How to train for a marathon?

You can’t just turn up and run a marathon!

Proper training is essential to ensure that you are fully prepared, avoid injury, and are able to give your best performance ‘on the day’. My training plan has been honed from my experiences of previous half and full marathons and takes into account that I’m already running regularly. Someone starting from scratch would have a different journey, but the principles are the same. Training helps me be in the best shape, mentally and physically for the run.

To build strength and stamina, I set myself a series of weekly distance goals. These help make sure my body is prepared to run the distance of a marathon, and the weekly distance increases as we get closer to the date. For me it looks like this

• June – Weekly mileage: 30km per week
• July – Weekly mileage 40km per week
• August – Weekly mileage: 50km per week
• September – Weekly distance: 30km per week

You’ll notice that in the month leading up to the marathon, the weekly distance drops. This is to make sure that I’m not overdoing it and keeps my fitness high.

I also set myself a series of ‘targets’. These allow me to see how I’m doing against my training plan, and help to motivate me through the training runs. My targets are

• Half marathon time target: 1 hour 45 minutes (June 15th 2021)
• First time full distance (June 30th 2021)
• Half marathon time target: 1 hour 40 minutes (July 15th 2021)
• Full marathon time target: 4 hours (July 31st 2021)
• Speed work: aiming for 10km under 45 minutes (August 15th 2021)
• Full marathon time target: 3 hour 45 minutes (August 31st 2021)
• Speed work: aiming for 10km under 44 minutes (September 15th 2021)

So you can see that by the time I actually start the marathon on the 3rd October, I’ve already run quite a few already!

I also want to introduce you to someone very important. It’s our ‘Marathon Mascot’. You’ll see they look very cool in their headband and running shoes, and are importantly staying hydrated.

They don’t have a name yet. I’ve suggested ‘Platelet Radcliffe’ but it didn’t go down very well. Can you come up with a better name for them? Head over to our twitter, facebook or instagram accounts to tell us your suggestions.

Time for me to go and keep on track with my training schedule. Don’t forget you can support the fundraising for the Society by ‘buying me a coffee’ – it all goes towards helping us reach our target – and being Italian I drink a lot of coffee!

Ciao

Giordano