Alex T. Baker

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Sub-3 Marathon Training With a Job, School, Kids, and XC

Sub-3 is the goal. St. George Marathon is Saturday, October 3. Marathon pace on the plan is 6:52 per mile. Then Snow Canyon half in November — probably the last race of the year. The life around it is not a training camp.

I am 37. Enterprise, Utah, about 5,300 feet. Solo marketing agency. Full-time student. Wife. Two kids. I coach 6th–8th grade cross country. The PRs on the site are a 1:21 half and a sub-38 10K. I can hold sub-6:00 per mile for three or four miles when sharp. I have also posted Mon–Sun weeks at 62.70 and weeks at 10.03.

Fast running, real life. That is the whole pitch. Not a speech about desire.

What full life does to a training week

Miles fit in leftover time. Not the other way around.

Kids practice, agency deadlines, school, and sleep still take the hours they take. XC coaching adds afternoon volume that is sometimes a real run and sometimes a different job that happens to be on your feet.

Recent Mon–Sun evidence, not a highlight reel:

  • Week of 2026-08-24: 62.70 miles, 6 days, long 11.76, quality Heat and speed 10.02
  • Week of 2026-08-31: 10.03 miles, 1 day, six zeros
  • Week of 2026-09-07: 38.40 miles, 4 days, long 19.31, quality none

A sub-3 plan that assumes the middle week never happens will fail people with this calendar. The plan has to survive the cut week without demanding revenge mileage.

Full life also fragments attention. The danger is not only zero days. The danger is a run that should have been easy turning into a frustration session because the rest of the day already spent the patience. That is how injury and junk fatigue show up without a dramatic story.

The written block into October 3

This is the plan on paper for the last weeks into St. George. Planned miles, not a rewrite of weeks that already landed different in the log.

Week of Sep 7–13 — cutback / absorption, ~51 mi planned

Easy midweek. Sunday long 20 with the last 8 at MP 6:52. Actual Mon–Sun that week was 38.40 — the log stays honest even when the sheet wanted 51.

Week of Sep 14–20 — begin taper, ~42 mi

Monday easy 6. Tuesday 2 warm-up + 5 at MP + 1 cool-down (8). Wednesday easy 6. Thursday 2 warm-up + 5x800m at VO2 with 400m jog + 1 cool-down (6). Friday easy 5. Saturday easy + strides 4. Sunday long 14 with the last 5 at MP.

Week of Sep 21–27 — taper, ~32 mi

Monday easy 5. Tuesday 1.5 warm-up + 3 at MP + 1 cool-down (5.5). Wednesday easy 5. Thursday easy + 4x100m strides (4). Friday rest or very easy 3. Saturday easy + strides 4. Sunday long 10.5 with the last 3 at MP.

Race week · Sep 28–Oct 3 — full taper, ~18 mi + race

Monday easy 4–5. Tuesday easy 5–6 + strides. Wednesday easy 3–4 or off. Thursday easy 3–4 + strides. Friday off or 15–20 minutes very easy. Saturday October 3: race day, 26.2. Plan A about 6:50–6:52. Plan B 3:05–3:10 if miles 8–13 feel like work.

Quality types in this stretch: marathon-pace segments inside the long, a midweek MP workout, one VO2 800m session, then strides and shakeouts as volume falls. Peak long on the sheet before race week is 20. Then 14, then 10.5, then the marathon.

Race-day fueling: Honey Stinger gel about every 40 minutes. Friday is off or a 15–20 minute very easy shakeout.

What still has to be true for sub-3

You still need aerobic volume across the block. You still need some quality. You still need longs that progress when the week allows. Living busy does not invent fitness.

What changes is the failure mode. The failure mode is not one bad workout. The failure mode is stacking makeup work after zeros until the next week collapses.

So the non-negotiables get small:

  • Protect easy as easy when the week is intact
  • Keep quality to what the week can hold — often one session, sometimes none
  • Let the long be the long only when the days around it are honest
  • After gaps, re-enter short; quality waits until week 2 back

Altitude stays in the picture. Easy effort at about 5,300 feet is not the same pace as easy effort at sea level. A 6:52 MP goal that ignores that will overcook local weeks.

