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Sports Nutrition
Training Principles for Runners: Focus on the Marathon
Written by Randy Accetta and Greg Wenneborg
Itís the rare person who can complete a marathon on a whim or a dare. Indeed, of all running events, the marathon requires the most dedication to the task. Still, dedication alone is no guarantee of success. To succeed you need a plan that takes into account your desires, your daily schedule, your limitations and your gifts. What follows are notes towards a plan ñ itís up to you to mix and match these general principles according to your personal goals
Planning a Season
The key to a successful training program is periodization. A periodized training program separates the year into distinct phases with specific training and competitive goals for each phase. In general, a periodized plan for marathoners will last between 3-5 months and make use of relatively short training cycles, with different types of workouts every 3-4 weeks. Incorporating specific training phases into a longer-term plan will enable you to stay healthy, motivated and enthusiastic. A periodized program will allow you to improve by modifying training frequency, duration, intensity, and recovery.
Any training program, but certainly a marathon program, will generally include four phases:
- Phase I: Base Training ñ including conversation pace running, occasional strides, and beginning to build the weekly long run.
Phase II: Strength Training ñ adding tempo runs, hill repeats, and fartlek running to the diet of conversation pace running, occasional strides, and weekly long runs.
Phase III: Long Interval Training ñ replacing the strength efforts with shorter and more structured intervals, while maintaining conversation pace running, strides, and weekly long runs.
Phase IV: Taper and Race ñ preparing to race well, by scaling back the faster running and the distance of the long runs, while maintaining conversation pace running and gentle strides.
Using Periodization
Remember: specific stresses produce specific results. In other words, there is a time and place for every workout. If you are doing the same workouts day in and day out throughout the year, you will get stuck on a plateau that will stave off future PRs. We have found that my most successful seasons are made up of four stages: Base, Strength, Speed, and Taper. On any typical 6 month training cycle, these pieces could be put together in the following time frame:
Base ñ 8-16 weeks - Building base of easy running will allow you to do higher quality work later on and give you the cardiovascular strength that is fundamental to a successful season. This involves doing mostly easy runs with an added workout of 6-10 strides in the middle of a 3-6 mile run 1-2 times each week. This period is also a good time to begin the foundations of a weekly long run that is 30-60 minutes longer than your typical daily run.
Note: Another way to look at the base period is that you should run between 300 ñ 500 miles of primarily easy, conversation pace running before you begin effort sessions. If you run 50 miles a week, this will take between 6-10 weeks; if you run 25 miles a week, it will take you 12 ñ 20 weeks to complete the base period. But if you run 100 miles a week, 3-5 weeks should be enough to prepare you for effort work.
Strength ñ 6-9 weeks - This phase involves adding one extra run to your weekly regimen to push you outside your comfort zone. This is an excellent place for hill workouts, tempo runs and fartlek runs. No need to overdo it here as once per week is enough. Along with a light to moderate weight lifting schedule, you will prepare yourself for the speed work that is to follow. NOTE: a good base period followed by 9 weeks of strength training will prepare you for an excellent marathon!
Speed ñ Long Intervals ñ 6-9 weeks - Ideally, during this phase you are beginning interval training by doing moderately fast long intervals of between 800 ñ 1600 meters. The popular mile repeat workout or ìYasso 800ísî fit nicely in this phase of your training. (If you need to shorten your training schedule, this phase can be removed from the program.)
Speed ñ Short Intervals ñ As we have said, most marathoners should not do shorter intervals. A marathon does not require anaerobic running (indeed, if youíre in oxygen debt during a marathon, youíre in big trouble . . . .), so there is little need to do fast repeats of less than 800 meters.
Taper - 2 to 3 weeks - The taper is a time to let your body catch up after months of consistent work. During this phase, you should be cutting your mileage back and your interval work should be short and confidence building. We recommend that two weeks before the marathon you cut your mileage to about 60% of your regular distance, and that during the last week before the marathon you cut your mileage to about 30% of your regular distance. You should do your last long run 2 or perhaps 3 weeks before the marathon. There is nothing to do at this stage to make you faster or more ready, so donít run too much!
