The Science Behind Modern Marathon Training

The marathon has changed. Has your training kept up? In this lecture, we uncover the science behind the modern approach to marathon training. We discuss how VO2max, running economy, lactate threshold, and physiological resilience each contribute to marathon performance, and explore the training methods that most effectively target these four components of marathon fitness. 📖 Get the book (Marathon Excellence for Everyone): https://marathonexcellence.com/ 🖥️ Get the slides from this lecture: https://marathonexcellence.com/scienc... ✉️ Join my newsletter for more on the science of running: https://runningwritings.com/news Contents: 0:00 The new era of the marathon 1:39 First principles: what can we measure about running? 7:53 VO2max 10:10 Running economy 11:25 Lactate threshold and steady-state max 13:48 How lab testing actually works 15:43 The classical model of marathon fitness 21:53 The missing piece: physiological resilience 24:44 Training VO2max 27:35 Training running economy 30:16 Training lactate threshold 33:43 Training physiological resilience 39:17 Analyzing your marathon fitness 45:05 Does this approach actually work? 47:08 Q&A: Lactate gradients, long fast runs, glycogen About the speaker: John J. Davis is a coach, writer, scientist, and 2:29 marathoner. He has been coaching runners from novices to elites for over 13 years. He has a Ph.D. in human performance and has spoken at international conferences and competitions on the science of running injuries and running performance. Lecture recorded at Open Book in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 30, 2026. Videography: Tim Thornburg, https://timthornburg.com/ Got questions? Drop them in the comments!