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The Benefits of a 3-Day-a-Week Marathon Training Plan

What a 3-Day-a-Week Marathon Program Looks Like

Who Is This Program Best For?

When it’s time to pick your marathon training plan , your options probably share one key similarity: It’s packed with running. Lots and lots of running. Often, five or six days of it, not leaving a whole lot of time for anything else.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, according to Ray Peralta, DPT, a sports physical therapist in New York City and founder of the training platform Running Pain-Free , where he coaches hundreds of runners. In fact, he believes you only need three solid runs a week to comfortably and effectively complete a marathon—and he’s training his runners to do just that.

It all began when Peralta would see runners come in for physical therapy, often with overuse injuries . “I’d look at their running program, and they’d be running almost every day of the week, at least five days a week or more. They weren’t getting enough recovery,” he says.…