Every runner training for the BMW Dallas Marathon is logging more miles, tracking splits, and chasing PRs.
But one question few ask is:
“Am I programming my training in a way that helps my body adapt, rather than break down?”
That’s where the concept of macrocycles, mesocycles, and microcycles comes in.
At North Dallas Physical Therapy, we help runners understand the science of how the body adapts, and how to move efficiently through each phase. It’s what we call the Body-to-Run Connection: linking your movement quality to your running performance.
Even if you’re following a marathon plan, it’s easy to lose sight of how it’s structured, and what your body needs in each phase.
Your macrocycle is the entire season. It outlines your long-term goal: finishing strong, setting a PR, or staying healthy throughout the training cycle.
Each mesocycle lasts about 3–6 weeks and focuses on a specific goal, like base building, speed work, or tapering. This is where the right balance between training load and recovery matters most. Most of the time you see your “offseason program and or pre-season program in this phase of training."
Your microcycles are your week-to-week schedules, the day-by-day details. This is where runners often overdo it by stacking too much intensity and not enough recovery.
When these cycles are programmed correctly, your body adapts. When they’re not, pain and fatigue creep in.
Our Body-to-Run Connection Assessment ensures your body is ready for each training phase, by identifying mobility, stability, or movement limitations that can derail progress.
📅 Book Your 60-Minute Body-to-Run Connection Assessment
Pain during marathon prep isn’t “just part of the process.” It’s information, and your body’s way of signaling inefficiency.
We use two evidence-based tools to uncover the why behind your pain or limitation:
For runners not currently in pain, the FMS identifies movement patterns that could become future injury risks. Think of it as a performance diagnostic that helps you train smarter before problems start.
For runners with current pain, the SFMA digs deeper to find the root cause, not just the symptom. Knee pain might originate from hip or ankle dysfunction. The SFMA helps connect those dots.
Together with our running analysis, we can see exactly how these patterns show up in your stride and design a plan that keeps you running strong.
One of the easiest changes you can make is improving your running cadence, the number of steps you take per minute.
Many runners we assess take long, slow strides that increase ground impact and stress on the knees and hips.
Our goal is to help you gradually increase cadence toward at least 170.
Here’s an easy way to start:
Increase your cadence by just 2 beats per minute per week until you’re close to that target.
This simple tweak reduces ground contact time, improves efficiency, and decreases injury risk.
We’ve seen countless runners perform pain-free by making this one change, even just after the evaluation..yes you heard me right. That’s one visit making them pain-free in running!
Whether you’re ramping up mileage or managing tightness, your body’s movement quality determines how far and how fast you can go.
Our 60-minute Body-to-Run Connection Assessment combines:
You’ll leave with clear insight into what your body needs to train smarter, recover better, and run pain-free.
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