Cutback weeks drop mileage every third or fourth week so your body can absorb hard training and adapt. A cutback week is a planned easier week with less total running built into a marathon plan. Most plans build for two to three weeks, then pull back before pushing higher again. That dip is deliberate, not lost fitness.
Medical information disclaimer: This article is for general educational purposes only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a physician or other qualified health professional about symptoms, medications, tests, or treatment decisions.
Table of Contents
- How much mileage drops
- What your body gains from the easier week
- Why the break comes every third or fourth week
- What happens to the long run
- When cutting back can hurt
How much mileage drops
According to Run Project, many marathon plans cut total mileage by about 20-30% in a cutback week, such as dropping from 30 miles to 22-24 miles in its guide to building volume. The lower total still keeps you running regularly. It simply reduces load for seven days.
You run shorter easy runs and trim workouts. The goal is less cumulative stress. Next week you return to normal buildup.
What your body gains from the easier week
Hard weeks create small damage in muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments. The easier week gives those tissues time to repair and grow stronger.
Runners also absorb prior training, consolidate fitness gains, recharge mentally, and reduce risk of overuse injuries and plateaus. Fitness improves between hard efforts, not only during them. Rest makes the next buildup possible.
Why the break comes every third or fourth week
Researchers describe marathon programs as periodic, often using 4-week cycles of three weeks of increasing load followed by one lighter recovery week for adaptation, according to the 2022 study article in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. Three hard weeks provide enough stimulus. The fourth week lets adaptation catch up.
Coaches also point to mental fatigue. Treating a long marathon block as harder every week becomes mentally and physically exhausting. A scheduled down week breaks that strain.
What happens to the long run
The reduction usually falls heavily on the long run. One example progresses long runs from 6 to 7 to 8 miles, then drops back to 6 miles in the recovery week.
Coach Hal Higdon's 24-week Marathon 3 program uses the same idea on a larger scale, with stepback weeks every third week while building toward three 20-mile long runs on only three running days per week, as shown in its official training schedule. Shorter long runs lower pounding on legs. Midweek runs often shrink as well.
- Keep all cutback-week runs easy and controlled
- Shorten the long run more than weekday runs
- Hold one session with light turnover instead of heavy volume
- Resume the prior high mileage the next week, then build slightly beyond it
When cutting back can hurt
Cutting volume too much or too early can make fitness peak before race day. That leaves you flat when it matters.
To avoid that problem, marathoners should limit the final taper to 2-3 weeks and retain some race-pace work, according to RunnersConnect. Use cutback weeks during the middle of training. Save the true taper for the final weeks before the marathon.