Marathon Training
Schedule by Claudia Piepenburg, editor for
Peak Run Performance
Have your thoughts turned to marathon
training? You're not alone; hundreds of runners are thinking the very same
thing. The reasons for this phenomenon vary from runner to runner, but Chicago,
New York and peer pressure frequently make up the top three.
- If you live in a part of the
country that has cold winters, the arrival of spring often means the desire to
get outside and run is so strong that you'll decide, "why not train for a
marathon this fall since the weather this spring is so gorgeous?"
- Boston Marathon fever. No matter
what part of the country you live in, you probably know someone who's running
the Boston Marathon. Their excitement is infectious; before long you'll start
feeling sorry that you didn't train last year so you could qualify for this
year's race. Then you remember: There's 2003! Or 2004…2005…
- Your marathon-training friends are
challenging you to join them.
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How do I know I'm Ready to Train for a
Marathon?
Although everyone is different and some
people may be more athletically gifted than others, the following guidelines
will help you decide if it's time to seriously consider marathon training.
- Have you been running regularly for
at least a year? Yeah, you may know someone who started running two months
before they ran their first marathon but trust me, that person is definitely an
exception! Running a marathon is serious business, the training is difficult
and whether you finish in three hours or six, you're putting a lot of stress on
your body. You need at least twelve months of solid base training under your
belt before you start marathon training.
- Have you averaged 25-30 miles per
week for the past six months? Running a marathon requires that you run a
minimum of 40 miles per week for at least three or four months. If you're
starting with base mileage of only 10-15 miles per week, it will take three
months or more just to get up to 40.
- Are you at least 21? Running a
marathon is an older runner's sport. Most elite marathoners don't run their PRs
until they're in their late 20s and even early 30s. (Remember Carlos Lopes won
the 1984 Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles at the age of 38.) Besides being
physically demanding, the marathon requires a mental toughness that most young
runners haven't yet developed. Most young people under the age of 21 haven't
learned that patience is a virtue. It takes patience to train for and patience
to run the marathon; you'll appreciate the event more if you wait until you're
both physically and mentally ready.
- Have you had a recent physical if
you're over 40? Even if you've been running 25 miles a week for the past year
or so, it's just common sense to have a physical before beginning marathon
training. (You're probably due for a physical anyway.)
- Have you run at least two or more
races in the past year? A marathon shouldn't be your first race. Even if you
know you won't be finishing any faster than five hours or six hours, you still
need to have some familiarity, and feel fairly comfortable with, race protocol:
porta-potty etiquette, pinning your number correctly, lining up in the right
place, drinking at aid stations etc.
- Do you have the time to commit to
the training? Anyone who has run a marathon will probably agree that actually
running the race is easy, provided you've done the training. The training is
the hard part. Make sure you have support from your family, co-workers and
friends. And if you're in the midst of a lifestyle change: getting married,
starting a new job, beginning graduate school etc., consider putting off the
marathon training for awhile.
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The Training Schedule: How Many Weeks or
Months?
A good marathon-training plan consists of
several cycles
- Base training
- Mileage building
- Strength building
- Speed-work
- Tapering
- Post-race recovery
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The length of each cycle depends on several
factors
- How many years you've been
running.
- Your total average mileage during
the six months leading up to the beginning of training.
- Your propensity for injury (if you
get injured easily, you may want to build up to less mileage and may want to
avoid too many weeks of building strength through hill training).
- Your expected finishing time (if
you plan on running in four hours or more, you may not need to do as much
speed-work).
- Your age (runners over the age of
40 may want to do less mileage and less speed-work).
- The total length of the training
schedule. The longer the cycle, the longer the taper. For example, if you
trained a total of sixteen weeks (four months) you might taper two weeks but if
you trained a total of twenty weeks (five months) you should taper three
weeks.
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Keep in mind that your base training cycle
is critical, you're better off erring on the side of caution and running two
more weeks of base mileage than trying to rush through it and adding mileage
when your body isn't ready.
At minimum your marathon training schedule
should be sixteen weeks (four months), maximum no more than twenty-four weeks
(four months.) Remember that the taper weeks count in the total.
Important Aspects of Marathon Training
Two very important aspects of marathon
training are:
- Training by heart rate (preferably
using a heart rate monitor)
- Following the hard/easy day and
hard/easy week principle
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Heart Rate Training
If you've never used a heart rate monitor
in training, now's a good time to try one. A heart rate monitor can't do your
long runs for you, but it can make your long runs work to your advantage by
keeping you in the right training zone. Running long runs too fast and running
"recovery" runs too fast is one of the most common mistakes people make when
they're marathon training.
If your long run is too fast, you'll
over-stress your ligaments, tendons and bones, which may lead to injury.
Conversely, if your recovery runs are too fast, your body won't get any
much-needed rest, which may also lead to an injury.
Invest in a heart
rate monitor and wear it every time you run. I like to say that the monitor
will "keep you honest". You can't be dishonest with yourself when you're
wearing the monitor because your heart rate will tell you exactly what you're
doing. It does no good to try and convince yourself that you're running a slow
10:30 minute per mile recovery run. If you're really running 8:45 (NOT a
recovery run), your heart will let you know!
The Hard/Easy Training Principle
Adhering to the hard/easy training
philosophy can make the difference between finishing the marathon and not
finishing; avoiding injury and getting injured mid-way through the training
schedule; running your goal time and barely finishing. Every hard day must be
followed by an easy day. What's hard?
- A hard run is a speed-work out of
any type: intervals, fartlek, tempo, lactate threshold.
