In August, COROS invited 400 athletes to participate in a marathon and half-marathon 8-week training camp leading up to their Fall race. The athletes were divided into four different categories depending on their goal race: 3:20+ Marathon, Sub-3:20 Marathon, 1:45+ Half-Marathon, and Sub-1:45 Half-Marathon. Each group was taken care of by a designated COROS Coach for the duration of the training camp. Each group had their own personalized training plan to follow as well as access to their coach at all times for individualized feedback.

Sit back and relax as we take you through the analysis of their progression throughout the training camp.

Midpoint Analysis

This first analysis includes the first four weeks of the training camp for all 400 athletes. We have divided the athletes into three distinct categories: the runners who followed the plan, the ones who partially followed the plan, and the ones who did not follow the plan. To be able to show you some progression, we have taken out the third group from the analysis, which was roughly 30% of the athletes.

The first four weeks of each training plan consisted of a 3-week buildup followed by a taper week. The first half of the training camp focused on building volume for athletes while introducing higher-intensity workouts such as tempo and threshold sessions.

3:20+ Marathon Group

Base Fitness tracks your daily training load over a 42-day average.

For this group, athletes had an average Base Fitness of 93 before beginning the training camp, and increased this value to 101 at the end of the 4th week, which ends up being an increase of 8%. The athletes who were the most dedicated to the plan noticed an average increase of 22%.

Lactate Threshold is the breaking point when aerobic training starts to transform to anaerobic training.

Athletes of this group also noticed a slight average improvement in their Threshold Pace from 7'58"/mi (4'57"/km) to 7'55"/mi (4'55"/km) during this 3-week buildup.

Sub-3:20 Marathon Group

Base Fitness tracks your daily training load over a 42-day average.

For this group, athletes had an average Base Fitness of 101 before beginning the training camp, and increased this value to 111 at the end of the 4th week, which ends up being an increase of 10%. The athletes who were the most dedicated to the plan noticed an average increase of 16%.

Lactate Threshold is the breaking point when aerobic training starts to transform to anaerobic training.

Athletes of this group also noticed a slight average improvement in their Threshold Pace from 6'29"/mi (4'02"/km) to 6'20"/mi (3'56"/km) during this 3-week buildup.

1:45+ Half-Marathon Group

Base Fitness tracks your daily training load over a 42-day average.

For this group, athletes had an average Base Fitness of 60 before beginning the training camp, and increased this value to 75 at the end of the 4th week, which ends up being an increase of 25%. The athletes who were the most dedicated to the plan noticed an average increase of 40%.

Lactate Threshold is the breaking point when aerobic training starts to transform to anaerobic training.

Athletes of this group also noticed a slight average improvement in their Threshold Pace from 8'52"/mi (5'30"/km) to 8'42"/mi (5'25"/km) during this 3-week buildup.

Sub-1:45 Half-Marathon Group

Base Fitness tracks your daily training load over a 42-day average.

For this group, athletes had an average Base Fitness of 82 before beginning the training camp, and increased this value to 91 at the end of the 4th week, which ends up being an increase of 11%. The athletes who were the most dedicated to the plan noticed an average increase of 25%.

Lactate Threshold is the breaking point when aerobic training starts to transform to anaerobic training.

Athletes of this group also noticed a slight average improvement in their Threshold Pace from 6'54"/mi (4'17"/km) to 6'50"/mi (4'15"/km) during this 3-week buildup.

Final Analysis

We have also noticed that the average weekly training load for half-marathon athletes was 632 while marathon athletes was 802. COROS Coaches have designed the training plans based on those values to allow athletes to progress towards higher weekly training load values throughout the camp, with plans reaching up to 800 for half-marathon groups and 1000 for marathon groups.

As we are embarking on the 6th week of the training camp, a full analysis will be done once the training camp is complete. Stay tuned to see how marathon and half-marathon athletes progress for their upcoming Fall race!