About marathon training basics
Spring marathons are fast approaching and with the possible best intentions I’d like to share some thoughts about what I think are some of the key concepts in marathon training.
I’m definitely not going to go into the various approaches experienced marathoners can use or the multiple coaches and methods available. That world of running can be quite complex and when not very experienced it can be extremely easy to get distracted by the wrong buzz words and the wrong sessions ultimately resulting in burn out or injury.
Every year, at the London marathon alone, there are hundreds of people who start their marathon training with the best intentions and end up not making it to the start line due to injury. Most runners embarking on a marathon tend to at least double the amount of running they are used to, in a very short space of time. In some cases they even attempt to follow training plans designed for consolidated, experienced runners, with very little base and focusing on the desired time as opposed to their current fitness reality.
If I had £1 for every time a marathon novice ends up being fatigued, demotivated or injured I would have enough money to retire (or become a full time coach). And just for the record, I know because I have also done that!
The marathon distance, by nature, is insanely difficult to run. The human body is not primed or in any way conditioned to run for that distance. Perhaps 1,5 millions of years ago humans were more suited to run for long periods, as hunter gatherers, but in this day and age most of us lead a very sedentary life. We don’t move enough and we eat too much. Yes, we definitely eat way too much for what is essentially required to support our energy needs.
So the first thing to consider when we start thinking about running a marathon is how long do we have to train for it. The answer, in most cases, is not long enough. For those running London maybe we’re talking about 12–16 before the marathon. Definitely not long enough to adapt our bodies enough to a point we minimise the risk of injury.
Generally speaking, a lot of people running the London marathon are mainly interested in the actual day, running the marathon, and they’re not so attentive or focused on the actual work to get there. Now, by work I don’t necessarily mean training hard in the way of running more, I am referring to being disciplined about diet, rest, time to prepare, etc.
For a novice (and advance marathoners for that matter), I feel, the minimum length of time required to prepare the body for endurance running and complete a marathon would be about a year. Structured in various phases or cycles, of course, but 12 months is what I think it genuinely takes to prepare for the gruelling distance, whatever the level.
There needs to be an initial period of base training where we slowly teach our bodies to be more active, lose weight, get stronger, etc before we even focus on targets, quality runs or speed sessions. This is not me saying don’t do those things, the point is that the priority should be creating a good base on which to build. The better the base the more specific we can then be in our quality runs later on.
I would like to use this space, then, to debunk (or shine a bit light on) some marathon training myths:
- “The weekly long run”. Let’s be clear, there is not universal running law that says we must do a weekly long run or else we’re doomed. There is, however, the need for a sensitive approach to getting the body used to spending more time on our feet. TIME. Not distance. We want to get stronger and get the body used to the energetic and muscular stress we will be encountering on the day so it’s smart to do long runs. The issue here is that those long runs don’t have to be weekly and they need to be very progressive.
As I explained before, most London marathon runners are not used to running the amounts they take on when preparing the marathon. So the best way to do this is without getting injured. A long run becomes a long run, it doesn’t start as one. No runner should start running for 2h30m from virtually nothing and expect to feel great. We must start with what we’re used to and progressively start increasing the length of TIME. The number of weeks, number of runs and total distance will vary depending on the athlete and a bunch of variables. This means that we might not be ready to go long every week. We might need to do one every 10 days or even every fortnight. The body does not care much for Monday to Friday and when the weekend is.
An example of this would be to run 10 runs of minimum 90 minutes in 16 weeks going from 90 to 2h30m and even maybe 2h45m just the once. I very rarely think 3 hours or more is advisable when the main objective is no to get injured and a big jump in that long run can really end up in injury. - “More is better”. Distance running, of course, is about more running but yet again it’s paramount to highlight that more important than running more is running full stop. If we’re injured we can’t run. I think I’ve said this before but it’s still true… The ideal mileage is the lowest we can get away with to reach our objective. Why run 30 miles a week if we can achieve our target with 20? Why run 100 miles when we can get the time we want with 60?
