Marathon Training Tips

Training hard in the two weeks prior to your race, particularly if it is a marathon, will not increase your fitness. In fact, you could spend this time in bed doing nothing at all and it would still not decrease your fitness. Taper or scale back your running during this period to avoid pre-race injury, maximise glycogen storage and preserves muscular freshness.Why taper your trainingTapering involves scaling back your running distance and effort level, and many world records have been set when, because of minor injuries, runners have had to take their training two weeks prior to a race.These athletes were forced to ease off their training, and then they went on to surpass everyone’s expectations. The fact is, training hard two weeks before a race can only hurt you physically. It can cause injury, tear down muscles and deplete your glycogen stores. Tapering your training protects your body from last-minute injury. It also gives your body a well deserved rest, during which time, you will have lost none of your fitness.How do I do it?Many runners continue to train two weeks before a race for psychological reasons. This satisfies a mental urge to exercise and prepare, despite the fact that there are no physical advantages. Finding your own balance between all rest and the amount of exercise you need in order to feel prepared his key.Everyone is different, with varying psychological requirements of exercise. How much you taper your training is therefore a subjective thing, so scale it down to whatever you feel reasonable to you. A good general guideline to tapering is to scale back your distance and intensity by 30%.So, if you had been averaging 40 miles per week in training, you should reduce this distance to no more than 28 miles per week of easy running in a conversational pace. You may even want to run with a personal stereo to ensure that you are disassociating and thereby running easily. This will not deplete glycogen stores or hinder your performance on race day.

During the raceYou’ve put in the required training and now you’re ready for the event. In addition to the psychological tools you’ve used during training, such as visualization and association and disassociation, there are a few other tips and tactics you can use during the race to achieve your fastest race time, or personal brand best.Take it slow at the beginningWhen the race starts, you’ll feel a huge serve the adrenaline, and you may get caught up in the moment. This can translate as running too fast for the first quarter, or even half of the race. Avoid starting too fast at all costs. You may feel great at first, but if you’re running much faster than you thought you could, it’s likely that you’ll burn out and be unable to maintain your speed. In the worst-case scenarios, you may not even have the energy to finish. Try to stay as close to your splits as possible.Always take drinks when offeredDuring races of half marathons and longer distances, you will see drink stations en-route. Do not think stopping for an energy drink and a cup of water will slow you down. These pit stops will keep you hydrated and will give you much needed glucose for energy, both of which will help you in the long term. Always take advantage of them, even if you’re not thirsty. If you wait until you’re thirsty to take a drink, its already too late, you’re dehydrated.Race tacticsThere are three big tricks you can use to shave seconds, even minutes, off your finish time. Drafting is running behind someone, three quarters off their shoulder and it can save up to 7% of your race energy by minimizing your air friction. Run the tangents is running the shortest distance between two points e.g. through curves in the course, which can shorten the distance you cover. It can therefore give you a faster finish time than your non-tangent running competitors. The third tactics is surging, which is a skill born through interval training. It involves periodically increasing your place beyond anaerobic threshold, so as to tire out your competitors. Many Olympic marathons are won by racers who are successful at surging.

TRAINING TO RUN:

Everything depends on your level of fitness. Lance Armstrong said running a marathon was the hardest thing he ever did, I’m just happy to finish one. His sub 3 hour marathon equate to my 1/2 marathon time give or take some minutes. The Basics of running are simple, efficiency of stride, lactic acid threshold, base training, patience and determination.

Training plan: If you’re just starting out, I would suggest running 3 times a week. I would also run a 3 week cycle. The first week of the cycle you train at a specific level. The second week you increase by 10-20%. The third week you scale back to lower than first week’s level. This gives your body time to recuperate and prevents injuries. The first week of your next cycle should be increased by 10-15%. After 3 cycles, reduce you first week pace by 10%. This will work – you just need to be patient.

For example: Distance of every run in the week.

Cycle 1: wk1:1km – wk2:1.2km – wk3:0.9km

Cycle 2 : wk1:1.2km – wk2:1.4km – wk3:1.1km

Cycle 3 : wk1:1.4km – wk2:1.6km – wk3:1.3km

Cycle 4 : wk1:1.2km – wk2:1.4km – wk3:1.1km

Cycle 5 : wk1:1.4km – wk2:1.6km – wk3:1.3km

Cycle 6 : wk1:1.6km – wk2:1.8km – wk3:1.4km

I think you get the picture.

