17 Weeks Out: The Right Way to Start Training for Your Late Fall Marathon

If your goal race is a late fall marathon, something like the Indianapolis Monumental in early November, or one of the other big November races around the country, I want you to do some quick math with me. From right now, you've got about 17 weeks until race day.

Seventeen weeks feels like plenty of time in the middle of July. It is, but only if you use it the right way. I've watched too many runners treat these next few weeks like a warm-up and save the "real training" for September. By the time September shows up, they're playing catch-up on a base they should have already built.

Here's how I actually structure this window with the athletes I coach.

Weeks 1 through 6: Build the engine, not the workouts. This is base phase. Easy aerobic mileage, one modest long run each weekend, and just enough strides or hill work to keep your legs sharp. No heroics. The goal is durability, not fitness you can't hold onto.

Weeks 7 through 12: Add marathon-specific work. This is where tempo runs, marathon-pace segments, and longer long runs start showing up. You're teaching your body what race pace actually feels like under fatigue, which is the entire game of marathoning.

Weeks 13 through 16: Peak, then start backing off. Your biggest long runs and highest weekly mileage happen here. This is also where I start watching recovery markers closely, because this is when overuse injuries sneak in if volume climbs too fast.

Final week: Taper and trust the work. Short, sharp, and mostly about staying loose and confident, not fit. The fitness is already banked.

The reason I lay this out in five-to-six-week blocks instead of just handing someone a spreadsheet is that marathon training isn't a straight line. It's phases, each with a different job. Runners who try to skip straight to the hard stuff usually end up hurt or flat on race day. Runners who never leave base phase show up undertrained.

If you're already thinking about registering for a fall marathon, or you've registered and have been "meaning to start soon," this is your sign. The runners I've coached to Boston Qualifying times and first-time marathon finishes all have one thing in common: they started their real training before they felt ready to, not after.

I coach adult marathoners of every level, from first-timers chasing a finish line to experienced runners chasing a specific time, both in person around Indianapolis and fully online for runners anywhere. If you want a plan built around your actual race, your actual schedule, and where your fitness actually is right now, reach out. I offer a free 15-minute coaching consultation, no pressure, just a conversation about your goal race and what it'll take to get there.

Seventeen weeks is enough time to get this right. Let's use it.