Category: exercises/workouts

Marathon day is a great experience for those who take part, for some the greatest experience of their lives in athletic terms, and sometimes emotionally.

Nothing beats that feeling at the start line, for me it was the London marathon, and the excitement, the nervousness because you do not really know what to expect, the scale of the challenge ahead, and you can sense all of these emotions in each of the competitors.

You may also be running with someone, and these nerves are very apparent just before the race and everything you have done over the last 9 months, indeed all your life in running terms comes down to one long race that will define who you are in around four hours time!

You find more about yourself in one marathon than you can usually do in a year’s running. Marathons have mythical status ranging from the ancient greek who first run that distance officially and then promptly dropped dead, to great Olympic athletes who have broken records in this distance for hundreds of years.

The first few miles are run usually on adrenalin and its amazing how light on your feet you feel after 6 miles even, knowing the hardships are yet to come and 20 miles left still feels like an awful long way.

I ended up carrying a 2 stone pie from lewis pies to promote obesity intervention, the string around my shoulders that was holding it on broke at the exact 6 mile point, I thought of leaving it behind with the st john ambulance, but they couldn’t promise that they would deliver it to the finishing line, and I didn’t want to let down lewis pies who sponsored me, so I will tell you tomorrow how I made I the extra 20 miles with a huge fake pie in my hand that was weighing me down, and was more than a little awkward!!!

I have mentioned the prospect of going through 18-20 miles as your final run before the marathon, perhaps I should re-phrase that as your final “long” run before the marathon, ideally done 2-3 weeks before the event takes place.

You need to be able to do this distance or you are unlikely to be able to complete your marathon. If you are still struggling on 12-14 miles for instance, then you are putting yourself at severe risk doing the marathon.

You are risking injury or even strain on your heart by trying to make such a big jump up, and it would be very unwise for you to attempt a marathon in such physical condition. This is why I give people plenty of time to get their training in for such a monumental run.

Things can and do wrong.

If you have a sore Achilles for instance, then you need to rest full stop until it gets better. This can take 3-6 weeks depending on the severity of the injury.

Indeed, if you pull an Achilles, you will certainly have to pull out of the race, and will probably never run long distance again, but I stress that this is pulled Achilles, and not a slight strain.

Its allowing for these minor mishaps and injuries that will dictate your training programme so please give it more time than you thought!

So once you have overcome all these obstacles along the way, then it should be around 2-3 weeks left that you attempt your biggest distance, after carefully working up to it over a period of weeks, and indeed months when you take your whole programme into account from start to finish.

If you can finish this distance, then you know you should be able to complete the marathon, but bear in mind it is still very likely to be a very hard day.

More on that day tomorrow!

The emotions of long distance runs can vary wildly, from the highs of completing a marathon when you may think you’re invincible, and most people who experience it never get to feel as good emotionally.

Then you have the lows of a rough training run, in the pouring rain and cold when nothing is much fun, and you get back in the shower and you cant warm up for the rest of the day no matter what you do.

Then you can have training injuries/overuse injuries which soon become tedious and really test your resolve, especially when it comes to running the marathon, when every week becomes crucial especially when it comes to those last few weeks.

This is why I try to manage people’s training programmes correctly, and conservatively which is always important. This gives us the leeway to tweak things those last few weeks when you may have the odd niggle in your back/knee or ankle.

I always like to leave MORE time to get it right, and start my marathons programmes sooner than most people. This is why most runner magazine programmes wont work for the average person, as they do not take into account the average person making common mistakes.

I always tell people to change their trainers every 6 months, but many don’t if they are not training with me regular.

I tell people to drink plenty of water throughout the day, but many do not follow it if I don’t see them regular.

Sleep, the good food they need to eat, spacing their workouts out properly, resting and recovering properly are all absolutely essential for runners who want to go well in the marathon, and actually enjoy the process!

Emotions are vital to keep under control and the only way you can do this is executing your plan to the letter, and not let anyone put you off by following a programme that typically champion athletes follow, which is absolutely NOT good for the average person with everyday commitments!

The next leg in the story was that we got to a certain level, but then we had to re-structure her week differently, because of work changes and in the end it gave her a fresh focus.

We then started to put the interval running on a Monday evening, because it was a quick session due to work pressures. This quick session which originally lasted just 5 minutes had grown into 35 minutes of interval sprints, and anyone who has ever done this type of intense session will know how hard it is to get to 35 minutes!

Then we did a inside strength session on Tuesday.

Wednesday was rest day and it worked well for her because she always worked 12 hours on a Wednesday.

Thursday, turned into an uphill sprints session.

She picked the steepest hill she could find, and picked a point 30 yards away.

She sprinted this distance uphill until she could do it 10 times, then she would do it 10 times backwards, when she got a really good level that is!

You know if you have read this blog earlier that I recommend this workout for big results!

Friday was a light inside strength session.

Saturday was a her distance day. She wanted a day she said that she could commit to, as her distance would need to go up right until 19-20 miles, and this could take some time!!!

Sunday was indeed a day of rest so this marathon schedule starting REALLY firing well for her!

All of these workouts were hard to get used to, but the results soon started speaking for themselves, and next week we will talk about the feelings of running these much longer distances!!