Planning your Marathon Training
Every successful marathon training starts with choosing the correct training intensity. Practically, this means you set yourself a realistic time goal for finishing the marathon at the end of your training cycle and train towards it. If this is your first marathon, this is not a trivial undertaking. You have no previous marathon finish time to guide you in picking a goal for the upcoming marathon.Training Intensity vs. Goal Setting
Most marathon runners approach the training with a mind set to finish the marathon in a certain time, e.g. 4h (or more precisely, 3:59:59) rather than to train at a certain pace, e.g. run a long training run at a 6min/km (9:50min/mi) pace. There is a close relation between setting yourself a goal time in which you plan to finish the marathon and choosing an intensity for your training runs. This relation is not an exact formula that allows you to calculate your finish time based on your training intensity; many other factors have a major influence on the outcome of the marathon.Depending on which method you choose to plan your training you will either pick a goal time to finish the marathon and derive a training intensity from the goal time or set the training intensity and from that get an indication of your marathon finish time.
This article tries to explain why choosing the right goal is important and how to pick the right goal.
Pacing: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
At the correct intensity you challenge yourself and primarily condition your slow twitch muscles which are essential for endurance events like the marathon. Most of your training should be aerobic or within your zone 1.
Training at a higher intensity does not necessarily yield a better result. The risk of injury increases significantly and overtraining can become a serious problem. Much less obvious, training does not have the desired training effect. Training at a high intensity is no longer aerobic and conditions so called fast twitch muscles which deliver the greater force required for the high intensity but cause early fatigue. All these effects might only several weeks or months into the training!
I have summarized the physiological aspects of aerobic vs. anaerobic exercise here. The key is that although training your fast twitch muscles, i,e, training at a higher intensity, gives you a high, immediate reward in your training, it will not help you on those long runs or in the marathon!
How to Determine your Training Intensity or Goal
Take a Lactate Test
A lactate test is the most accurate method to determine the proper trainig intensity. The test determines your aerobic and lactate thresholds through a lab test, taking blood samples at increasing training intensities and measuring the lactate levels in your blood stream.
The test report will outline your aerobic and lactate threshold and define your training zones for all types of workouts during the training.
Heart Rate Monitor
A heart rate monitor allows you to measure your heart's response to your training reliably. Your heart rate increases with increased training intensity. Training zones are defined as percentage ranges of your maximum heart rate. As your body adapts to the training your zones shift. While 60-65% might be an accurate range for an aerobic workout at the beginning of the training, this may very well change to 65-80%.
Maximum Heart Rate is the heart rate at the point of highest workout intensity. In the absense of a stress test running uphill to the point of exhaustion and taking the heart rate at the top approximates the maximum heart rate well. The often quoted rule of thumb, MHR = 220 - age is for many runners not very accurate.
The maximum heart rate is used to determine the correct Target Heart Rate Zones for the specific types of exercise. A lower HR is recommended for endurance base training and weight loss, while the higher range is used to improve cardiovascular fitness and athletic performance. Exercise Intensity is typically measured in percent of your maximum heart rate. The heart rate for aerobic exercise, e.g. the long runs, should be 60-65% of the maximum heart rate.
Extrapolate a Race Result
A reasonably good approximation is to extrapolate your last race results. The "double plus ten" rule of thumb yields fairly good results. Just double your half marathon time base and add ten minutes to get your marathon time. A more accurate formula is used e.g. on the Running Room site or the Marathon Guide site. Based on the goal time for your marathon you can then derive the training pace. The following table lists the relationship between 10k, half marathon and full marathon times for the most common training goals
| 10km | Half-Marathon | Marathon |
|---|---|---|
| 1:05 | 2:23 | 5:00 - to complete |
| 0:59 | 2:10 | 4:30 |
| 0:55 | 2:02 | 4:15 |
| 0:52 | 1:55 | 4:00 |
| 0:48 | 1:48 | 3:45 |
| 0:45 | 1:41 | 3:30 |
| 0:41 | 1:31 | 3:10 |
| Goal Time | Race Pace | Long Run |
|---|---|---|
| (min/km) | (min/km) | |
| 5:00 | 7:07 | 7:50 - 8:20 |
| 4:30 | 6:24 | 7:00 - 7:30 |
| 4:15 | 6:03 | 6:40 - 7:10 |
| 4:00 | 5:41 | 6:15 - 6:40 |
| 3:45 | 5:20 | 5:55 - 6:15 |
| 3:30 | 4:59 | 5:30 - 5:50 |
| 3:10 | 4:30 | 5:00 - 5:25 |
| 3:00 | 4:30 | 4:50 - 5:10 |
Your Training Plan
Marathon Running is not an exact science. Everybody reacts differently to the training and what works for me does not have to work for you! A good training plan requires a combination of different types of workouts:- long runs are run at a easy pace that should allow you to carry a simple conversation; the pace should be 30-45s slower than your race pace; pace groups will generally do walk breaks;
- easy runs (aka junk miles) are shorter runs generally run on your own at a pace that is about the long run pace; due to the short distance you may chose not to include walk breaks;
- tempo runs are fast 20-30mins continous runs with a 10min warmup and a 10min cool down; the pace should be slightly faster than your race pace; this run does not have walk breaks;
- hill workouts are quality workouts that focus on running up (and down) a hill several times at a very high intensity to improve your muscle endurance and increase your tolerance for lactate build-ups - and hills build character;
- speed work/intervals/repeats are very high intesity workouts generally run on a standard 400m track and consist of short intervals of very fast runs with short recovery breaks inbetween to train the bodies response to high levels of lactate.