Marathon Training Programs

Posted by Ray Gill

Filed under Running

You can purchase a fabulous 100 day marathon training plan by Olympic competitor Marius Bakken. Just click on the link to see what he has to offer. Or take some tips from me…

Marathon Training Programs – Tips!

Be verry careful what you ask for. Alright, let’s start training for a Marathon. I got one word for you and it’s not plastics, it’s miles. The Marathon, as you might have noticed, is far, it’s even freaking far. You need to make it "not far" and you do that with lots and lots of miles. There’s no other way my friends. Don’t think about hill repeats. Don’t ponder speed work. Miles and miles before you go.

The good news for your first marathon training program is your training pace will be nice and slow. The bad news is you have to run, non stop, for hours. The only way to do that is to run miles and miles. You want your body to be so acquainted with the physical act of running that it feels as easy and as natural as walking or even sitting in a chair.

You can survive the marathon experience or you can tame the 26er. If you only want to survive it, then stop reading this now.

I want you to be so well prepared that you won’t start hating me and the race until around 23 miles. It is then that you can hate me. I don’t want you to hate me at 18 miles, that’s 8 miles of hate.

How many Miles For My Marathon Training Programs Schedule?

How many miles should you run? How many miles? As many has you can run without getting injured.

If you could work your way up to 50 miles a week that would be great, 70 would be better. More important than the total miles is your Sunday long run. You may need to take Monday off after your “Marathon simulation” on every other Sunday but that’s ok. You can’t run 7 miles every day and then expect to run 26. You need to slowly increase your long run to a minimum of 20 miles. Would 25 miles be better, yes!

You may fear all those slow miles will turn you into a turtle with shoes, not true. Your legs can go real fast if they don’t get tired. Some of my fastest 5 mile races were done with a base of lots and lots of slow miles.

Nutrition for Marathon!

Some people are interested in Marathon nutrition. These people are nuts. If you are going to spend countless hours jogging every week, you have a license to eat crap and lots of it! Some people call this food, cheap carbohydrates. That is bullshit, it's crap and there isn’t a better fuel for us distance runners. Do you like pizza, mashed potatoes and cookies? If you don’t then I’m sorry but I must insist you eat these foods.

Marathon Taper

Don’t forget to start tapering 7-10 days before your Marathon. Don’t do a run of any real effort a week before the race. Try to race a 25k or longer before your first 26er. Good luck!