(This article was published originally on the Salitre Coaching Blog on the 12th May, 2025)
At Salitre Coaching, every training cycle is more than just a countdown to race day, it’s a deliberate step toward long-term transformation. This spring, one of our athletes (a seasoned marathoner and Ironman finisher) started an 8-week program leading into the Peachtree Road Race, with a clear goal: break 40 minutes in the 10K. But even more importantly, this plan served as the launchpad for a new endurance cycle targeting a sub-3-hour marathon and a return to Ironman racing.
Starting Point: Assessing Fitness to Guide the Path
We began by carefully assessing current fitness based on recent race times and progressive workouts, heart rate data, and ventilatory threshold analysis. At the start of the block, the athlete’s estimated 10K time was around 43–44 minutes, with a VO2Max near 50.
While that placed them in a strong aerobic state, they hadn’t focused on 10K-specific work in some time. The emphasis here was on rekindling speed while preserving long-term aerobic gains.
We grounded the entire plan in heart rate-based zones to ensure each workout had a clear physiological target:
- Zone 2 (Aerobic Base): 118–142 bpm
- Threshold: 151–160 bpm
- Race Pace / 10K Effort: 164–169 bpm
- Interval Zone: 171–178 bpm
These zones helped regulate intensity, ensuring threshold sessions remained aerobic, race pace efforts stayed repeatable, and intervals were challenging but recoverable.
The Program: Balanced, Intentional, Progressive
The weekly structure emphasized consistency and purpose:
- Two quality sessions per week: Threshold, interval, or race-pace efforts, scaled to fitness and progressing over time.
- Long runs on Saturdays: Primarily Zone 2, capped with short 10K surges to build resistance to fatigue.
- Hills every Friday: Strength without overloading the system.
- Strides were woven throughout the week for neuromuscular sharpness and fluidity.
- Recovery runs and rest days were treated as training too, critical for absorbing the work.
Each week built subtly on the last. Threshold runs extended from 3×8 minutes to 2×10 minutes. Intervals shortened and quickened. Race pace efforts became more precise. And as race day neared, we shifted from volume to sharpening.
Why This Approach Works
This wasn’t a “redline every Tuesday” kind of plan. It was built around durability, an athlete’s ability to show up each day, absorb work, and improve without injury or burnout. It combined Renato Canova and Jack Daniels principles, with a dose of real-life pragmatism for athletes balancing performance, work, and family.
What made this training cycle special wasn’t just the sub-40 goal. It was how every decision, from pacing to recovery, served the long game.
The Bigger Picture
Peachtree isn’t the end goal. It’s the ignition point.
This athlete is setting themselves up for a strong fall marathon and beyond by anchoring the plan in physiological principles and building toward aerobic capacity.
Because at Salitre, we’re not just chasing PRs. We’re building lifers in endurance.
Curious what a customized program would look like for your goals? Let’s talk, Reach out here, and we’ll build the next chapter together.