Summary: rebuild from 20 km/week at 15% per week — 20, 23, 26, 30, 35, 40, 46 — to a 50 km peak held Weeks 9–10, then a descent through the half-marathon tune-up (Week 11), the go/no-go (Week 13), and a reduced-volume dress rehearsal (Week 14) to race day. The fueled ≥26 km long run — the minimum viable peak — lands in the Week 9–10 peak, the only weeks where it fits the ≤55% long-run share rule. No strides while the heel issue is active. Strength narrows to hip, core, calf, and knee — with drop heel raises, in Dr. Reddy's words, “specifically a loading stretch” — plus a daily stretching protocol. Gates, time caps, and gut training (≥60 g carbohydrate/hour) carry over from v3.
Change reason: Dr. Varun Reddy's 19 Aug review, made independently of the AI critiques: two idle weeks followed by ~40 km in seven days was too sharp a ramp even at easy pace, and biomechanical risk outranks cardiovascular risk. Garmin history back to mid-June confirmed the base v3 assumed never existed. Full reasoning in the change history and the review entry.
Week by week
| Week | Phase | Starts | Target | Long run | Midweek MLR | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W1 | Stabilize (retro) | 10 Aug | 31 km (as run) | 12.4 km (as run) | — | Adopted retroactively: run 10–16 Aug under the starting plan’s grid, before the v3 document existed. Sessions recorded as run, not as planned. |
| W2 | Stabilize | 17 Aug | 20 km | 12 km (as run) | — | Doctor-advised reduce week (20–30 km band): daily stretching protocol begins; hip/core/calf/knee strength; flat routes, slopes walked. First half recorded as run. |
| W3 | Build | 24 Aug | 23 km | 12 km (cap 1:30) | — | The 15% ramp begins. Fuel practice on runs >75 min (30–40 g/h). Daily stretching; flat routes. |
| W4 | Build | 31 Aug | 26 km | 13 km (cap 1:40) | — | Long run is the sole progression lever. |
| W5 | Build | 7 Sep | 30 km | 15 km (cap 1:55) | — | Hold form; strength continues; review the heel trend before progressing. ★ Farthest-ever long run. |
| W6 | Build | 14 Sep | 35 km | 17 km (cap 2:10) | — | Fuel/fluid/equipment rehearsal; sweat-rate test. ★ Farthest-ever long run. |
| W7 | Build | 21 Sep | 40 km | 20 km (cap 2:30) | 10 km | Midweek medium-long run begins — spreads load. ★ Farthest-ever long run. |
| W8 | Build | 28 Sep | 46 km | 23 km (cap 2:50) | 11 km | Log GI, skin, foot, late mechanics. Fuel ≥45 g/h on the long run. ★ Farthest-ever long run. |
| W9 | Peak | 5 Oct | 50 km | 26 km (cap 3:15) | 12 km | Peak week 1. The fueled ≥26 km long run — the minimum viable peak — lands here under v4. ★ Minimum viable peak — fueled ≥26 km. |
| W10 | Peak | 12 Oct | 50 km | 27 km (cap 3:20) | 12 km | Peak week 2. Fuel ≥60 g/h; settle race gear. ★ Farthest-ever long run. |
| W11 | Tune-up | 19 Oct | 43 km | 21.1 km | 11 km | Half-marathon tune-up at controlled effort. Race-morning rehearsal; result sets the marathon pacing plan. ★ Half-marathon tune-up race. |
| W12 | Descend | 26 Oct | 38 km | 18 km (cap 2:15) | 10 km | Descent begins. 2×3 km at marathon effort inside the long run; fuel ≥60 g/h. |
| W13 | Descend | 2 Nov | 33 km | 16 km (cap 2:00) | 8 km | Go/no-go: choose time goal / completion / run-walk from evidence. ★ Week 13 go/no-go decision. |
| W14 | Descend | 9 Nov | 28 km | 14 km (cap 1:45) | 6 km | Dress rehearsal at reduced volume: race breakfast, kit, anti-chafe, race start time; 4–6 km continuous at marathon effort; fuel ≥60 g/h. ★ Dress rehearsal — the confidence anchor. |
| W15 | Taper | 16 Nov | 24 km | 12 km (cap 1:30) | — | Confirm race plan; strength maintenance; nothing new. |
| W16 | Taper | 23 Nov | 20 km | 10 km (cap 1:15) | — | Volume down, small doses of marathon effort; protect sleep. |
| W17 | Race week | 30 Nov | 15 km | — | — | Freshness and logistics. Carb load Wed–Thu 10–12 g/kg/day. Race Fri 4 Dec. ★ Race day. |
Week 17 target excludes the marathon itself. Weeks 1 and the first half of Week 2 are recorded as run, not as planned. Long-run distances are envelopes with a hard time cap — the cap wins, and any shortfall is recorded, never made up.
The adaptive rules, in brief
Every day is classified green, amber, or red, and the status prescribes one action:
- Green — execute as planned, including scheduled quality. Skipping quality on a green day is a recorded deviation.
- Amber (life) — two poor nights, a corroborated HRV/resting-HR trend (7-day rolling average off the personal baseline for 3+ consecutive days plus a symptom), heat, travel, stress: run easy, shorten ~20%, no quality. That is the whole action.
- Amber (tissue) — pain ~3/10 or rising, unusual focal stiffness, next-morning function not back within 48 h: reduce the provoking load 20–40% and recheck next morning.
- Red — symptoms only (chest pain, fainting, gait-changing pain, dark urine, heat illness…): stop. No wearable score can clear a red, and no wearable score can create one.
Wearable-only deviations without symptoms default to an easy run, not a reduction. Three amber days in seven forces a structured review. A minimum viable peak — at least one fueled 26 km+ long run by end of Week 13, expected in the Week 9–10 peak — guards against the quieter failure mode: arriving at race day under-trained because the controller kept saying “careful”.
Missed training has written rules too: 1–3 days — rejoin, never make up distance; 4–7 days — repeat the prior week at ~90%; 2+ weeks — drop back a phase and formally revisit the race goal.
The full framework — metric hierarchy, capture schema, fueling and heat protocols, clinician boundaries, and references — lives in the plan document Adaptive_Marathon_Plan_v3_17_Week.md (v4 ramp recorded as a dated section and doctor's comment) in the project repository; the operational data (day-level sessions, gates, weekly decisions) lives in the project database and drives the dashboard.