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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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
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+
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.
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.
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.
Want more running information from Claudia? Check out the RunToday archive
exclusively at
Road Runner Sports |
