GOALS / HUB 01 · ENDURANCE

Run a faster marathon.

Four trainable qualities decide the distance: your ceiling, the fraction of it you can hold, the cost of holding it — and how slowly all three decay.

living reviewNOT PUBLISHED YET

components published0/4

VO₂max also buildsLongevity · Time-efficient →

THE LIVING REVIEW — ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE

example preview · every claim will link to its trials

EXAMPLE — REPRESENTATIVE OF A PUBLISHED REVIEW

This shows how a completed living review will read. The findings, counts and certainty grades below are invented to illustrate the design — no review has been published for this goal yet, and nothing here is a result. Do not train from it.

What actually improves endurance performance — and by how much?

Going hard beats going long for raising your engine’s ceiling — intervals top the ranking.

Different parts need different training — your threshold and efficiency don’t respond to what raises the ceiling.

Lifting helps your running — heavy strength work makes you more efficient without blunting fitness.

from 412 trials · 18,940 people · certainty varies — see the findings on the right

FOLLOW ITS PROGRESS →PubMed · OpenAlex · Europe PMC · ClinicalTrials.gov

KEY FINDINGScertainty · GRADE

K1Higher-intensity intervals raise VO₂max roughly 2× more than moderate continuous training over 8–12 weeks.HIGH

K2Adding 2×/week heavy strength training improves running economy 2–4% in trained runners.MODERATE

K3Threshold responds most to sustained tempo work near race pace — not to more easy volume.MODERATE

K4Durability has almost no direct trial evidence— the field’s biggest gap, now being scoped ↓VERY LOW

THE ASSEMBLY — PICK A COMPONENT

component → 02 analysis → 03 structure → 04 plan

publishedresearch in progressplannedgap

VO₂max

ml·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹ · the ceiling

the most oxygen you can turn into forward motion — sets the upper bound on race pace. Review finding K1 applies.

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS

review preparation underway

CUSTOMISE THE ANALYSIS →

Lactate threshold

% of VO₂max · the fraction

how much of the ceiling you can hold for hours — the strongest single marathon predictor. Review finding K3 applies.

PLANNED

next after VO₂max

watch this answer →

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW — YET

G1Durability is a planned evidence question (review finding K4). Its definition, eligible tests, time points and search plan are still being developed.

G2Threshold and economy still need separate, their own complete evidence reviews before any comparative treatment claim can be made.

G3Long-duration follow-up is a prespecified coverage dimension for the future endurance edges; its evidence gap has not yet been audited.

These are open research questions, not findings from an unpublished review.

GOAL-SPECIFIC EVIDENCE

Marathon-specific trials — pacing, long-run structure, taper — are catalogued separately from the four components above.

COMING SOON — GOAL-SPECIFIC TRIALSThey appear here once this hub’s synthesis note is peer-checked. Nothing is catalogued for public reading yet.

follow the queue in the pipeline →

← all goals next: Longevity & healthspan → · Time-efficient training →

Run a faster marathon.

THE LIVING REVIEW — ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE

THE ASSEMBLY — PICK A COMPONENT

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW — YET

GOAL-SPECIFIC EVIDENCE

THEN TURN IT INTO TRAINING