Beginner:

The best method to ease into running is the run walk method. Your body should adjust to running more easily using this method. The time you spend running and the time you spend walking depends again on your fitness level. If you need to walk longer or are able to run more, just do it. You run for 30-60 seconds, depending , you walk for 30 seconds. You do this for a week. The next week you increment you run by 10 seconds, but keep the walk to 30 seconds. As the weeks progress you should be able to gain substantial increase you capacity of running. The ideal for the run walk method is to get up to 10 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking, but it all depends on how you feel. Once you are able to keep a pace of 10-1 for 30 minutes you can start to increase the 10 minute run by 10-20% every week.

The pace you should be in is a Zone 1 pace. Zones are calculated by the hearth rate that is attained with physical activity. Zone 1 pace is (220 – your age) X 60 or 70% – I’m 36 , (220bpm – 36) X 70% = 130 bpm. This is a foundation building pace. This pace is used on long runs because it enables your body to manage lactic acid. A friendly fuel when absorbed properly lactic acid becomes running enemy when it is out of control. The longer you can run at this pace, the more your body will improve his capability to absorb the acid. This is endurance building, and it is the first step to having a great run.

Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles’ Foe, It’s Fuel !

If you need to do more sports during the week, cross training should be your choice. Gym work to strengthen the abs is a plus. Cycling or spinning also gets your heart going without the impact on your knees.

If you are able to run for 30 minutes, my suggestion to you is to get out there and find a nice friendly 5k. This is a celebration of life , a celebration of your new found passion: Running. Turkey trot your way to the end.

Intermediate:

You’ve achieved your first goal and that first 5k is now behind you. You’ve adapted your body to running and now can run 3 times a week for 30 minutes each time and can even push this a bit further.

You now are able to move to the next level. First thing to do is add another running day to your week. This will help you put on the miles and will help you adjust even more to a runner’s regiment. Second thing to do is start mixing up your running workouts. 1 slow long run (zone 1), 2 normal half hour runs (zone 1 maximized- bottom zone 2), and 1 run that is totally different from the other types of runs that your body is accustomed to do. My suggestion is either Hill running or intervals.

Hill running is simple: Find a hill – run it to the top (if you can get up there fine – if not – stop where you’re about to collapse) – once up there – walk back down. Do this 10 times and make sure you keep a pace that you can accomplish it 10 times. If you cannot run it – walk up the hill. This will put pressure on your big leg muscles and should bring your body close to lactic acid threshold, walking back down will help your body manage that load and will push it farther and farther as the workouts progress.

Interval: Warm up with a 15 minute turkey trot. Once you are warmed up – bolt it for 100 meters – as fast as you can without collapsing (85% of your max speed) – just before blowing up – walk for 1 minute. Repeat this for at least 1000 meters (10 X 100 meters). If your body is not too broken, turkey trot your way back home for another 15 minutes … this is great for pushing your lactic acid threshold even farther.

The point of pushing your body this way is to enable you to start picking up speed and finding a way to sustain it. Also – this is a good thing for your running body as it is called upon to adjust and find new ways of coping. Doing the same thing week after week can cause your body to adapt and might hinder your progression.

The goal you might have with these exercises is to improve you PR for your 5K or 10K time, enabling you to get faster and faster. Being faster and enabling your body to cope with it will help you out on your long slow runs. Your lactic acid overload might not be as great as it was before and your threshold of pain and endurance will be heightened.

Once you mastered these techniques and can now run for an hour or more on your slow long runs, a 10K or a half marathon is well within your reach.

Experts:

Elite runners are a breed on their own. They usually have a running stride that looks like a work of art and also have a cardio that can sustain 15-20 km/hour run tempo. Not everybody can achieve this type of running pace and keep it for 2 hours or more.

If you’re at this level and are reading this, you’ve humoured me enough to keep going and could potentially write an article on this web site about how you go about your training. Since Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi are not here to add some advice, I will risk myself and add my two cents to this level of running fitness.

First thing, and expert runner sho

I recently was asked how I would train someone to run a sub 3 hr 30 min marathon. That is 8 minute per mile pace for 26.2 miles.

No problem. I like to keep it simple when it comes to developing training programs. No complex formulas, just hard work. Ask everybody from a particular race that breaks 3 hr 30 min, and you will likely get countless different training methods that enabled them to run that time. Pop your survey at about mile 19 or 20, and I guarantee most will tell you they wish they had done a few more long runs, and they are probably right.

First of all, you need enough speed/endurance to run at least 22 minutes for a 5K. If you cannot do that, I would say a sub 3 hr 30 min marathon might be tough. If you are already that fast, then you need to focus on 3 key components when preparing for a big race.

