You already have the assistant — Meta AI. Marathon Coach installs into it: 14 questions route you to one of three proven tracks, every pace is calibrated from your actual fitness with VDOT, and every Sunday your training log gets a genuine review with tiered intervention rules. $19 once. No app, no subscription, no $150/month coach.
A PDF plan runs $10–50 and never changes. A running app runs about $15 a month — $180 a year — and never intervenes when your log shows three rough weeks in a row. A human coach sees all of it, for $150+ a month. Marathon Coach reads your log every Sunday and costs $19 once.
A PDF can't read your training log. An app counts your miles but won't tell you the long run is creeping past the weekly-percentage rule, won't recalibrate paces when your fitness changes, won't call a down week when the log shows the strain, and won't adjust a thing when you get sick. You follow the plan; the plan never follows you.
No app at all — it installs into the Meta AI you already use. $19 once, yours forever. Fourteen onboarding questions assign you one of three researched tracks. Every pace comes from your actual fitness via VDOT, checked by a goal-time realism gate. And every Sunday the coach reads your training_log.csv and applies tiered intervention rules — green, yellow, red — with six-phase periodization, programmed fueling, the neck rule, and a missed-session protocol that adjusts instead of guilt-trips.
Anyone can hand you a schedule. Coaching is what happens between the schedule and reality — the weeks your body doesn't cooperate, the paces that stop matching the plan, the long run that quietly outgrows the week around it. Marathon Coach is built for the gap: your data lives in a training log the coach actually reads, and the rules it applies are the ones a good human coach would.
VDOT calibration turns a recent result into every training pace — easy, threshold, marathon pace, VO₂max. The goal-time realism gate checks your target against where you actually are, so you train at paces your fitness supports instead of paces your ambition wants.
Every session lands in training_log.csv — a plain file you own, readable anywhere. Trends, mileage spikes, and long-run ratios are computed from it every Sunday. Your data isn't a dashboard decoration; it's what the coaching decisions are made from.
Volume caps, the long-run percentage rule, scheduled down weeks, spike detection, the neck rule for illness with return protocols, back-off detection for overtraining signals. When the log says stop, the coach says stop — plainly, before your body says it louder.
Whether or not you ever buy anything, here is the method that works — the same one Marathon Coach is built on. Six habits. None of them require an app.
Most of your weekly miles should feel almost embarrassingly easy. Easy running builds the aerobic base everything else sits on; hammering easy days just steals from the workouts that matter. If you need a rule: you should be able to breathe through your nose and hold a conversation.
Cap the long run as a percentage of weekly volume instead of chasing a magic number. Cumulative fatigue across the week is what prepares you — a heroic long run on a thin week teaches you nothing except how to get hurt.
Set workout paces from a recent result, not the goal. Goal times are earned across a cycle, not declared on day one. Paces your current fitness supports produce adaptation; paces your ambition wants produce injury.
Every few weeks, cut volume and let the body absorb the work. Adaptation happens in recovery, not in the workout. Sleep, illness, and life stress are training inputs — a plan that ignores them isn't a plan.
Symptoms above the neck — sniffles, sore throat: easy or rest, see how it goes. Below the neck — chest, fever, body aches: rest, full stop. Coming back too early costs more weeks than waiting costs days.
This is the part a PDF can't do: read the log every Sunday, spot the third straight rough week, and intervene — a down week, a pace recalibration, or a plain-spoken "back off." Your job is running; the watching is the coach's.
Fourteen onboarding questions — goal race, current mileage, recent results, injuries, availability — route you deterministically to one of three tracks, each researched against the canonical training systems. Graduation is earned by demonstrated durability, never by ambition alone.
Higdon-informed. First marathons and rebuilders. Three to four runs a week, mostly easy with one long run and strides; run/walk supported. Peak 25–40 miles a week. The goal: reach the start line healthy and finish strong.
Daniels / McMillan / Pfitzinger-informed. Durable runners chasing a time. Four to six runs a week, threshold and marathon-pace specificity, medium-long runs, VDOT-calibrated paces. Peak 35–60 miles a week, with tune-up races in the Peak phase.
Hansons / Pfitzinger-informed. Experienced marathoners. Five to seven runs a week, three quality sessions on deep easy volume; the long run obeys the weekly-percentage rule — cumulative fatigue, not heroics. Peak 50–80+ miles a week. Hard entry gates: ambition alone never qualifies.
Track 1 graduates to Track 2 after 8+ weeks at 25+ miles a week with a 13-mile long run. Track 2 graduates to Track 3 after 8+ durable weeks at 40+ miles a week with a 16-mile long run. The coach watches the log and proposes the move — you never have to figure out "what's next" alone.
No apps to download. No accounts to create. It installs into the assistant you already use.
Pay $19 securely via Stripe.
Your license key appears instantly on the success page.
Tell your Muse: install the marathon coach powerup from poweruppacks.com
Goal race, goal time, recent result, mileage, longest run, running age, availability, course, environment, fueling history, strength, sleep, injuries, vibe — then your track is assigned and your first week is programmed.
Secure checkout via Stripe · Questions? [email protected] · or see all nine packs
A free plan is a schedule, not a coach. It can't see your training log, won't recalibrate your paces when your fitness changes, won't call a down week when the log shows strain, and won't adjust when you get sick. Marathon Coach checks your log every Sunday and applies tiered intervention rules — green, yellow, red — so the plan follows you instead of the other way around.
From your actual fitness using VDOT calibration — never your goal time. A goal-time realism gate checks whether your target is reachable from where you are now. Every workout pace is one your current fitness supports, and paces get recalibrated as your fitness changes across the cycle.
Yes — that's exactly what the Finish Strong track is for: first marathons and rebuilders, 3–4 runs a week, mostly easy with one long run and strides, run/walk supported. You don't need to be fast; you need to be consistent, and the track is built for that.
The coach adjusts instead of guilt-tripping. The neck rule governs illness — above the neck versus below — with return protocols that bring you back safely. Back-off detection flags overtraining and pain signals. The missed-session protocol re-plans the week around what actually happened instead of pretending it didn't.
Your sessions, logged to training_log.csv — either from a connected source or manual reporting after each run. The Sunday check-in reads the log: mileage, long-run ratios, workout completion. The more honest the log, the better the coaching.
Yes. The six phases — Base, Build, Peak, Taper, Race week, Post-race recovery — scale to your timeframe, whether you're 18 weeks out or building a base 12–24 months out. Milestone nudges at 16 weeks, 4 weeks, and race week keep the long runway on track.
Email [email protected] within 14 days and you get a full refund. No forms, no hassle.
"Install the marathon coach powerup." — that's the whole install.
Get it for $19