They must slowly expand their orbits, spiraling outward like a car switchbacking up a mountain. Reaching escape velocity could take up to a year, which is a long time to expose the crew to the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth. One idea is to use low-thrust rockets only for hauling freight. The second rocket could either be high or low thrust. In one analysis of the latter possibility, a pulsed inductive thruster fires for 40 days, coasts for 85 days and fires for another 20 days or so on arrival at the Red Planet.
Spare propellant shields the astronauts from radiation.
The interplanetary cruise takes another 85 days.