Tips

Some guidelines for your marathon training

Five things you should do during your marathon preparation:

1. Work out and where necessary modify a training programme that best suits your individual needs. Also, keep a record in a training diary of your training time / distance: seeing how you progress from one week to the next can be a real boost to your motivation.

2. Make sure you wear enough clothing when training in cold weather. Warm up properly with 5-10 minutes of easy jogging (after which you can take off a layer of clothing), particularly before doing sessions of faster running.

3. Do some of your training off-road, especially on your longer runs. Not only is it easier on your muscles and joints, it's simply more enjoyable. Also, it's good to do some running on hilly terrain to build up leg strength.

4. Train specifically with your marathon in mind. This means giving priority to your longer runs and key workouts where you are running at close to race pace.

5. Try out a few races over distances from 10k to the half-marathon. These races will give you a good idea of how your training is progressing, and may provide further motivation for your training.

Five things you should not do during your marathon preparation:

1. Don't attempt very long runs in the early stages of your build up. Instead, increase the distance of your longer runs gradually throughout the course of your build up.

2. Don't become obsessed with counting the number of miles you run each week. Instead, put more effort into running the key sessions well and keep a sensible balance between hard effort and recovery.

3. Don't skimp on your carbos and fluid intake as your training increases. Instead, ensure that you eat a high carbohydrate diet and drink plenty of water (especially immediately after taking exercise) so that your working muscles are constantly refuelled.

4. Don't overdo your training in the run-up to races. Instead, allow your body to recover from your hard training by having a few easy days before competition.

5. Don't leave it until your marathon to experiment with new things. Instead, use your training runs to try out your new racing gear or preferred pre-race meal or to practise taking drinks.

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