I’m looking for some help with the best approaches to build the marathon plan with some cross-training sessions.
My goal is to have a marathon training plan but still have one swim and one bike session per week to keep the form.
So far I’ve tried a few approaches:
setup a marathon plan and add secondary triathlon races. This approach creates a good marathon plan but I have the swim /bike only near the triathlon races months.
Setup a triathlon plan and add a marathon as a secondary race. In this case I have a full triathlon plan and focus on running only during the 4 weeks before the race.
I have some doubts that I’ll be able to finish the marathon with the second setup, and the first setup is not really what I want.
Did you have similar experience ? How did you setup your plan?
I think it’s possible to manually change some sessions every week and choose the swim/bike instead of some run sessions, however I’d like to know if there is a simpler approach.
P.S. I’m training for the S/M triathlons so just the base triathlon training does not give me enough volume for the marathon (at least from my understanding)
Maybe try setting up a marathon plan, but picking one day where you want a ride and 1-2 days where you want a swim, and in the Plan Builder “pin” that workout to the day by clicking on the sport until a pin shows (and pick your max length if you want) like this:
Alternatively, you can pick two runs in the week and use the workout wizard to substitute with a swim or bike. Just don’t do that for the starred sessions, those are the “key” sessions for your week.
Thanks for the hint. I don’t have a good reflex with the settings yet.
It helped to pin bike and swim sessions. I have them in the plan now with a proper marathon workouts.
However, I’ve noticed, that I always have the sessions with the max allowed time for both swimming and cycling. So Athletica just put exactly the same longest session which fit the allowed timeframe and that’s it. Do you know if there is a possibility to make it a bit more different ? To vary it based on the week load etc?
Anyway it’s already a very good setup, thanks for your help!
I did this for the end of 2025/2026 whilst training for a Spring Marathon whilst wanting to keep up with the swimming and cycling - partly for Triathlon purposes and partly because I feel like it helps with preventing injuries and keeping a good body shape.
I ended up just going with a plain marathon plan - the advantage to me was that this plan was quite high volume including double run days and long weekends of running. To make it very simple and allow me a lot of flexibility, I didn’t “schedule” any bike rides or swims into the plan as standard. I simply utilised the Workout Wizard or even just the general library of workouts (or workouts I knew I enjoyed) to swap out run sessions on a week by week basis.
The coach will always adjust your overall schedule with these included and it gives the flexibility to swap and change quite easily whilst keeping the focus very firmly on your main goal which is running.
I think maybe the key to this is setting a higher volume marathon training plan than you would normally be comfortable with on the understanding that you aren’t going to run those miles when the week is done. My plan for example was hitting over 100 miles some weeks, something I was never going to be comfortable with, but I didn’t alter the plan as I knew that a long run at the weekend would be swapped for a long bike ride etc.
If you want any advice on this just reach out and let me know. Happy to help
Glad to hear it helped! The AI is probably considering the pin to be both for the sport type AND duration, oops! Shorten the available time for those to the longest workout you want it to give you, and then use the workout wizard when you need to go shorter.
Thanks for a detailed explanation. I think I’ll be moving in a similar direction. Do you swap all the long runs on the weekend? I’m trying to find a good balance where I’ll do some long runs and some long bike rides. However, from what I see on the max volume plan, it sets up the 32KM runs every second week during the build phase, which I won’t be able to do.
So I’d want to understand a few things:
Will the plan be adapted and the session volume reduced by the AI coach when it “understands” that I’m not doing all the proposed volume and switching to the easier workouts?
Is it better to choose the max volume, swap some existing workouts and miss others when it’s too much for me, or choose the medium volume (where I feel okay) and add some extra workouts (gym + bike + swim)?
I found it easy at the weekends as I would usually do a group ride on a Saturday morning that was around 2-3 hours long at a steady pace. Then Sunday would be my long run, on my plan these mostly involved various paces and intervals but I really enjoyed them rather than just a flat 2-3 hour run
In answer to your other questions, the plan should adjust after a while however it will probably continue to push you to a limit that you may feel is beyond you. Use the workout wizard to help with this, shortening sessions if you feel the need.
I’d go with a plan that is higher than you expect normally. I find it’s easier to skip/delete sessions than add them in. But that’s just me!
Good luck, I’ll be doing the same as you through the winter into spring now so happy to share any progress or ideas.
Came to echo your second to last paragraph - I used to be a proponent of choosing the lower plan and then adding since I have a hard time saying No to a planned workout. BUT then realized it was harder to make a new workout and decide what I wanted to add than to delete when it’s too much. So…
TL;DR: go with more volume and delete where needed, and you’ll have better options and more flexibility presented to you.
Thanks for your reply. I’m wondering if athletica correctly adapts sessions duration on the bigger volume. I’ve checked the sessions with the highest volume and I’ve seen a lot of the “Long ladder run” sessions for 32KM. If I’m not mistaken it’s scheduled each second week during the build phase. I really like this workout but I’m not able to run 32KM run so many times. On the other side when I choose the mid volume training plan I have the same sessions but on the 21KM per run what is good enough for me.
Do you know if athletica reduces the distance automatically when I’ll cut multiple sessions and won’t do the required load? I’ve checked the workout wizard and it does not allow to use the same workout but with the shorter distance, instead it proposes a “steady run” or a cycling.
Basically that’s the only blocker I see so far with the higher volume plan approach.
