Miguel base build: to the Edinburgh block
Twenty-two weeks: Monday 24 August 2026 to Sunday 24 January 2027 · Then: the 18-week Edinburgh block
A guide, not a schedule. The weekly shape is fixed. The numbers inside it are targets to aim at and to miss without consequence.
Where this starts from
The volumes below are set against the training record, not against a template.
- Madrid, 26 April 2026. 42.66 km in 3:45:11, 5:17/km, average heart rate 158.
- The Madrid build worked. Weekly running ran 23, 37, 38, 45, 47, 31, 43, 54, 55, 64, 63, 47 km through January to March, with the longest training run at 30.2 km. That is the platform to get back to.
- Running stopped after the race. May 34 km, June 6 km, July 32 km, August 6 km so far, in single runs of 5 to 13 km, with three separate weeks of no running at all. The honest starting point is about one run a week.
- The bike took over, and it is going well. August is 250 km across nine rides, including 117 km in 5h23 and 51 km the week before, both at an average heart rate of 130 to 139.
So the aerobic engine is not the problem. A five-hour ride at 139 bpm is a working engine. What is gone is running-specific durability: the tendons, calves and connective tissue that only running loads. Four months of cycling will not have kept them.
That single fact shapes everything below. Running volume can climb steadily, because the aerobic base is there to support it. The tissue cannot, so the first six weeks are about frequency rather than distance.
The week, as available
- Monday to Thursday: lift, swim or run.
- Friday morning: 1h30 on the bike if it fits. No obligation.
- Saturday and Sunday: one long ride and one long run, or one of the two.
The working template for most weeks:
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Mon | Easy run |
| Tue | Easy run, then lift |
| Wed | Swim, or nothing |
| Thu | Easy run with strides, then lift |
| Fri | 1h30 bike if it fits |
| Sat | Long ride, or rest before a Sunday long run |
| Sun | Long run |
Two rules hold it together. The long run is the session that matters, and everything else gives way to it. The day before the long run is never hard.
The four phases
| Phase | Weeks | Runs/week | km/week | Long run | Bike |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Return to running | 24 Aug to 4 Oct | 3 | 18 to 28 | 8 to 14 | As now |
| 2 · Aerobic build | 5 Oct to 15 Nov | 4 | 30 to 40 | 16 to 20 | Friday plus one weekend ride |
| 3 · Durability | 16 Nov to 27 Dec | 4 | 40 to 48 | 20 to 24 | Friday only |
| 4 · Raise | 28 Dec to 24 Jan | 5 | 48 to 55, last week 45 | 24 to 26 | Friday spin |
Every fourth week drops by about a quarter. Skip that and the build stops working somewhere around week 12.
Phase 1, return to running. Three easy runs a week. The point is frequency. Three runs of 6 km beats one run of 18 km, and the second option is what produced the last four months. Cycling carries the aerobic load, unchanged.
Phase 2, aerobic build. A fourth run, and six strides at the end of the Thursday run. Cycling comes down to the Friday ride plus one weekend ride, on whichever day the long run is not.
Phase 3, durability. One honest session a week from mid-November: 6 by 3 minutes at threshold to start, 4 by 8 minutes by Christmas. This is the phase that decides the marathon, and it decides it with time on feet rather than pace.
Phase 4, raise. A fifth run, then an easier final week so the block opens fresh instead of tired. The block starts at 52 km with an 18 km long run, so this phase should hand over at or just above that.
How to run it
- Easy means easy. Under 145 bpm on the flat, under 150 on the long run. The Madrid long runs averaged 149, which was slightly too hard.
- Strides twice a week from October. Six of about 20 seconds, fast and relaxed. They cost nothing and they stop the legs forgetting how to turn over.
- Lift twice a week, after the run. Split squats, Romanian deadlifts, calf and soleus raises. Single-leg work protects the tissue that cycling has not loaded.
- Swim when it fits, not on principle. It is aerobic work that costs the legs nothing, which makes it useful early and expendable late.
- The bike is a tool, not a rival. It holds the engine while running volume is low, and it shrinks as running grows. Riding 250 km and running 45 km in the same week is how tendon injuries start.
- Back-to-back weekends, sparingly. Once a month in phases 2 and 3, ride long on Saturday and run long on Sunday. It is the closest thing to marathon fatigue available outside a marathon block. Never two weekends in a row.
Checkpoints
Four tests, each with a decision attached, so this does not drift.
| When | Test | If not |
|---|---|---|
| End of October | 30 km a week, 16 km long run, no niggle lasting more than three days | Hold phase 2 for two more weeks and shorten phase 3 |
| End of November | 40 km a week, 20 km long run | Repeat the last three weeks |
| Christmas | 45 to 48 km a week, 22 to 24 km long run | Drop phase 4 to four easy runs and hold the long run |
| 24 January | Four straight weeks above 48 km and a 26 km long run behind you | Push the block back two weeks and shorten it to 16, or run Edinburgh at 3:35 |
That last one is the only decision that really matters. Making it in January is cheap. Making it in May is not.