Etiquette -- 2 days ago
Running a marathon is one of the most physically traumatic events that most people will ever undertake, and for this reason it should not be taken lightly. When you break down what you have to achieve, and if you give yourself long enough, completing a marathon can be easily achieved though.
Let’s start off by simplifying the goal for this task. Say the goal is to complete a marathon, rather than aiming to finish it in a specific time e.g. sub four hours. The average beginner should leave 16 weeks of training for this objective and training should be split as follows:
You should aim to run five times a week with an average weekly mileage of 25 – 42 miles as your training gets closer to race day. Bear in mind that it will be very important for you to vary the length and speed of your runs drastically. Although it is important to get a good weekly mileage in, I would stress that the majority of your runs are off-road and up hills. This will help strengthen your ankles, knees and hips on a soft surface. Furthermore, doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) on hills lasting 45 – 90 minutes, will hugely increase your muscular power, while reducing blood pressure and resting heart rate.
Spending too long pounding the pavement will only serve to destroy your knees, ankles, hips and lower back. Give yourself enough time to prep and don’t underestimate the trauma that your body will go through while completing 26.2 miles on foot…whilst being timed. When it comes to your nutrition, the sooner you can start eating ‘clean’ the better for your body as you will need to be a well-oiled machine, come race day.
Don’t do anything special to your diet as you don’t want to have a big adjustment period. However, bear in mind that in the final 10 days before your race, you should start carb loading.
What is carb loading, you may ask?
In the week prior to your race you want to increase your body’s natural sugar stores by eating more pasta, roast potatoes and other foods high in low GL sugars. Aside from this, your only other nutritional obligation is to start using your in-race nutrition (‘GO’ bars, energy gels etc) during your longer training runs so you get used to refuelling whilst on the go. Lastly, if you want to train and race injury free, don’t forget to warm up properly and stretch at the end of your training sessions.
P.s. The ultimate runner’s sin is to do the event in especially pretty, new trainers…don’t do it! Run the race in the shoes you have worn-in.
Run safe, run hard, run smart!
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