- A hard run is also a long run. Long
is relative, based on your average daily mileage. For instance, if you're
averaging 5 miles a day during the week, a long weekend run would be 8 to 10
miles. If your average daily mileage is 8 miles, a long run would be 15+
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The easy days that follow hard workouts
should be short and slow. If you did a long Saturday run of 8, you should
follow with a very slow 4 miles on Sunday. How slow is slow? Jogging pace, a
pace that is comfortable enough that you can carry on a conversation easily,
without becoming the least bit out of breath. Use your heart rate monitor to
assess how slowly you're running!
Although hard/easy days may work
well for younger adults, masters (over 40) runners may find that they need more
rest. A more appropriate training schedule for an older runner might
be:
| Day 1 |
Easy |
| Day 2 |
Easy |
| Day 3 |
Hard |
| Day 4 |
Easy |
| Day 5 |
Off |
| Day 6 |
Hard |
| Day 7 |
Easy |
Besides running hard/easy days, you should
also run hard/easy weeks. Training for a marathon puts demands on your body.
Your body can adapt to these demands or new stresses provided you allow it to
adapt in phases. Perhaps you may have seen a marathon-training schedule that
advises runners to bump up their mileage and the length of their long run
sequentially every week:
| Week 1 |
30 miles (long run of
10) |
| Week 2 |
35 miles (long run of
11) |
| Week 3 |
40 miles (long run of
12) |
| Week 4 |
45 miles (long run of
14) |
| Week 5 |
50 miles (long run of
16) |
| Week 6 |
55 miles (long run of
18) |
| Week 7 |
55 miles (long run of
20) |
| Week 8 |
60 miles (long run of
22) |
It's a sure bet that by week five our
hapless would-be-marathoner is going to be exhausted, maybe suffering from a
cold or other upper respiratory distress and nursing a injury. You must
allow your body to adapt to stress incrementally. Add a few miles to your
total weekly mileage and your long run, and then maintain that mileage level
for a week or even two weeks to allow your body to adapt to the new stress
level before you ratchet up the stress level again. A much better training
schedule than the one above would be:
| Week 1 |
30 miles (long run of
8) |
| Week 2 |
33 miles (long run of
10) |
| Week 3 |
30 miles (long run of
8) |
| Week 4 |
35 miles (long run of
11) |
| Week 5 |
33 miles (long run of
10) |
| Week 6 |
40 miles (long run of
12) |
| Week 7 |
35 miles (long run of
10) |
| Week 8 |
40 miles (long run of
14) |
It may take this runner a little longer to
get to those all-important 18-20 miles runs, but chances are that he or she
will remain uninjured throughout the training and will arrive at the start line
marathon morning feeling ready to run.
You'll notice that the above
training schedule is based on a hard/easy week pattern, one week hard followed
by an easy week. Depending on your past running experience, age and propensity
for injury you may want to change that to a two weeks hard, one week easy
schedule. If you can handle two hard weeks in a row, go for it! Just don't get
caught in the trap of increasing mileage week after week without giving your
body a rest.
Choosing which Marathon to Run
You've got hundreds of marathons to choose
from, how do you know which marathon is best for you? Here are some guidelines
that will help you make a choice.
- Timing is a critical factor when
choosing a marathon. If you have five months to train, you'll obviously look
for a marathon that is at least five months out.
- Keep it close to home. Particularly
if you're running your first marathon, it's a good idea to stay as close to
home as possible. You'll want the support of family and friends cheering you on
and running a marathon in or very near your hometown allows you to train on the
course so there won't be any surprises come race day!
- If this will be your first
marathon, avoid races with unusual topography, such as courses that are
point-to-point and downhill the entire way or run entirely on dirt paths. Once
you've become more adept at running marathons you can try a funkier
course.
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Setting Goals
It's important when training for a marathon
to have a goal. If this will be your first attempt at the marathon distance
your goal may be just to finish. That's a reasonable goal, although you may
want to add these caveats. You not only want to finish, but you want to finish
without getting injured and you want to finish knowing in your heart that
you'll run another one sometime in the future. It's important that your goals
be both attainable and reasonable. Don't set goals that you'll never achieve,
you'll become disheartened and may not want to run another marathon. And make
sure your goals are in line with the amount of time you have to train, your
past experience and your age.
If you're running your second or third
marathon, you might want to try setting three goals:
- "I'll be happy with this" goal,
which might be running one or two minutes faster than your previous race.
- "I'll be even happier with this,
but not disappointed if I don't do it" goal, which could be running five to ten
minutes faster than your previous race.
- "Wow! I'm thrilled, this was my
dream" goal, which could be anywhere from a fifteen to thirty minute PR.
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Keep things in Perspective
Running a marathon is a tremendous, often
life-changing experience. People have credited marathons for lifting them out
of deep psychological depressions; giving them the strength to get out of
abusive relationships; helping them cope with the death of a loved one; even
making it possible for them to deal with addictions to drugs or alcohol. It's
important however to keep the marathon experience in perspective. Marathon
running is a test of strength and mental fortitude as well as physical
conditioning but don't let it take over your life. Remember that a
well-balanced life is a healthy life. Running four marathons a year doesn't
necessarily mean that you'll feel four times better than if you ran only one.
Focus on quality, not quantity and keep in mind that if you couldn't quite get
in the marathon training this year, there's always next year!
About the Author:
Claudia Piepenburg has been running for 21
years and is the current editor for Peak Run Performance. She holds or has held
state age-group records in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and
Virginia. In 1990, she was ranked 18th fastest masters woman in the world and
8th fastest masters woman in the U.S. in 1990 and 1991. She competed in the
1988 Olympic Marathon Trials, was 20th woman overall in the 1987 Boston
Marathon and women's winner of the 1986 Virginia Beach Marathon. If you have
questions or comments for Claudia, she can be reached at
askus@roadrunnersports.com .
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