Less Running = Faster Marathons, per new Boston Marathon Study

Today’s notes and references: The paper: Training Volume and Training Frequency Changes Associated with Boston Marathon Race Performance link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-025-02304-4?cjdata=MXxZfDB8WXww Other research by the same team: Gastrointestinal cell injury and perceived symptoms after running the Boston Marathon https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2023.1268306/full Exertional Heat Stroke at the Boston Marathon: Demographics and the Environment https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/fulltext/2021/09000/exertional_heat_stroke_at_the_boston_marathon_.3.aspx The larger study I mention, of 151,000 runners, published Dec 2024:The training intensity distribution of marathon runners across performance levels https://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/en/publications/the-training-intensity-distribution-of-marathon-runners-across-pe Our video breaking down the previous study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39QVsDoCK8s Run Long Run Healthy is brought to you by Marathon Handbook. ➡ https://marathonhandbook.com Subscribe to the Run Long Run Healthy podcast: ➡ Spotify: https://bit.ly/RLRH-spotify ➡ Apple podcasts: apple.co/43iqUKx Get the RLRH weekly newsletter (choose free or paid):➡ https://marathonhandbook.com/run-long...➡ https://runlongrunhealthy.substack.com/ Follow us online: BRADY ON X ➡ https://x.com/B_Holmer/ PHYSIOLOGICALLY SPEAKING (Brady's Newsletter) ➡ https://www.physiologicallyspeaking.com/ MARATHON HANDBOOK IG ➡ / marathon.handbook 00:00 Introducing the study 01:16 Describing the complimentary study 02:21 The hypothesis - base building phase more important? 03:22 Methodology and survey details 05:31 Findings - macrocycle 06:28 Findings - mesocyclone 07:20 The big learning - less runs in mesocycle = faster marathon 08:09 Our 3 takeaways