Home hills still matter: a 7–10 mile loop with about 800–1,000 feet of gain, up and down. Light strength 15–25 minutes, 1–2 times per week earlier in the block — single-leg work, calves, lateral hips. Cut strength first when the week is dying; keep the long. Race week: nothing new.

Phase into October 3 is rebuild and sharpen, not catch-up volume. No jump from a 10-mile week toward 70.

Coaching middle school XC while chasing your own race

Coaching 6th–8th is not the same physiology as your marathon block. Their sessions are for them. Your training is for you.

I coach Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Doubles are common on those days — a personal run plus practice. Sometimes there is only time to run with the kids. Some miles beat zero. Those practice miles count in the log when they are runs. They do not automatically count as quality.

Tuesday is speed / workout day on the sheet. I do not coach that day. That separation matters. Quality stays on the calendar instead of getting swallowed by afternoon practice.

Week of 2026-08-24 had practice miles folded into Monday and Friday totals. Week of 2026-09-07 had 3.06 on Friday as practice. Same pattern: coaching days can carry volume; Tuesday stays protected when the week holds.

The conflict is still calendar and ego. You want to demonstrate. They need restraint and teaching. Easy has to stay easy even when a 12-year-old wants to go harder — especially on a double day when the morning run already happened.

There is also a gift in coaching: you see what happens when kids jump volume. You tell them not to. Then you have to not do the adult version of the same mistake after your own zero week.

Job and school are not cross-training

Agency work and full-time school drain the same decision battery you need to keep easy days honest. A late night does not show up on Strava. It shows up as a zero, or as a run that should have been conversational and was not.

The useful response is not motivational language. It is a week design that expects interruption: fewer moving parts, Tuesday workout when the sheet calls for it, a long that can shrink, coaching doubles when M/W/F allows, and a re-entry rule when the week blanks.

People searching marathon training with full-time job and kids usually get wake up earlier tips. Sometimes that is real. Often it is borrowed sleep labeled as discipline. The version here: Enterprise altitude, M/W/F XC, a protected Tuesday, St. George on October 3, Snow Canyon half in November, and weeks that already prove both 60-ish and 10-mile Mon–Sun realities.

School terms and client spikes are predictable enough to plan around and still disruptive enough that the plan needs a cut-week mode. Cut-week mode is not quit. It is fewer targets, honest logging, and no makeup theater. The Sep 7 week already showed planned ~51 and actual 38.40. The log wins.

What speed still means in this life

The half and the 10K matter because they show the engine can be fast while the life is full. They are not proof every week will be 62.

Sub-6:00 for a few miles when sharp is a tool for workouts when the week is intact. 6:52 is the marathon-pace number on this block. It is not a daily obligation. Week of 2026-09-07 had a 19.31 long and no quality session. That week still counts.

Sub-3 will come from accumulated honest weeks, including the thin ones, not from deleting the thin ones from the story. Speed work that survives this life is usually one hard day, not a menu of five — and it stays off the coaching days.

If the week only has room for the long and easy contact, including running with the kids on M/W/F, take that week. Do not force a quality session to keep an identity alive.

Race calendar

October 3: St. George Marathon, sub-3. Plan A about 6:50–6:52. Plan B 3:05–3:10 if miles 8–13 feel like work. Even effort / heart rate on the early downhill — do not bank time before Veyo.

November: Snow Canyon half — likely the last race of the year.

That sequence matters. The marathon is the A goal. The half is not a second marathon peak pretending to be recovery. After October 3, the work should match a half, not another 20-mile hammer week by default.

What a usable week looks like

When the calendar is open: easy days stay conversational, Tuesday workout as written, long as written on the sheet, M/W/F doubles or kid-miles as time allows.

When the calendar compresses: drop quality first, shrink the long second, keep some easy contact if health allows — including practice-only days — and log zeros without rewriting history.

When the calendar blanks: re-enter short. No makeup long. Quality waits until week 2 back. Do not invent a personal exception because October 3 is close. More on living with both shapes: 60 and 0.

The quiet part

Sub-3 from Enterprise with this calendar is possible only if the training language survives missed days. If your plan cannot survive a 10.03 week, it is not a full-life plan.

Protect Tuesday. Coach M/W/F without turning practice into quality. Take some miles over zero. Race October 3. Then November Snow Canyon. Log the week that happened.

The block I’m using to go under 3:00 is free if you want it.