It has been almost a year since the last blog post. For the majority of that time, I have been keen to write a post, but have simply struggled with time. So here, I am again with the aim of getting more regular in 2012.
In this first post back I want to discuss the pre-season training approach for a marathon runner. By pre-season, I prefer to that period more than 3-4 months out from your next marathon (we will focus on this period later). We are now in February and while there are some early season marathons in April, as a general rule, most marathons are later in the year. Yet, we get inspired over the Christmas period and start focussing on running a marathon PB. This inspiration leads to a spike in motivation which in turn leads to us getting out there for long weekend runs, extra volume during the week and dreams of great marathon times.
The problem is we are possibly still 6+ months out from our goal marathon and all this work in the short term will probably do us more harm than good when it comes to marathon performance. Quality long runs of 2 hours or more are demanding on the body; therefore our body can only tolerate a certain number of them. Additionally, they are mentally draining, requiring motivation, focus and the ability to push through those hours of hurt. So if our bodies and mind only have a certain number of good long runs per year, why are we wasting them so early in our preparation? They will likely lead to an increase risk of injury, reduced motivation by the time the key training period come around, and possibly fatigue which will hamper our preparation closer to the marathon.
So what is the best approach? We are still 6 months out from the race and we are ultra keen to train, so what should we be doing?
I recommend that during this pre-season period, you aim to race some shorter races, maybe 5-10km, with the aim of getting in some good shape for these. Thus the focus becomes on improving your speed through intensity work, while not focussing on volume. This will allow you to be motivated and physically ready to step it up in those final 3-4 months pre-marathon. Additionally, this approach of developing speed and then building your volume on top has been shown to be effective. Traditionally called reverse periodisation, it is becomes more of a common practice in modern training.
So your training during this pre-season period might include sessions like:
- Long runs of 100-120 minutes - giving you a good base to build to the marathon later.
- Short intervals - this could come in the form of 1-3 minute efforts, or track work of 400-1000m efforts. Aiming for an intensity around 3-5km race pace and having short recoveries between efforts. In total, 15-20 minutes of hard running would be the maximum recommended.
- Longer intervals - the idea of the longer intervals is to sustain a speed at close to your half marathon pace. At times you might be a bit quicker than this but never quicker than 10km race pace. These are the early stages of tempo sessions which will be the backbone of your marathon training, however at this early stage, we only want 20-25min of total running at this speed. So something like 2 x 10-12 minute efforts are ideal.
- A range of moderate intensity aerobic running to pad out the rest of the week. We probably don't want a third intensity session at this point so any extra running can be aerobic sessions.
- Injury prevention sessions - you arn't going to be in good shape if you are injured, so aim to include 2-3 weekly injury prevention sessions (core stability, flexibility and specific strength work).
So in summary, this is an important part of your marathon preparation, not just because of what you can gain but also because of what you can lose if it is done incorrectly.