Before You Start Your Next Marathon Training Cycle, Ask Yourself These 3 Questions

Before you sign up for your next marathon, take a closer look at your last one. Whether you clocked a PR or fell short of your goal, jumping into another race without examining your previous training cycle makes you more likely to repeat the same mistakes. Instead, understand why you got the result you did, and it’ll lead to greater improvements over the long term.“Some runners can get stuck in the trap of racing a marathon every four to six months and treating it like they’re just checking a box and moving on, without actually celebrating and processing it,” Elizabeth Corkum, a.k.a. Coach Corky, an RRCA-, UESCA-, and USATF-certified run coach, tells Runner’s World. “Giving more thoughtfulness to each race and training cycle is what leads to bigger breakthroughs and more enjoyment in the marathon.”That’s why it’s important to take time for a little postrace reflection: It helps you learn about yourself as a runner so you can make smart training adjustments. Then you keep improving from one marathon cycle to the next, Corkum explains. Without a debrief, you risk making the same mistakes over and over again.So how do you conduct this type of marathon recap, exactly? Coaches share the questions to consider so you gain insight into the pros and cons of your training and performance and make the right changes in your next buildup.Question 1: What Did I Enjoy?Runners tend to focus more on where they went wrong in training instead of what they did right—especially if they didn’t hit their time goal. But instead of digging into the negatives right away, you should analyze the triumphs, as they’re just as crucial to inspect, Greg McMillan, head run coach and founder of McMillan Running, tells Runner’s World. More specifically, consider whether you enjoyed training and how it fit into your lifestyle.“The training can easily become a grind if it’s too hard to fit into your life, particularly if you’re going to do a lot of marathons,” McMillan explains. “In order to be sustainable, you need to make sure you enjoy it.”Honestly ask yourself how compatible your last marathon training cycle was with your daily life. Look for the moments when your running, work, and family schedules all came together harmoniously.For example, you might realize that morning workouts fit well around your kids’ sports practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or that an extra midweek rest day didn’t set you back—it actually helped you manage stress when work got busy. These observations allow you to make small adjustments so you can relish the journey of marathon training, not just the destination of race day.“Consider your workouts, mileage, long runs—all those things are important. But go beyond that,” says McMillan. “Ask yourself: What did I enjoy? How did training fit into my work and family life? Where can I modify the training to better fit me as a whole person?”Once you have those insights, you can begin making changes that help you develop holistically as a runner—not just a person who gets progressively better at following a training plan.Question 2: Where Did I Struggle? Now that you’ve identified the framework that makes your training sustainable and enjoyable, turn your attention to individual elements that need the most improvement. This means taking a look at the big picture of your entire marathon cycle, as well as zooming in on your race preparations and the day itself. Ask yourself, “What was my biggest limiting factor, and where did I struggle the most?”Oftentimes, runners will realize that there was always one type of workout that felt especially hard or that they were never able to nail. Or, maybe they’ll notice that any time life got busy, they dropped the ball on strength work, mobility drills, or stretching, Corkum says.Once you notice those weak points, you can ask yourself specifically what made those things difficult. For example, if you struggled with track workouts, was it because your fitness wasn’t there yet, or were other factors—like inadequate sleep or fueling—at play?“It’s not always as simple as saying, ‘Well, I think I needed to push harder in my track workouts.’ Maybe not. Maybe you weren’t eating enough carbohydrates and you weren’t able to perform as well, in which case you’d want to focus on nutrition,” Corkum says. Find the driver behind your weakest points in training, and then brainstorm realistic fixes that you can commit to for the next marathon cycle.After examining your training log, put race day through the same line of questioning. What got in the way of you running your best from the starting line through the finish? If it was something within your control—like you mentally fell apart in the later miles—you might need a “thinking plan” for how you’ll talk yourself through hard parts in your next race, says McMillan.“Look back on periods of the marathon where you weren’t in an optimal mindset—maybe you were frustrated, dreading, or just having a pity party,” he says. “Chart out how you want to think for each 5K of the race so you can control more of the dialogue in your head.”If you were mentally strong—maybe GI distress slowed you down instead—identify exactly how you can dial in your fueling and hydration strategies, he adds.Question 3: How Did I Excel? After you’ve unpacked what you didn’t get right, end your reflection by circling back to the positives. Ask yourself: What did I do really well in training? What workouts or routines made me feel most prepared for race day?Start by considering the parts of your training that gave you the most confidence or built an aspect of your fitness that you found especially helpful, McMillan says. “It doesn’t have to be the workouts. It could be fueling, taking care of your body, or something outside of running entirely.”Make a list of those confidence boosters, then determine exactly how you can prioritize them in your upcoming training cycle—even if that means taking a red pen to other parts of your 16-week plan. For example, if your workouts went better after you got eight hours of sleep, maybe you cut a few miles from a morning run here and there to make sure you get adequate shut-eye.Finally, Corkum says when her athletes ask themselves this final question about their strengths, they come away from a race with a greater sense of accomplishment. “They’re really proud when they look back on the cards life dealt them in that training cycle—and maybe there’s still disappointment if their dream didn’t come to fruition,” she says. “But they’ll realize they should celebrate regardless, because it’s not just one day; it’s months of hard work to get there.”When you reflect on that hard work, you come away from your race with more than just a finish time: You appreciate every successful workout more, better understand where you can improve, and toe your next starting line as a smarter, stronger marathoner.Morgan is a gear editor who has been with Runner’s World since 2017. She started as an intern ghostwriting The Warmup, a bygone version of the daily RW newsletter. Now, she tests and reviews anything you might find on runners’ feet-from crew socks and compression boots to carbon-plated super shoes. A lifelong runner and shoe geek, Morgan has been chasing the perfect pair of kicks since she joined her grade school cross-country team. Since then, she ran as a Division I walk-on for the cross-country and track & field teams at the University of Delaware, where she studied English and Biology. She has one full marathon under her belt, and has raced more halfs and 5Ks than she can count.