Total weekly miles: The number of miles you have run in the previous 12 weeks correlates well with your ability to maintain pace the last 10 miles of a marathon. The questions are, how many miles should you do and what is too much? Without conducting the survey, my guess is a peak of 40 miles per week will be necessary to break 3 hr 30 minutes. You can go more, but here is where you need to develop a feel for balancing training and recovery so you can avoid burnout or injury.

Long run: The second component you need for a successful marathon is the long run. No way around this one either, but again the question is raised, how long is too long? You will want to build up your long run gradually. Once you can do a 10 miler I would just add 1 or 2 miles per week until you reach 17 or 18 miles. Do not worry if you have to cut some of these runs a little short because your legs cannot handle it. If you average 9 minutes per mile, that is going to take you in the neighborhood of 2 hr 40 something minutes. Long enough.

How many of these do you need? The more long runs you do beyond 2 hours the better, but my recommendation is try for at least 4 in the 17-18 mile range, completing the last one 4 weeks before your race.

Pace training: You should run miles at 8 min per mile pace or faster, but how many? Set aside one day per week to work on your race pace, using either an interval program or sustained tempo runs. If you choose intervals, then I use the old Yasso 800s, starting with 6 and moving up to 8, with maybe 1 peak workout at 10 if you can handle it. According to theory, these would be done in 3 min 30 sec or under, with at least 3 minutes to recover. If you choose sustained tempo runs, then I would begin with 3-4 miles and work that up to 7-8 miles at 8 min per mile pace or faster.

You might like to race 5Ks, which are usually held on Saturdays. If that is the case, just cut your Friday run in half. You should still be able to run long on Sunday without too much trouble.

Other issues you must consider are preparing for hills and hot weather, but for now lay out the basic plan to see what it looks like.

Sunday is your long run, adding 1-2 miles each week. Four weeks before your marathon, do a 13-15 mile
time trial.

Monday is a rest day, or light cross training.

Tuesday is an easy 5 mile run.

Wednesday is 800 repeats, starting with 6 increasing to 8 by week 4 or 5.

Thursday is another easy 5 miles.

Friday is an 8 mile run.

Saturday is off or light cross training.

You end up with approximately 40 miles per week, 4 quality long runs, and a good solid base of tempo work. As you can see, the 2 days off provide a great opportunity to add some easy miles if you feel the need, or even better cross train. Let the taper begin!

Most taper programs are designed over 3 or 4 weeks. Here is my suggestion.

4 weeks to go: Schedule a time trial 4 weeks before your race. If a half marathon just happens to be on the calendar, perfect. Otherwise take it easy for a couple of days then see how well you can handle your goal pace for 13-15 miles. Wear the gear you plan to use on race day, eat and drink the same way. Lay out an accurate route that simulates the hills that you will encounter on race day, and you can even start at the same time of day as your race. Do not worry if your pace is a littl slow- often the extra rest you get the week before your big day makes all the difference.

You should feel some soreness for a day or 2 following this effort, which is exactly what you want. Take a couple days off and slowly ease back into running. I tend to believe that my legs always come back stronger a month after a hard effort like this.

3 weeks to go: Your long run is now down to 90 minutes. Everything else stays the same.

2 weeks to go: Same long run, but during the week there will be a difference. On Wed and Fri, run a 1 mile warm up then 4 or 5 mile temp run at your 8 min per mile or faster if you can. You will want to feel comfortable running the pace you need to hold on race day.

1 week to go: Your last long run is 60 minutes, then two more mid-week 4-5 mile tempo runs ought to do it, preferably Tuesday and Thursday if your marathon is Sunday. Anything else is just easy.

Day Before: Just relax, eat and drink!

The time to work hills into this schedule would be Friday or actually in the middle of your long run. To prepare for heat, you might want to wear an extra layer or run later in the day starting 3 weeks before your race.

In my late 30s, I was still running decent times and breaking 16 minutes for 5 kilometers, but had not been doing any serious marathon training. As my 40th birthday approached, I decided to give the marathon a shot, just to see how fast I could go.

It turns out that I was fortunate enough to stumble onto a routine that worked extremely well, and I ran the following times after my 40th birthday:

2 hr 38 min Disney World Marathon 94
2 hr 34 min Boston Marathon 94
2 hr 38 min Disney World Marthon 95
2 hr 37 min Fox Cities Marathon 96
2 hr 39 min Disney World Marathon 97

Here is a general outline of what I was doing, as best as I can recall. The focus was always on 3 key workouts per week during the build-up phase, the long runs, the tempo run, and the short interval workout or 5 kilometer race.

