The Right Plan for the Right Race
I want to talk about two things today. For starters, Pete Pfitzinger is the first featured coach on My Mind is Racing.
Photo of Pete Pfitzinger via pfitzingercoaching.com.
In the 1984 Olympic Marathon Team Trials in Buffalo, New York, Pfitzinger became immediately known among American marathoners by taking the lead halfway through the race, relinquishing it in the final mile, then storming past the heavily favored Alberto Salazar in the final fifty yards to win the race, in a time of 2:11:43.
But that’s not where the story ends. Not by any stretch. Pete Pfitzinger went on to finish 11th at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Four years later he finished 3rd at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials in Jersey City, New Jersey, before finishing 14th at the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. In the intervening years, Pfitzinger has co-authored books on running: Road Racing for Serious Runners (1999), Advanced Marathoning (4th edition 2026) and Faster Road Racing: 5K to Half Marathon (2015). Pete also wrote a column for Running Times from 1997 to 2008, holds a BSc and MBA from Cornell and an MSc in exercise science from the University of Massachusetts.
This is all to say that when Pete Pfitzinger puts together a training plan for runners, he knows whereof he speaks. His name is so synonymous with running plans that serious runners say “I’m running Pfitz 18/70” and everyone knows what they’re talking about.
The second thing I wanted to discuss is that Pete now, for the first time, is offering his training plans directly from his own website, rather than only in book form. The new plans follow the same principles as those long available in his books. The training plans from Advanced Marathoning are 18 weeks and 12 weeks in duration, whereas the online versions are 14 weeks and 15 weeks. For the half marathon, the Faster Road Racing training plans are 12 weeks, and the online versions are 11 weeks. All of the new plans are now available at pfitzingercoaching.com and on www.finalsurge.com.
Because Pete is a featured coach, you’ll find his plans surfaced on the event pages when you are browsing Marathon or Half Marathon events.
There’s also a fun Easter Egg. Since Pete has a plan tailored specifically to the TCS NYC Marathon, it will be recommended on that particular event page.
If you’re serious about improving your running performance, I highly recommend checking out Pete’s plans. In the long term, it is my hope that My Mind is Racing can become a gathering place not just for finding upcoming events, but also for finding your new favourite run club, the coolest triathlon shop within 50 miles or the training plan that finally pushes you towards a new personal best.
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