Marathon Training Tips

Training tips for your running event

Your training needs to be planned and structured

• Plan to work up to a specific event giving yourself enough weeks for your training to have an effect
• Set a goal and targets to achieve but make the plan flexible to cope with greater or lesser improvements
• A plan for training will get you there, plan for how you will perform in the event too
• If you feel you don’t have enough training time before the event, do not give up on training, just extend your plan to work to the next event

Your training needs to provide progressive overload of intensity, volume and  frequency

• Improvements happen because of adaptation, adaptation occurs because of regular, repeated, progressively more challenging training
• Intensity can be measured through heart rate or simply your ability to talk to someone as you train. Ensure as your training progresses you continue to build the intensity. Listen to your body
• Volume needs to reflect your ultimate goal, as your training progresses the final weeks should be close in distance to that you intend to complete
• Your training should always be frequent enough to be regular but allow adequate recovery between training bouts. This regularity should increase though as you get closer to the event

Recovery is equally important to training

• It is in the times you are recovering when the adaptations to the work you will do happen, so ensure you are taking adequate recovery time

Training needs to be specific

• If you are intending to walk your training should be walking, equally if you are intending to run your training should be running. You should also be specific to where your targeted event occurs. Is the course hilly? To be specific your training will need to include hills.