So, you have taken the plunge: you have signed up for a marathon! It might be that you are taking on London marathon in April, or you are training for the Edinburgh marathon in May, or perhaps one of the Autumn marathons later in the year.
The first thing to say is a massive well done – the step in dedicating yourself to train and run a marathon is one that cannot be under-estimated.
A quick Google search can reveal what a minority you are in: less than 1% of Britain’s population have ever run a marathon. More impressive is the fact that 0.17% of the world’s population run a marathon every year. You are now in that elite number!
This series of blogs is designed to support you along the way: to provide some tips, tricks and a sanity guide to the hours you will spend pounding the pavement as you build up towards your marathon.
London Calling
There is also a bit of a selfish motivation from me in writing this series. I’ve been training for the London marathon (six weeks on Sunday till the big day!) for the past couple of months.
Perhaps this is unfashionable to admit in the guise of someone trying to offer running advice, but I’ve found the training really hard.
Scrap that: I haven’t enjoyed the training at all! I’ve had bugs I couldn’t shake off, niggles that have made increasing training difficult and a general struggle to motivate myself.
This is a bit unusual for me – I usually love getting stuck into a training cycle. I’ve never run the London marathon before and have heard amazing things about it.
So, here are three lessons I have learned, or indeed mistakes I have made, already from my training:
Enjoy the process
I’ve put a lot of pressure on running a particular time at the London marathon. I won’t bore you with the finer details of this, but I wanted to run a sub 2 hour 40 minutes.
I’ve never run a marathon time I’ve been pleased with before, so I’ve put a lot of focus on this being the ‘one.’
That focus on the end product has meant that I have spent runs getting more frustrated when I haven’t been able to hit a particular end product.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve realised that this just isn’t going to happen. I’m not at that level at the moment. Once I have relaxed about that, the training has been much more enjoyable. I’ve let go and decided to just go and try to experience the marathon – and who knows, I might still run a time I’m happy with.
Yes, have a rough race goal that you want to work towards. But don’t strive and fixate on that end goal. Instead, as later blogs will outline in more detail, break the training down into blocks.
Variation is key
With marathon training you are inevitably going to be increasing your running. What will keep that interesting and help you with your motivation, is if you vary the kind of running you are doing.
For weeks I was doing the same route and style of running. Part of my lethargy for the process was that I was just bored.
Try to mix up the running you are doing – add in some speed work, add in some hills – anything that can help to break up the monotony.
I was away in Aberfeldy at the weekend and went for an 8-mile run on Saturday morning. I didn’t have a phone and I just set off to explore. It was my most enjoyable run for weeks, I was – at the risk of sounding cliched – running ‘mindfully.’ I wasn’t thinking about pace, or millage, I was just taking in the beautiful surroundings and running for the sake of it.
Experiment in your local area, try planning out different routes and stepping away from your usual routine. That will help to recapture the fun and novelty of running and training.
Run with others
Again, somewhat hypocritically for someone who has set up a running business called ‘Run with Company’, I’ve been doing a big chunk of my weekly millage on my own.
There are various reasons (excuses?) for that. Trying to fit in high millage with a young family and work commitments is challenging. My focus on trying to run at a particular pace for the runs has meant that I’ve not been as proactive in setting up runs with others. That means the training has been lonely – I’ve been stuck in my own, very boring, internal narrative.
Ironically the weekly Sunday night run I have as part of the local Dad’s group I run (now on 33 members!) is the one I have been enjoying the most. I’m relaxed and not thinking at all about how fast I am running. I’m enjoyable other peoples’ company, and not caught in my own ruminations.
If I could summarise with a key message if you are starting out on your marathon training journey, it would be this: relax and enjoy the process of training for a marathon. The training will teach you a huge amount about yourself, but it will also be rewarding – particularly when you cross that marathon finishing line!
If I can support your marathon training at all, please do get in touch via the contact section of the website.