Opinion

Marathons: What they’re all about

Whether you’re currently training for a marathon or plan on running a marathon sometime in your life, here are some important details that you’ll need to know.

A marathon is 26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometers, which is expected to be run the whole way. Now most people would never dream of running that far, less than one percent of the world’s population has completed a marathon.

Most people who run a marathon do it because it’s on their bucket list, something to accomplish before they die. Then there are avid marathon runners, people who run multiple marathons throughout their life.

Training for a marathon is vigorous and challenging, and unless you have the mental strength to push yourself you won’t be able to finish a marathon. Running long distances, especially a marathon, is 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical.

 

Motivation:

Having mental strength is essential to accomplishing a marathon. It’s one thing to be motivated to start training for a marathon, but it’s another thing to stay motivated every day. Training for a marathon can take anywhere from four to seven months, depending on the intensity level of the training schedule. To help stay motivated during those months, it helps to have other marathon trainers run with you. This way you can encourage and motivate each other to keep running.

 

Training:

If you are a beginner marathon runner and your goal is to just finish a marathon, then you want to stick with a 16 week training schedule. During those 16 weeks you will run four days a week, with one long run each week. The amount of miles that you run will increase every week until you reach your 20 mile run. Anybody who is training for a marathon must run at least one 20 mile run before the race. This will give you a huge advantage come race day.

If you have a time goal in mind, or previously ran a marathon, then you are going to want to stick to a more intense training schedule. A five to six month schedule would be ideal. You will run more miles on these training schedules then you would on a 16 week schedule. You will also go on two to three 20 miles runs.

The few weeks leading up to the marathon you are going to want to cut back on your mileage to allow your body time to recover for the race. Training schedules can be found online for free.

Other important aspects to keep in mind while training are nutrition and recovery. Make sure you get the nutrition that your body needs to stay healthy. Nutrition plans can be found online. Also make sure you rest in-between runs. Your body needs to recover from the runs, don’t run every day.

If you can stay motivated and healthy, then you’ll be on your way to finishing a marathon in no time.

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