SiennaInLondon said:
OK lots of you are running like 3 miles, which when I am exercising regularly I know I can do. However how do lots of people turn 3 miles into 26 for the London marathon (which happens to be tmw). I mean lots of ordinary people do it. Do they walk part of the way? Paula Radcliffe sure doesn't and I'd like to be able to run long distances without stopping. When they train do they run 26 miles or do they train shorter distances and hope that the crowds and the excitement and the competition will get them to the finish line? I dont think exercising that hard will be good for the body in the long run. How do you maximise your training?
Any long distance/cross country peeps in here?
SiennaInLondon, check out Jeff Galloway's site:
http://www.jeffgalloway.com/. Basically, anyone can train for a marathon. The basic theory is that you have a regular schuedule of 4 runs a week, one of which is a 'long run' with base distances becoming longer and longer every week for 4 months before a race. If you can run 10km, you can train for a marathon, if you commit to a training schedule that includes hill and speed training, long runs, and appropriate recovery time. Some people stop training 2 weeks before a race in order to have maxium energy reserve. I took off 1 week - 2 weeks seems excessive to me.
In the last marathon clinic i did, the team leader was big on the 'run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute' method for the long distance days. This is a favourite method of the moment, or for the last few years anyway. You can build your body's endurance with less risk of injury that way, and overall get a better time as your average speed will stay more consistant on average. I didn't used the 10-1 method in the race, but did it for my training and i think it really works. The people who didn't do it definitely burned out more quickly on race day.
The other thing I learned, unfortunately the hard way, is that no matter how fit you are, you are still at great risk for injury. Yoga is an absolute must as a complementary activity to running. It took me injuring my hip quite badly training too hard for my second marathon for me to slow it down and discover yoga, which ended up being a big silver lining after 6 weeks of pain, limping, anti-inflams. That said, however, my Mom ran 11 marathons in as many years and never had this problem.
Best of luck to you! Jeff Galloway is the best source for traning tips....I don't know if i'll do another but I am thinking of doing the London Marathon next year!
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hehe
sorry I don't know how to better explain it
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