What happens, instead, is that we start obsessing about mileage, number of runs or pace and we lose track of what’s really important. The actual physiological gains by stress and recovery, not the numbers. Running 7 days straight in itself is not important. The important thing is to increase strength and endurance and it could be that the best we to achieve that is by running 7 days straight but one is the result of the other. It could be that there is a better way to reach the goal and it could include having more recovery days, longer runs, slower pace or a range of more variables. IT ALWAYS DEPENDS. On what? The athlete, the stress they’ve been under, their genetics, experience, personal lifestyle, and a million more variables.
So no, more is not always better. - “How can you run fast if you don’t train fast?” This is probably one of the most confusing mantras repeated over and over again. For endurance running speed is not the most important factor. FACT. Without the necessary endurance speed becomes useless over 42.198 kilometres.
When it comes to faster runners there is a strong element of improving speed before speed endurance can be developed, but that assumes that the athlete already has a good endurance base. Even the fastest runners run slow.
Be it recovery runs, easy runs or long runs, a good 70%-90% of all the running we do must be done slow. That work is absolutely crucial to endurance development. It helps the body operate consuming more fat stores as energy and it makes us stronger runners. Without that strength, tackling speed can be counterproductive.
Also, what is fast? Is it flat out running? Is it 3–5 minute intervals? Is it threshold running? Is it marathon pace? There’s, yet again, too many variables to be lumping in everything as “train fast”. We need to be very careful, in endurance running, that everything we do has a purpose. Yes, working on technique, leg speed, our anaerobic threshold, etc. is important but it must be done smartly to provide key improvements and not as a simplistic mantra. - “Running when tired helps train for a marathon”. FALSE!!!! Running when tired is something only very experienced athletes do and always within their limits and trying to ensure a balance between stress and recovery. That “running when tired” for advanced marathoners can be part of their stress, their loading. But when it’s time to recover, they recover. Otherwise improvements can not be gained and we will, most likely, end up fatigued and burnt out.
Endurance running, in the end, is simple. STRESS + RECOVERY = GROWTH. Stress can come in many forms and recovery can also come disguised as a recovery run, a relaxing swim or staying in bed for two days (those who can) but the aim is to grow so if we put more stress than we can handle or we don’t recover enough the body will shut down. FACT. - “I can eat what I want and as much as I want because I’m training”. FALSE. Running helps metabolise food quicker and that means we get more efficient at burning what we eat but, unfortunately for me, we still have to burn more than we consume in order to stay at the appropriate weight for taking on the training. There’s not such thing as fat or thin in running, there is ideal weight for taking on the training. That may mean, in some cases, more muscle weight and in some other cases less fat weight. It depends.
But whatever the body, we still need to make sure we manage nutrition well. Little, often and targeted food groups is preferable for sustainability and energy throughout the day. So we eat at the right times to be strong enough to tackle the run and then we replenish after the run. The aim is not to lose weight. But conversely we can’t just go mental with carbs all the time, sometimes they’re just not needed.
I am not intending to lecture or prescribe to anyone but I hope the following high level marathon training structure can help some less experienced runners:
Phase 1: Base building. 4 to 12 weeks.
In this phase we need to focus on getting used to running regularly. We need to establish a routine. How many days a week can I run? What time of the day? Do I have enough running gear? Do I need new running shoes? Do I get enough sleep?
This base building phase can be one of most difficult times during the entire marathon preparation. The change from our usual routine to a new one can be difficult. We start very keen but it’s really easy to do too much too soon and after 2–3 weeks the body starts falling apart, the motivation weans and it may be very easy to stop running altogether from the bad experience.
During this base building we have to be very patient and make sure we don’t start making changes to our diet right away. We need to take our time to get to a new fitness level, hence the 4 to 12 weeks period to get there. Think of it as decompressing when going underwater. Small gains, adapt, normalise, etc.
We really don’t need to do much speed or quality running in this phase other than to keep running as much fun as possible. Group runs, parkruns, long ones (not proper long yet) with friends,… keep it dynamic and fun.