Sun long run. I ran up to 17 or 18 miles at 7
minutes per mile pace

Mon easy recovery. Maybe 5 miles at a very relaxed
pace.

Tues medium long run. 10 miles at an easy pace.

Wed easy recovery. Same as Monday

Thurs tempo run 45 min to 60 min at a fast pace

Fri easy run up to 1 hour

Sat intervals, between 4 and 6×800 meters very hard, sub 2:30s or 5K race

Here is the twist. Six weeks before my marathon, I upped the medium long run to another long run, so I was doing 2×17 mile runs just 2 days apart. I found that I could handle the workouts and recover faster than running 20-22 mile runs. So I tried to do 8 two hour runs in a 4 week time period.

Here is another twist. As much as possible, I did one or both long runs off the road. I felt my legs could recover quicker after a trail run than running on asphalt, especially after 2 long hours of pounding.

I followed the 2 long runs per week routine for 4 weeks. After that, I did not do anything over 90 minutes, and only once or twice at an easy pace.

Two weeks out from race day I did 2 or 3 tempo runs each week for 5-6 miles, which I felt would prepare me physically and mentally for 6 minute per mile pace without tearing me down.

According to one of those Race Time Predictor formulas, a 16 minute time for 5 kilometers means you are capable of a 2 hour 36 minute marathon, while a 16:20 predicts 2 hours 39 minutes. I believe most runners must have that kind of speed over 5 kilometers in order to break 2 hours and 40 minutes for 26.2 miles.

If you can do that and follow this training program, I know you can do it. I did five times in a row!

On Sunday, I watched a marathon on TV. A friend leant me her DVD of the Flora London Marathon 2008 TV coverage. Thirty four thousand people crossed the finish line. Sadly I was not one of them, having failed to secure a place in the race. When I lived in London, I was able to cheer the runners on from my garden, and have dreamed of running the race ever since.

So, on Sunday, I actually applied for, and got, a place on a local Marathon. I dusted off my trainers and went for a run, and as I ran, I asked myself how I was going to achieve this goal and make it to the finish line? How do Powerfully Positive People, go from the sofa to the marathon finish line?

If you wanted to successfully compete in the London Marathon, or any other marathon, what are some of the planning issues you will have to face before you get across the finish line?

The first thing to realise is that time is on your side, providing you star early enough. Most marathon training plans last 16 weeks, and this is ample time to train. However having too much time can be almost as bad as having too little. It could be easy for you to lose focus.

Whenever you set a goal, your mind immediately begins to start listing all the obstacles that stand in your way. This is good! Write them down quickly and you already have a list of steps you need to take and you have already started a written plan!

A 16 week marathon training plan will have you covering about 600 miles. At a nine minute per mile pace, this is 5,600 minutes, or 90 hours of running. Split this between the 16 weeks and it works out at 50 minutes a day, every day for 16 weeks.

Doing a long run each weekend of between 15-20 miles at that pace will take you between 2 ½ to 3 hours. You need to get real, and realise that running a marathon will require you to commit large chunks of time over a long period of time. You will need to find the time from somewhere.

How can you do it?

My fist suggestion would be to do what Powerfully Positive People do when contemplating any big challenge. This is they get out their diary, get a pen and a pad of paper and come up with a written plan. You need to do the same, and brainstorm all the steps involved and get them into some sort of order. Having it written down means that you won’t have to worry about forgetting anything important. Also the very act of writing it down has the effect of saying to yourself – this is important to me.

Go on-line and print off a marathon training plan. There are loads out there. Find one that starts at your level and is geared to the sort of finishing time you are aiming for.

Enter your plan into your diary. Put each training run you need into your diary as if it is an important appointment – and keep that appointment.

Tell all your friends and family. This will help you in two ways. Firstly it’ll create peer pressure, making it less likely that you’ll fail. Secondly, it’ll enable your friends and family to give you the space and time to train. They’ll understand why you are not as available as you once were.

Run for a charity. Collecting money for a charity will add to the effort you need to put in. Not only do you have to train but you have to collect sponsorships as well! On the plus side you’ll be more motivated, especially if you are running for a charity that has helped you or someone you know.

Finally have fun and enjoy! You are getting fit and achieving one of your goals as well. Enjoy the process and run with a smile.

Will you be making running a marathon one of your goals?

