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DR WILL O’CONNOR
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Dr Will’s race-planning protocol

Enter a race-specific key workout and the average heart rate from its final 20 minutes. Then add the race and conditions to generate your plan.

Step 01 · Key workout

For workout pace and distance, enter the marathon-specific work only. Do not include the warm-up, recoveries or cool-down. Use the average heart rate across the final 20 minutes of that work.

Workout data

Threshold inputs

Use your current tested threshold values.

Workout inputs

Workout pace and distance cover the marathon-specific work only—exclude the warm-up, recoveries and cool-down.

FINAL 20 MINUTES91.2% of threshold HR
On protocol

The final-20-minute average sits inside Dr Will’s 88–94% Zone 3 target.

Key-workout conditions

Workout wind exposure. The remaining 50% is treated as crosswind or sheltered. Estimate the marathon-specific work only.

Manual conditions. Enter the conditions you recorded or use the location lookup.

Step 02 · Race day

Select a race to fill its location, or choose your own. Weather values remain editable.

The remaining 50% is treated as crosswind or sheltered. A future course-file import can calculate this automatically.

Race-day conditions

Manual conditions. Enter the conditions you recorded or use the location lookup.

Step 03 · Your plan

Review the inputs above, then generate the race plan and calculation breakdown.

How the calculation works

The key workout remains the anchor. Final-20-minute average heart rate checks whether the effort matched the intended 88–94% threshold-HR range. Workouts at 95–99% remain usable but receive a graduated conservative adjustment.

Weather is compared with the workout conditions. Historical estimates come from NASA POWER; forecasts come from MET Norway. Every value can be replaced with an athlete’s own reading.

Elevation uses climb per kilometre. Wind compares the speed and headwind/tailwind exposure of the key workout with race day, so a windy training route does not automatically make the race forecast slower. Exposure remains manual until course-file analysis is added.

Temperature and marathon performance ↗Energetic cost of gradients ↗Wind and running energy cost ↗

Location data: GeoNames. Weather data: NASA POWER and MET Norway.