In this phase we also need to introduce the ABC of running. Agility, Balance and Coordination. Introducing some drills and exercises to help with where we are weakest. There are hundreds of videos online to help with some of those exercises.
Towards the end of this phase we then want to introduce some positive diet habits into our routine like perhaps reducing alcohol intake, limit portion sizes slightly or getting used to healthy breakfasts and regular consumption of certain healthy foods (fruit and veg).
Some ways of measuring progress are weight loss, revitalised energy, a slight improvement in pace when running “easy” or even a parkrun PB. In my case it’s mostly weight loss.
- Phase 2: Conditioning. 2–8 weeks.
This phase is mostly about getting stronger. Using that established routine to start building some good strength.
The most obvious and common ways to do this would be through the introduction of hills in our regular running. This can be as part of our normal easy running or by starting to do some hill workouts once a week. In addition we can find several core work exercises online which can be done at home regularly.
In this conditioning phase we should be feeling stronger and healthier than ever. It’s very easy to start getting carried away and start racing too often or increase volume too much. We definitely need to remain patient if we’re to make steady progress and peak at the right time.
As part of this phase we can also start introducing some speed workouts or faster paced runs. Fartleks, progressive runs, track workouts are very suitable options but they must be kept manageable as we’re working on getting stronger and faster, as opposed to giving it all and get completely destroyed during those sessions. We are still building.
By now some of the ABC work has helped to improve our running technique and we feel lighter and faster.
Ways of measuring progress here are improved cardio during hilly runs, speed gain during shorter runs (track and parkruns), we should get more toned (muscularly). Weight may have stabilised but we continue to drop fat only that we gain muscle.
- Phase 3: Specific marathon training. 12–16 weeks
The actual marathon work starts! Ideally we would contact a qualified coach and get advice on creating a personalised plan. Generic plans off the internet or magazines/books can be a lottery and they really don’t cater for personal adaptations.
During this phase we focus on running faster for longer essentially. We tackle the longest runs, the most intense workouts and we continue to get faster but the priority is endurance. This phase is a mine field and can easily result in injury. We must ensure we have enough rest, we recover well and replenish after every effort.
In my case during this phase I do a lot of work around threshold pace, marathon pace and getting used to running on empty. For novices, this phase is more about consolidating the long runs, increasing to the highest weekly mileage and do some work closer to anaerobic (lactate) threshold to work on improving our running efficiency (oxygen utilisation).
We try out gels, marathon day attire, fuelling techniques, practice marathon morning routine (including breakfast), etc. It’s really about getting marathon ready.
We measure success here by getting PBs in shorter distances (maybe a parkrun or a HM), and by how quickly we recover from our efforts. Fatigue here is the enemy. We want to focus on key sessions and recovery. The previous 6–20 weeks prior to this phase should have given us enough of a base to be able to handle this work. It should be testing and hard work during the effort but we should be able to recover quickly.
- Phase 4: Taper. 2–3 weeks.
The taper period is often the most misunderstood and confusing part of the marathon preparation. I seem to remember writing a blog about it last year or the year before and no doubt I will write another one in due course, but for now, the only comment I will make is that taper is not the time when we stop running. We stop running when we cross the finish line of the marathon. Taper is a small decrease in volume (both for the microcycle and each individual unit or session) but we keep most of the intensity and regularity of our runs. More of that to come.
So there, I hope this has helped some people navigate marathon training. I’ll finish with some positive reinforcement:
- It will get easier.
- It is absolutely normal to have doubts.
- Every run counts. Don’t look for immediate improvements after every run.
- All runners feel down and stressed and unmotivated at one point or another. It’s ok. Just keep at it.
- You run because you like it. It may not feel like it sometimes but try to rediscover the fun in running.
- Niggles are ok but they need attention. No injury lasts forever.
- If you need to, take a few days off. IT WILL HELP! The marathon will not be a disaster because you took a few days off in February or March. Just get back to easy jogging and enjoying a short small run as soon as you can and it will get better.
- Small and often beats big efforts. Be patient.
- Don’t obsess about pace and speed. Getting out and running is good enough.
