How To Train For A Marathon

Today’s post is courtesy of a friend of mine who is currently training for the Boston Marathon.  He passed along some tips that he’s found useful over the years for marathon training.

Find a partner or coach - This is one of the most important things you’ll do.  You’re going to need someone to measure your time, remind you of workouts, provide motivation to get out of bed and run by your side as you train.  It’s great if you can find someone willing to act as your coach.  They don’t have to be a professional coach since you’re not a professional marathon runner, they just need to be able to read a chart, understand a spreadsheet and yell out times.  It’s even better if your coach plans on running the marathon with you.

Write up a training plan - There are a variety of them available online but here’s a sample that my friend used for training for a half marathon:

• Week 1 - one 6.0 mile run on trail, one 4.0 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 2 - one 6.0 mile run on trail, one 4.0 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 3 - one 7.0 mile run on trail, one 4.5 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 4 - Break
• Week 5 - one 7.0 mile run on trail, one 4.5 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 6 - one 8.0 mile run on trail, one 5.0 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 7 - one 9.0 mile run on trail, one 5.5 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 8 - Break
• Week 9 - one 10.0 mile run on trail, one 6.0 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 10 - one 11.0 mile run on trail, one 6.5 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 11 - one 12.0 mile run on trail, one 7.0 mile run on track and one day of intervals.
• Week 12 - Break
• Week 13 - Half Marathon.

A few things of note here.  First, he took break weeks.  These are very important since long distance running puts quite a bit of stress on your body.  Breaks are important to allow your body to recover.  Second, intervals are where you work on your speed.  In general, he did half the distance he would on that week track run while working on intervals, but he did it at a much faster pace.  Third, try to constantly improve on your time on the track run.  This is the one where you’re really measuring yourself and your coach should be there with you in the center of the track letting you know how you’re doing and what you need to change.

Set a goal - Figure out ahead of time what time you’re aiming for and then train to achieve that time.  Be realistic but don’t forget to challenge yourself.  If you find out during training that you can easily achieve that goal, maybe you should set it higher.  However, don’t undertrain.  That is, if you set a goal for a certain pace or time, why are you training to set a slower time or run a slower pace?

Follow your plan - Don’t deviate from your plan.  It’s too easy to get caught up in the “oh, I’ll just run an extra day this week” mentality.  Don’t do it.  Your training should be nice and constant and should NOT overwork your body.  Three strenuous runs in a week is more than enough.   At the same time, commit to your plan and don’t miss any days.  Let your friends and family know what you’re doing and make sure they’re aware of your new schedule.  Best time to train by the way is in the morning.  There are less demands on your time at 6am.

Walk the course - The week before the marathon, walk or bike the course.  You want to get a feel for how tough it is and driving it in a car just doesn’t do that.  Note the hills, the rough surfaces, the steps, portions that will be in direct sunlight and anything else that might affect your performance.  I know someone who paces his Hawaii marathon running to always stay in the shade of the mountain.  Little things like this can make a big difference.

Test out your gear - The gear you plan to run in should be the gear you’re training in.  Worse thing you can do is buy new gear and not use it until the day of the race.  Running shoes have to be broken in and you don’t want to do that while running a marathon.  Shirt fabrics might be too scratchy or too warm and you want to find that out early.  Running shorts or pants might be too constrictive.  All of these things should be found out ahead of time.

Enjoy the run - Too many people do marathons just to say they’ve done them.  You’re missing the point if you do this.  Marathons are experienced to be enjoyed, not suffered through.  If you’re miserable while running a marathon than perhaps you should pick a different challenge for yourself.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!