1.Start with Where You are at.
No matter what challenge you have decided to take on in your first marathon, you have to start with where you are at. That means being honest about your current fitness, any injuries and what is going on in life at the moment. Being honest, rather than aspirational is the key here. We can all aspire to have more time, hope to be a little faster, or lighter or not have that calf niggle, but these may not be your current reality. By starting with an honest assessment and planning from that point onwards, you dramatically reduce the likelihood of stretching your body to breaking point in those first few weeks of training. A great example is that many people immediately starting to run at their goal marathon pace, rather than using the weeks ahead to allow their training to gradually take them to that point. This is where the phenomenon of too much, too fast, too soon can creep in. The good news is that your body will usually let you know pretty quickly what is too much, the bad news is that you have to listen to it!
With your first marathon now in the diary, start your training early and allow yourself time to gather momentum, but also for your body to adapt to your new training regime. You can even start slightly behind where you are at, with the first week just about building a new habit and ticking a few easy boxes. The challenge now is being consistent...
2.Consistency is Key.
We’ve all been there. Started a program and then found that 2 weeks later we are either injured or can’t find the time. As a runner, I’ve certainly had my fair share of false starts. Sticking with the program is tough, but it’s also where the gold is.
As a coach, if I had a dollar for every time I said, the phrase “consistency is key," I would be very rich! I probably say it to someone each and every day. There are hundreds of different ways to train, different coaches with different methodologies but all of them require you being consistent and disciplined. It’s the same thing with diet, work, and most other things in life, consistency wins almost all the time.
For your first marathon, that consistency comes in the form of running and recovering regularly. This consistency is what allows your body to progress and adapt over time. Most first time marathoners will run 3-5 times per week and usually have a couple of key sessions per week, such as their long run at the weekend and a faster run or intervals session during the week. There will usually be plenty of easy running thrown in there as well to build up your cardio fitness. Getting these types of sessions done each week and recovering well consistently can not be understated. As a coach, this consistency is one of the main things that I look for and if you aren’t, how we can change things around so that you can gain that momentum and consistency. I would personally rather see someone regularly running 3 runs a week, than 3 weeks of 6 runs a week, then a couple of weeks off because of injury, which brings me nicely to recovery…
3."Training = Workout + Recovery"
I’m borrowing this little gem from Dr Phil Maffetone, who often writes about health and endurance sports. To me, the value of this equation cannot be understated. So many runners or athletes only look at one part, the workout. They hit the treadmill, trails or track every day, stacking up the km’s on Strava as they go. Don't get me wrong, working out is addictive and recovery, lets face it, can be kind of boring, but recovery is where the magic and the adaptations to your body happen. Recovery allows you to keep doing the fun workouts. This equation simply shows that if you aren’t recovering, then you aren’t training. Yep, it’s that important.
So what does recovery look like for the first time marathoner? Well, you are going to be putting your body through more than normal, so it will need more than normal recovery. After those long runs or tough sessions, you are likely to be tired, possibly depleted of nutrients and your muscles might feel sore, so taking care of your body becomes doubly important. That care comes in the form of more sleep and rest, but also more help for those aching muscles in the form of massage, rolling and stretching. Good planning of your routine should include strategically placed days of total rest and lighter recovery days, where the aim is just to get the body moving again. Remember, you can not finish the marathon if you don’t start the race, so getting on top your recovery in order to avoid injury, particularly in the last few weeks of your training becomes really important.
4.Easy means easy.
Easy running is the foundation of most endurance running programs. Sure, we will add in important strength, mobility and other work, but a marathon is at it’s core, a long, aerobic, endurance run. That means you need to run at an intensity that you can hold for hours at a time. Easy training runs help us to build our aerobic system and at the same time, when done properly, cause less strain on our joints and muscles. It’s two for the price of one… less likely to injure yourself and at the same time developing the right type of fitness for the marathon.
But what is ‘easy’ running for a first time marathoner? I would encourage you to not think of it as a particular pace on your watch, but more like a level of effort where you are comfortably running, not gasping for breath and can talk to the person running next to you. Some coaches will encourage you to stay below a certain heart rate or pace in order to keep things easy, but the principle is the same. Don’t push hard. By keeping it easy, you are able to repeat these runs again and again, week after week, consistently. As we said before, that consistent running and recovering is one our main aims in training for your first marathon.
5.With Nutrition, do What Works for You.
Whenever I say the word nutrition, I cringe a little. To be honest, I’ve tried to stop using the term with the people I coach. It sounds too scientific and as though we need to be eating all sorts of weird and wonderful gels, powders and herbal concoctions. Yes, all of these things can help, but in my opinion they can’t replace a good diet of healthy food and drink. The trouble with the word ‘nutrition’ is that we mainly think about what is needed for race day nutrition and not the everyday nutrition that allows us to sustain the months of training to get to the start line.
For your first marathon, you are hopefully going to be training a fair bit! The food you eat and the liquids you drink have to give you the fuel to run regularly and recover. To find this out, you will need to experiment a little and figure out what works for you. If after testing a few things, you find that eating a Snickers during your long run works for you, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The best time to test all of this stuff is before, during and after your long run because it’s the closest you will come to replicating marathon day. Try to eat a meal that you might eat the night before the actual marathon. Do your long training run at the same time you will be starting your race. By doing this you will get a sense of what your energy levels are like at that time, how much food and drink you will need beforehand, and what type of food will sit well in your stomach. Remember, everyone is different. Whilst I might have a pizza the night before and will have coffee, banana and muesli in the morning, other people would swear by another combination that suits them. Whilst I might only be able to have 2 gels in a long run, somebody else would be able to have 4. Experiment with it and see what works for you.
ARE YOU A FIRST TIME MARATHONER?? We are now taking on new runners and are beginning a 16 week Training Program leading into Great Ocean Marathon in May. This training program is ideal for first time marathoners and begins on Monday January 27th 2020. You can find out more here.