Train on the evidence.
Evidence-based coaching, from a coach who helped build the evidence.
Not sure this is the right plan for you?
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Every session is a structured workout, so it pushes straight to your Garmin, Wahoo, Polar or Coros watch with the intervals and targets already built in.
Go to sample weeks and training-load structure ↓
You can run a few times a week, and you want to get to your first marathon fit, healthy and genuinely ready, not just survive it. This is a patient 16-week build to the start line: a deep, mostly-easy aerobic base, the long run grown carefully and capped near 2.5 hours, then a clean taper into race day. The marathon rewards the runner who built it gradually, not the one who crammed. Already training consistently and chasing a time? The Intermediate Marathon plan is the better fit.
WHAT'S IN EVERY SUMMIT PLAN
Coaching built in, not just a list of workouts.
✓HR-anchored to your own threshold
Targets are set from your own heart rate, so they scale to you, not a generic chart.
✓About 80 percent easy
Most of your running kept genuinely easy, with a smaller, sharper share of hard work. Endurance research links the fastest marathon and half-marathon times to more easy running, not more hard.
✓Structured to your watch
Every interval downloads to your device and guides you in real time.
✓A weekly coaching note
Plain English, every Monday: what matters most and what to drop when life is loud.
✓Three doses every week
Full, reduced and minimum, so a hard work or family week never derails the plan.
✓A day-one guide and workbook
The reasoning behind every session, with every term defined in full.
THE INTENSITY THAT GETS YOU THERE
Most of your running, easy.
A big, patient aerobic base does the work, with a smaller, sharper dose of harder running to lift the top end.
Easy ~80%Hard
Polarised training has the strongest evidence, so these plans are built that way. Pyramidal training is also effective, so in one-to-one coaching the balance is tailored to your stage of training and your life load.
Endurance research links the fastest marathon and half-marathon times to more easy running, not more hard (Muniz et al., 2024, Sports Medicine →).
Dr Leighton Wells
PhD · MAppSpSci · TrainingPeaks Level 2 · 7× Ironman finisher · research on 34,731 training sessions
HOW IT IS BUILT
What it is built on
Built the way the evidence says a first marathon lasts: about four of every five kilometres genuinely easy, a carefully limited dose of harder work, and the long run progressed by time rather than ego, capped near 2.5 hours so it builds you up instead of breaking you down.
In the second half of the plan the long run carries a marathon-pace finish, so race day feels familiar rather than improvised, while a weekly quality session sharpens the top end. It opens with an orientation week to settle in, then a benchmark week that sets your zones from a 5 km field test, so nothing in the build is guesswork.
The plan climbs to a single peak about three weeks out, then tapers cleanly so you arrive fresh. Strength is built in twice a week for durability, and every run is anchored to your own threshold, your LTHR (Lactate Threshold Heart Rate), set from that 5 km test. It is built to the same standards behind every Summit run plan.
THE SUMMIT COACHING CYCLE
Coach yourself the way we would.
This is the rhythm we run in one-to-one coaching, and we encourage you to run it yourself when self-coaching. The plan prescribes the training; you measure, monitor and manage, week to week, and each step feeds the next.
PPrescribe
The plan designs each week with intent, built on the method above.
MeMeasure
Capture every session, and just as important, how it actually felt.
MoMonitor
Watch the trends, your fatigue and your life load, not just one session.
MaManage
Adjust, progress or back off, then it feeds into the next week.
THE AUTHORITY BEHIND YOUR PLAN
Peer-reviewed research
Published in leading sport-science journals.
Invited presenter
For AusTriathlon and TrainingPeaks.
European College of Sport Science
Presented at the ECSS 2025 congress in Rimini, a leading global meeting.
ENDURANCE RESULTS FROM SUMMIT ATHLETES
Real results, from real endurance athletes.
50-min 70.3 PB, and a first Ironman finish“I reduced my Ironman 70.3 PB by 50 minutes in less than 12 months with Leighton, and he coached me to my first Ironman finish.”
Andrew Hyde · First Ironman finish 40 minutes off a 70.3“Exceptional, personalised service. Leighton provides great insights and really knows what endurance training is all about. I reduced my Ironman 70.3 time by 40 minutes.”
Scott Hunter · Ironman 70.3 athlete Before you start
You should be able to run a few times a week and want a patient, mostly-easy build rather than a crash course. Newer than that, or building a base first? Start with the 10K plan and step up when you are ready. The plan opens with an orientation week to settle in and set up your watch, then a benchmark week that sets your zones from a 5 km field test, so every later run lands exactly where it should.
FROM PLAN TO COACHING
A plan gives you the structure. Coaching adds the person reading the data.
Buy this plan, and if you later move to one-to-one coaching with Dr Leighton Wells, your first month is free. We pick up from where the plan has taken you, with your training built and adjusted around you, week to week.
Delivered through TrainingPeaks and loads into your calendar from your chosen start date. Train to your own limits and seek medical advice before starting a new program.
I coach triathletes, runners and IRONMAN athletes who want training that fits real life, not just a race calendar. I’m a sport scientist with a PhD in Sport Science, a Master of Applied Sport Science and a seven-time IRONMAN finisher, so it’s evidence-based but lived-in. We read your data and how training is actually landing, keep most of it genuinely easy, and progress in steps you can absorb. If you want a coach who listens, adapts and explains the why, I’d love to work with you.
