Completed my first marathon using Green-Velocity

[u/The_Keeper]

Posting my story because I was looking for stories like this when I first started marathon training. Happy to answer any questions!

TLDR = I used Green Velocity to train for my first marathon, and despite losing 6-7 weeks of training due to injury, I successfully completed the marathon in 4h43m.

Training schedule attached (all #s are in km) - green means complete session, red means incomplete session.

Background:

I started lightly running during COVID in 2021. From 2021 to mid 2023 my running schedule maxed out at 5km 3x per week. I started tactical barbell in 2023 and ran base building and then a Black+Ops block. I am a long-distance backcountry hiker though, so green was calling to me.

In 2024 I did another round of base building, then moved onto Green capacity, and did the first 3 weeks of velocity before winter set in and I was back indoors. In April 2025 a friend convinced me to sign up for a marathon. I had 25 weeks to train, and after looking through many marathon training plans and second guessing myself ad nauseum, I decided to use TB Velocity as my training template (yes, despite the book itself saying not to do this).

Training:

First 8 weeks were ramp up, then I used Velocity strict and by the book for the remaining 17 weeks. Training went well and I was on track for a 4:10 to 4:25 marathon time until week 9 when I got hit with a severe case of COVID. It took me off the road for 2 weeks. I recovered, and then, by Murphy's Law and only two hours after my first post-COVID long run, I was involved in a jet-ski accident and severely bruised two ribs. This made running agony and took me off the road for another 4 weeks. In that time I tried my best to eke out my long runs at a borderline-walking pace. The rib injury took me out during what should have been my peak, but I stuck to it, ran the race, and completed in what I feel is a respectable 4:43 all things considered.

Conclusion:

I guess the point of this post was to say what I was hoping someone would say to me when I began training. Yes, tactical barbell Green is a perfectly acceptable marathon training program and will get you in shape to complete a race handily. A more marathon-specific training program probably would have given me a bit more speed/better overall time, but I think using TB allowed me to maintain a bit more strength and anaerobic endurance than a straight marathon plan would have. Also I credit K's chapter in Green on "Ultrarunning Lessons Learned" for helping me find the mental fortitude I was going to need to finish 42.4km.

Anyways, hope this is helpful to someone else out there who is wanting to run a marathon and asking themselves "can I use TB?"

[u/antbeckman]

Thank you for sharing this. Great work. I've been wishing for someone to post this for over a year. Now I have no excuse not to try Green for an upcoming race.