Are you training for your first marathon? Or are you an experienced runner with many races under your belt? Regardless of your background, you will need a good marathon training plan to finish the run successfully.
There are many aspects to training for a marathon. You need to bolster your stamina, speed, and psyche to even finish the race, let alone achieve the desired time.
Before starting to train for a marathon, you might want a few questions answered. How do I train for a marathon to get the best results? How long should I train for a marathon? What is the best marathon training plan for me?
This article will give you general marathon preparation tips and offer different marathon training programs depending on your previous experience.
On Your Marks: Quintessential Pre-Starting Tips
This section will be dedicated to new runners. If you are a pro, feel free to skip straight to the popular marathon training plans below.
Our first tip is to start training early. Most coaches recommend running a consistent base mileage for at least a year before starting proper marathon training. If you jump straight into a race routine, you risk suffering injuries or dropping the training before getting significant results. While you can sometimes continue training while injured, losing motivation can knock you out of the training regimen for many weeks, dwindling your chances of success to nothingness.
Be sure to increase your base mileage slowly. If you increase the distance by more than 10% per week, you are asking for a stress fracture to happen.
You might want to start with a shorter race. For example, half marathons are great for beginners. They will test your mettle but not shake you to your core.
When choosing your first marathon, you will have two major choices: running in a familiar spot or going outside your comfort zone. On the one hand, racing on your home turf will give you the “home field advantage.” On the other hand, picking a marathon in a place you always wanted to visit might stoke your motivation for the whole training process. Choose what you think is more important for you.
Get Set: The Four Horsemen of Marathon Training
Whatever your experience, we recommend reading this section to better understand the motivation behind our training plans. When training for a marathon, you will have four base phases.
Base Mileage
Grow your weekly mileage slowly, running 3–5 times per week. Most marathon training plans last 12–20 weeks. Beginners should strive to achieve 50 miles per week over the training course.
Long Run
Do a long run every 7–10 days to let your body adjust to the arduous stretches, increasing the distance by 1–2 miles per week. Every 3 weeks have a “recovery run”—it will be a few miles shorter to allow your body to recover.
These runs will teach your body to burn fat for energy and build mental fortitude to last the whole distance.
Speed Work
Train your speed and cardio. We highly encourage you not to skip these types of training sessions. They will help you keep a faster pace during the race without losing your breath.
The most popular speed and cardio running workouts are interval and tempo runs.
Intervals are high-intensity, short-distance runs broken into sets with recovery jogs or walks in between. For example, you will have 4 sets where you run 1 mile at a hard effort, then rest for 5 minutes.
Tempo runs are a bit longer but less intensive. You will run for 4–10 miles at a pace that is a bit faster than your long-distance pace. This will slowly push your body to get used to hard effort running and bolster your resolve.
Never forget about warming up before and cooling down after doing cardio.
Rest and Recuperation
Prevent injuries and burnout by having enough rest between runs. You can also do cross-training and stretching during these phases. This includes walking, hiking, cycling, swimming, yoga, weightlifting, and other low-impact activities.
Go: Marathon Training Plans for Everyone
Beginner Marathon Training Plan
This 16-week marathon training plan is meant for total beginners. If you have never run in your life and want to participate in a marathon, this routine will help you achieve enough to finish a race.
Week 1
Monday
R&R—increase time on your feet and build a strong foundation androutine
This 20-week marathon training plan is meant for seasoned athletes with a few races under their belt. If you want to achieve peak performance, try this plan. This plan also introduces two novel training techniques.
First, you will get introduced to hill running. Running uphill shifts the focus to a different muscle group, so your body will need to adjust.
Second, fartleks. Swedish for “speed play,” fartleks will see you constantly changing pace.
Week 1
Monday
R&R
Tuesday
30-minute steady run.
Wednesday
45-minute easy run.
Thursday
34-minute tempo interval. Easy jog—10m, 2 x (tempo run—5m, easy jog—2m), easy jog—10m.
Friday
R&R or cross-training. Do core and stretch.
Saturday
55-minute run. Easy jog—15m, tempo run—10m, easy jog—5m, hill run—10m, easy jog—15m.
Sunday
1h15m steady run.
Week 2
Monday
R&R
Tuesday
40-minute steady run.
Wednesday
50-minute easy run.
Thursday
34-minute tempo interval. Easy jog—10m, 3 x (tempo run—5m, easy jog—2.5m), easy jog—10m.
Friday
R&R or cross-training. Do core and stretch.
Saturday
55-minute run. Easy jog—15m, tempo run—10m, easy jog—5m, hill run—10m, easy jog—15m.
22-minute run. Easy jog—10m, fast run—2m, easy jog—10m.
Saturday
R&R
Sunday
Race day
Conclusion
Finishing a marathon is an extremely gratifying experience—morally and physically. However, preparing for it is a big challenge in itself. You will need all the physical tenacity and mental fortitude you can muster to finish one of these training plans. But if you do, you are in for a treat.
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