On Sunday, I watched the Flora London Marathon 2008 on DVD. Thirty four thousand people crossed the finish line. Sadly I was not one of them, having failed to secure a place in the race. When I lived in London, I was able to cheer the runners on from my garden, and have dreamed of running the race ever since.

I had a friend who ran a gym and told me of the many people he knew who had permanently injured themselves as a result of running a marathon.

I also know many runners who have run marathons and done so without long term negative health effects.

So, on Sunday, I dusted off my trainers and went for a run, and as I ran, I wondered just how good is running a marathon for you?

Getting out a calculator, a pen, some paper, a sixteen week marathon training plan, and a calorie guide, I worked out the following.

• If you do a 16 week marathon training plan, you can expect to run about 600 miles over those 16 weeks.

• Running 600 miles is the equivalent of doing about 23 marathons.

• If you run at a four hour marathon pace (about 9 minutes a mile), 23 marathons will take you 93 hours

• That is about 5,600 minutes.

• 5,600 minutes of running at 9 minutes a mile will burn about 88,000 calories. • Burning 88,000 calories is the equivalent of losing 25lbs in weight.

• Training and running a marathon will help you lose between 1 ½ to 2 stone in weight!

The benefits to me of losing this sort of weight, is that it would take me down to my ideal weight. How would losing 1 ½ to 2 stone benefit you?

Are there any other benefits to running a marathon?

Yes there are. Here are just a few of them.

• Increased self esteem.

• Increased fitness.

• More social contacts.

• A lasting sense of achievement.

• Running is fun.

I really like the last benefit. I find running great fun, especially as I vary my running routes as much as possible. Varying your routes always gives you something new to see as you run.

What about injury?

I used to let the thought of injury hold me back. I have since learned that providing you are sensible, and don’t overdo it you should avoid injury. Many injuries result from overdoing the training. Another cause of injury is using poor or badly fitting equipment.

If you want to avoid injury, one of the key things to do when running is to listen to your body. Your body will know when it has almost had enough or when things are starting to go wrong, and it’ll warn you. If you feel pain, don’t ignore it – listen to it and figure out why.

Of course before starting any new system of exercise you should always consult your doctor before hand.

Running a marathon is not easy due to the time you need to commit to training. Powerfully Positive People know this, but have strategies to get past all the difficulties.

·         You need to have commitment, and want it badly enough.

·         You need to have a plan, breaking your big goals into smaller ones.

·         You need to have perseverance, pushing on to each successive goal, just like taking each step when your legs are tired and your feet are aching.

·         You need to reward yourself, patting yourself on the back each time you achieve a goal along the way.

I have shown the rewards in terms of your health, fitness, and mental health more than outweigh the effort you will have to put in to train for, and run a marathon.

Will you use a marathon to help you to achieve your health and fitness dreams?

I have run 15 marathons and finding the perfect pace has always been a problem. I believe that I have a formula for marathon pacing that works. I will explain how to calculate your pace using a heart rate monitor.
The major problem running marathons for me has always been starting out either too fast or too slow. When I start out too fast, by mile 18 I am in serious trouble. With eight miles to go and my body in bad shape things get real ugly. When I start too slow by mile thirteen my legs will usually not respond to the faster paced. I believe this happens because as the legs become tired your stride length and turnover will not increase to a faster pace.
To determine your marathon pace run a half marathon at your best effort during the first week of your marathon training program. Wear a heart rate monitor during the half marathon and record your average heart rate of the entire race. By subtracting 5 beats from this number you will know your marathon pace heart rate.
Example: average heart rate of 150bpm – 5bpm = marathon pace heart rate of 145bpm
Training at this heart rate once a week during your marathon buildup you will learn to run at marathon pace and the correct effort. Start your marathon pace runs at 5 miles and build up to 15 or 20 miles in length.
Your long runs can be used as marathon pace runs as well. Every other week running a long run and adding marathon pace to the second half will improve you fitness tremendously. Once a month use one of your long runs exclusively as a marathon pace run. After a longer marathon pace run over 15 miles use the next week to recover.
At the midpoint of your marathon training run another half marathon and record your average heart rate. Doing this will allow you to monitor any changes in your average heart rate. If your average heart rate increases or stays the same you will know that your training is going well. If your average heart rate goes down, you will have an indication of over training.
As your marathon race date approaches run a half marathon at your best effort three weeks before race day. Use a heart rate monitor during the race to record the average heart rate of the entire race. After the race is over save this number for future reference. Take the average heart rate of your half marathon and subtract five beats from it. This number will be the maximum heart rate for running you’re upcoming marathon.