There are a number of training plans for preparing your body for a marathon. Preparation is key and without appropriate training, running can be an exhausting and potentially painful experience. As physiotherapists we often see runners with injuries. These can be biomechanial in nature, overuse, or simply poor training and preparation. The most common of which are Achilles Tendinopathy, Patello-femoral pain, Plantar-fasciitis, medial tibial stress syndrome (shin spints) and stress fracture of the foot or tibia.
So What Can I Do?
Make sure you include longer slow paced runs in your marathon training programme.
The ability to perform prolonged endurance exercise is strongly influenced by the amount of glycogen (glycogen = stored form of glucose/fuel source) stored in muscles. A marathon requires the largest glycogen storage capacity possible. Longer runs serve as a stimulus to the body by depleting the muscle’s glycogen stores and forcing them to rely on fat stores as a fuel source.
It is also ok to sacrifice speed for mileage, you should drop your pace for your longer runs quite significantly to a pace where you can carry out a conversation. Don’t be afraid that this will result in a loss of fitness, quite the contrary, it will allow for your muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones to adapt to the new stress you are putting on your body. As a consequence you will be less likely to experience injuries such as those mentioned above.
How Often Should I Train?
A beginner marathoner, you should ideally train 4 times a week. It is generally considered sensible to incorporate both longer runs (as mentioned previously) and interval training that incorporates speed work into your programme. On all other days you should give your body a rest from running.
Rest and recovery in your training schedules will likely result in less injury and more consistent running. The key is to stress or overload your body with a hard workout and then to allow it to recover while it adapts. To improve, a runner must progressively overload his or her system with more frequency, intensity, or duration of training efforts.
There are many different marathon training programs out there, and many different opinions on what the optimum amount of time needed to prepare is, however you should consider beginning your training at least 5 months before the race.
