is not easy and if it were easy far more people would be doing it. A simple change in training strategy can and will make the difference.

They simply need to change up how they are planning their training.

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How To Get Better At 4 Hour Marathon Pace

How do you get better at anything? Practice and often. The biggest hindrance for most runners is that adaptation doesn't occur fast enough.

They want the results fast and it simply doesn't work like that in the marathon. A lot of hard work and diligence is involved.

Obviously, you know this but what you need to know and be reminded of is to be patient. It takes approximately 21 days or 3 weeks for the body to adapt to any stress load you place upon it ad sometimes even longer.

A strong sub 4 hour marathon plan is going to address how to make sub 4 hr marathon pace become more manageable. If you are ready to become a 3 hour marathoner check out the new Sub 4 Hour Marathon Mastery course.

This is why the Kenyans are so good at what they do. They have trained such a large percentage of their miles at paces that are far faster than their goal marathon pace.

The Physiological Adaptation

Top marathoners achieve fast times because they know what fast training means on a biomechanical level.

Faster running recruits more fast twitch muscle fibers. This doesn't occur running long, slow miles.

You burn fast running slow and you build endurance which is good. There is certainly a place for easier running. Recovery can be just as important as running fast workouts.

That is another big reason why marathoners seeking to break the 4 hour marathon miss the barrier.

Lactic acid is not your friend. The only way to combat it is to train in such a way to offset its effects.

The reason why runners slow down is thanks to the hydrogen ion in lactic acid. It shuts down muscle functioning when too much of it is building up in the blood stream.

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The Secret To Running A Sub 4 Marathon

Train in a specific way to get a specific effect.

You want to train the body to clear lactic acid faster than it is building up in the blood stream. This can be done by training at higher heart rates for longer periods of time.

Is it painful? Absolutely. Is it uncomfortable? Bet on it. The key is being patient enough to see the training adaptations take place.

This is where folks go wrong. They are not patient enough and they don't speed sufficient time training at these types of paces.

It is not that they are not capable. There are other factors that go into breaking the 4 hour marathon we haven't touched on.

How much sleep are you getting? What paces are you running at on your easy days? Most often runners are running too fast on their easy days. They are recovery days for a reason.

They're not meant to be days where you go off running in a group and have to prove yourself to keep up. 

Have you ever done a hard workout one day and the next you're running too fast in a group and don't want to back off the pace? I think we all have.

The professional is going to break off the pack if it is a recovery day.

Sometimes it takes just as much discipline to relax and jog on your recovery day as it does to do the hard tempo runs or track sessions. The most well-laid out plan will often work if you work it.

Is 4 Months To A Hour Marathon Enough Time?

4 months to a 4 hour marathon is sufficient time to get it done. The question is do you have a plan to make it happen?

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You can find many cookie-cutter plans on the internet today. A professional may cost more money but seeing a time on the clock at 3:59:59 or faster is priceless. I'd pay $10,000 or more if that was a goal I wanted.

I read recently about a man that was training to break the 3 hour marathon. It attempted to do it 41 times and on the 42nd attempt finally did it. You have to be tenacious about this. 

To run a marathon under 4 hours you need to keep swinging the ax.

You'll chop down a tree fast with a sharp ax and spend months getting nowhere with a dull one. The goal of the Sub 4 Hour Marathon Mastery course is to speed up the process and to discuss every aspect of what it takes..

The course is going to conclude with a sub 4 hour marathon program. Each week will be carefully planned out and discussed in minute detail.

You'll be learning all of the strategies and tips I learned from the world's top coaches and marathoners two of which were Olympians. 

Fill out your information below to get on our launch list. You'll also receive a 30 percent discount off the course launch price.

4 months to a 4 hour marathon is sufficient time but you will most certainly have to have a strong plan in place to do it the first time.

Leave a comment below and let me know how close you currently are to breaking the 4 hour marathon. What has been the biggest pain point for you during the race? I look forward to reading about it.

Learn More About The Sub 4 Hour Marathon Mastery Course

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