How To Run For A Marathon – A Great Challenge

How to run for a marathon for you means you want to start a marathon project on your terms. So, you must know your starting point. It will be a good idea to start gradually, be patient and prudent. This principle is based on the need to be patient with the training. Your body needs time to gradually become stronger.

How to run for a marathon – a great challenge aims to show a marathon training overview and the challenge will particularly load bone, cartilage and tendons, which require time to adapt to regular training. Bones tendons and muscles recover at a different pace. The philosophy is that you do not increase your training volume by more than 5 to 10 percent weekly.

The training volume consists of training intensity + training time + training frequency. To be able to assess how the training affects the body, it is prudent only to change one variable in the training volume. It means that if you increase the training time, the length of each training, it is not advisable simultaneously to increase the intensity.

Most of the training volume you perform should be in talking pace otherwise the risk of overtraining increases and you can use use the Borg Scale to manage this. In the first months of the running career, you should be comfortably tired after training and have the feeling, that you could repeat the training session immediately again.

How To Run For a Marathon The training

Regular training year-round is a key concept in the training but of course, you have to start somewhere if you have not used a running plan before. The best way is to be persistent in your training and thus be able to train all year round with no pauses rather than to train hard for some months, and afterward eventually be forced to a pause.

Through regular training, your body will have the opportunity to evolve gradually toward the goals you have set up. Persistent training gives a healthy base, from which shape peaks can be set up. The frequency of the training should not be less than twice each week and most preferably, about 3 to 6 times depending on your current training experience.

Run For a Marathon – Follow a Training Program

A training program will help to keep track of the training. It will make your training tangible. The best way to make a training program is to develop it personally so it fits your current level. The training program will also help to maintain a structure in the training, so both short and long-term goals step by step become obtainable in practice. In a training program, it is also a benefit to have some milestones, so the goals on the way always are clear. Really Informative Training Plans will also create certainty for you.

It may be necessary to adjust these goals, and hence adjust the training program against the new goals. Thus, the training program must be flexible with space for change, particularly with the adjustment of the training because of the risk of injuries. A personal training program can give your running ambitions a clear priority and keep your focus on track.

Tapering Period in How to Run a Marathon 

In the period up to the marathon race (tapering period), you should reduce the amount of training. The number of kilometers is over, and in the final period, is it most necessary with training to maintain your speed. Measured in days the taper period should be half of the kilometers of the race, where you participate.

In other words, when you train for a marathon, your taper period should be 21 days – three weeks. If you do not reduce the training enough, you risk that the body and legs still are tired and marked by the tough training, you have been through.

Run A Marathon but Avoid stress

When you gradually will be able to run many kilometers, the training will be more and more time-consuming. If you have a family or a support base, it will be important to ensure that they understand the time you spend on the marathon training.

Likewise, it is not appropriate when running becomes another stress factor. One of the ‘standard’ errors in following a training program is that many runners become slaves of the program.

We have created a strong habit. We train determined and schematic, and maybe blindly follow the outlined training missions without questions and without being aware of how the body reacts and feels and whether it is ready for the planned training at all.

Especially before hard training, it is important to be aware of whether the body is prepared and ready for this training. There must be space for variation in the training program; it should not be completed at any cost. So, make adjustments when needed.

During the periods when you train a lot to reach a peak shape, the need to rest and recover will increase. At the same time, you use many resources with training. In these periods, you should avoid overtime work, a lot of travel activity and other stressful working conditions.

Warm-up – Cool down in Training To Run For a Marathon

It is always a good idea to warm up before running and cool down after your run. Warm-up has a clear preventive effect on the occurrence of injuries. Studies have shown this, and many physiological explanations support this too. There are many different ways to warm up your body, but the absolute best is the active method by the motion of the body.

It warms up the muscles and joints in both surface and depth. Since the effect has a strong local influence, it is also important that you warm up concerning the relevant sport. In Marathon training, it could be simple stretching exercises as shown in the picture above.

It is not strictly necessary with a long warm-up before the long runs in your marathon training. However, before intensive running like interval training, it is very necessary. Your Warm-up may consist of easy jogging, which increases slowly in intensity, stretching, runs over 50 to 100 m which goes from easy jogging to a faster run at a controlled pace, plus various coordination exercises with jumps, heel kicks and knee lifts.

Warm-up and stretching improve coordination

By motion, you automatically activate the nervous system and hereby the nervous paths out to the muscles. It improves the coordination ability of the movement patterns that you subsequently perform.

Good coordination is a very significant factor, especially if we want to avoid distortions. When the muscles are at rest, the muscle tissue and connective tissues, which surround the muscles are reduced slightly in size.

When you warm up the muscles by physical work, they become more flexible. A low load of muscle and tendon tissue at the beginning of the warm-up, which gently intensifies will provide controlled and increased flexibility. Muscle and tendon tissue will hereby be ready for more intensive use.

If you are interested in how to run for a marathon, I hope you like this post and if you have any questions about how to run for a marathon or want to leave your own Personal review, please leave a comment below.