I want to run distance A in time B. Can you prepare me for that result?
To be honest, even professional athletes don’t plan their exact race-day result in advance. There are simply too many variables that influence the outcome: weather, course profile, physical condition, psychological state, and the unpredictable way a race may unfold. What they do prepare for is to perform at their absolute best on the day.
Just look at the spread of elite performances across the major marathons.
The fastest — Berlin — sees top men finishing in 2:01–2:02 under ideal conditions. The slowest — New York — produces 2:08–2:09. Among elite women, the range runs from 2:11 to 2:18. Professionals understand perfectly well that hilly New York is objectively slower, and trying to run it at Berlin pace guarantees a result below their potential. That’s why they adjust their race plan — either before the start or right in the middle of the race — based on the conditions rather than an abstract time goal.
For amateur runners, whose ability to maintain an even pace across different environments is far more limited, we recommend an approach we call:
Do what you can — and let whatever happens happen
Despite its bluntness, this is the most effective training philosophy. It focuses not on an arbitrary “I want to run in…”, but on the actual maximum your body can reach by race day, given all internal and external factors.
Another key point is the fundamental difference between how professionals and amateurs train.
For professionals, training is their job — their main life priority. The volume they can handle is determined by the level of competition, their personal ambitions, and the physiological capacity of elite athletes: the ability to train long and hard, right at the edge, without significant health risks.
For amateurs, it’s an entirely different story. We don’t get paid to run, we don’t live in isolation during preparation, and we don’t have limitless time and energy. That’s why amateur training is built not from the desired result backward, but from current capabilities — which grow over time, but always within the constraints of real life and real physiology.
In essence, an amateur’s race-day result will be exactly what they’ve managed to train into themselves.
And “to train” means building a volume of individually structured, consistent running across different intensity levels that your body has been able to absorb by race day — given your starting fitness, preparation time, training frequency, and personal capacity to handle load.
That’s the part of the principle called “do what you can” — the preparation.
The second part — “let whatever happens happen” — is about race day.
None of us is immune to getting sick, sleeping poorly, overthinking, or — on the flip side — feeling absolutely perfect. Mental readiness can matter even more than the legs.
If you're healthy and calm, you'll run faster.
If you're anxious or fatigued, you’ll run slower.
And there's no point starting a marathon faster if you already feel the day isn’t yours.
We hope we haven’t confused you with all these explanations. But this is precisely why, when someone asks:
“Can we train toward a specific target time?”
our answer is usually:
“No — let’s train for your maximum.”
Thank you for understanding this slightly bold, but fair and realistic approach.