A while back a friend of mine, Brad (Guy in the picture), came to me about 4 weeks out from 26.2 miles and said he didn’t feel like he was really trained for it. He had been pretty sick, and hadn’t really trained for a couple of months. He wasn’t planning on backing out. He was going to try to run the race even if it took him a longer time than he wanted. My wheels started turning immediately. I told him that if he could do some basic barbell movements (Squat, Deadlift, Press, etc.) that I could write him an aggressive 4 week program to whip him back into shape. He’d have to stick to it though. He did indeed, and 4 weeks later he completed his first Marathon with an awesome time especially for a first Marathon. Here’s what Brad says about it:
I’d been sick for a month, and I’d stopped training for two. Von worked with me to create a 4-week schedule designed to get me back to marathon shape. Not only did he succeed, but I finished my first marathon in 4:35 and felt great afterwards.
Not only did he finish with a great time, he “felt great afterwards.” That’s definitely something to be happy about.
I was thinking about Brad the other day, and decided that there were probably a lot of other people out there that could benefit from a similar program. If you have been following me for any amount of time, you know that I do most of my training in a CrossFit gym. Not everyone has access to a gym like that though. Some people just have a regular old gym membership and aren’t really sure what they need to be doing when they get there.
I decided to take Brad’s 4 Week program and make a product out of it. I modified it to include “Advanced Runners” as well as “Intermediate Runners” so that someone that didn’t want to run longer distances could do the program and see a ton of success. You don’t need a ton of equipment for this program. All you really need is a barbell with weights and a place to squat, deadlift and/or press. So, if you’re interested, head on over to the shop and get you a copy!