Three Categories of Runs
Any given weekís worth of training will incorporate an appropriate mixture of three categories of runs:
- Short Distance: A short distance run can be considered less than 45 minutes of sustained running. Short distance runs can be used for rest and recovery. Each week will include at least 3-4 such days.
- Medium Distance: A medium distance run can be considered between 45 ñ 90 minutes of sustained running. Medium distance days can be sustained conversation pace running, or they can be accomplished during the effort sessions (take a tempo run day for instance: a 15 minute warmup, 30 minute tempo run and 15 minute cooldown will end up as a medium distance day).
- Long Distance: Anything more than 90 minutes in duration can be considered a long run. When training for a marathon, the Long Distance run is the cornerstone of the weekly program. In general, a long run should be done only once a week, bookended by short distance days.
Most Novice runners will want to do primarily short runs throughout the week, with one long run a week (or at least 2-3 times a month).
Intermediate runners will most likely handle one long run a week (or at least 2-3 a month), 1-2 medium runs a week, and 2-3 short runs a week, with appropriate cross training as needed or desired.
Advanced runners will most likely handle one long run a week (or at least 2-3 a month), 2-4 medium runs a week, and 1-3 short runs a week, with appropriate cross training as needed or desired.
Types of Workouts
In order to be a successful runner, you must engage in workouts that push you a little past your comfort zone on occasion. Although there are limitless possibilities for training, there are seven basic types of workouts that will allow you to push those limits:
Conversational Running - The bulk of your mileage should be done at a pace that allows you to talk comfortably without gasping for air. A gentle, easy pace at a lower heart rate trains the cardiorespiratory and muscular systems to more efficiently absorb, deliver and utilize oxygen and remove carbon dioxide and lactic acid. At a cellular level, easy running with a low heart rate increases the quantity and size of mitochondria, which improves the muscleís ability to receive and process oxygen. On an emotional level, a steady diet of easy running teaches you to handle the rigors of effort and prepares you for the mental demands of marathon racing. If you find that you cannot hold a conversation on your daily runs, you are probably running too fast. Note: your long run should be done at conversation pace.
Tempo ñ Also known as steady-state running or threshold running, the goal of a tempo run is to run at a swift, sustained pace for 20-30 minutes. This pace will vary depending on the fitness level, but it is often about 30-60 seconds faster per mile than conversation pace; some say that a 30-minute tempo run should be done at about 10-mile goal race pace. Tempo running and other strength workouts improve your bodyís ability to clear lactic acid while maintaining a harder effort. This type of running simulates race fatigue and gets your body used to sustained efforts. We also call this ìpay-attentionî pace because you need to concentrate during the latter stages of a tempo run, monitoring form, breathing, comfort level, and mental strength. This may very well be the most valuable running workout for the novice to intermediate runner.
Fartlek - meaning "speed play", this type of workout involves a mixture of pickups for short periods of time in the midst of a middle distance run (between 3-5 miles plus warm-up and cool down). In a fartlek workout, the pace of fast running is not especially important: it should be quick enough to be fatiguing, but less than 100% effort. The goal is to practice fast running without the specific speed and rest intervals of track workouts.
Hill Workout - A strength building workout, hills can be used to improve cardiovascular fitness, running form, and the strength that is required to carry you through races. This workout involves repetitions of short to moderate length hills at about a 3-5% grade. The speed at which your hill work should be done will be slower than tempo pace but will feel more demanding because of the grade. Hill workouts not only build muscular and cardiorespiratory strength, but also improve running form.
Intervals- Usually done on a 400 meter track, this workout consists of repetitions of fast runs of a predetermined distance at a predetermined pace with a predetermined time or distance in between for recovery. From sprinters to marathoners, everyone does a version of interval training. However, marathoners will want to refrain from doing intervals shorter than 2-3 minutes of fast running and focus instead on longer intervals. Usually done at 10k down to 5k and faster goal race pace, this type of workout can be used by any level runner, but is most beneficial to the experienced runner who is looking to break out of a plateau or increase their speed. The faster running teaches the body to process oxygen more efficiently, while the rest intervals allow the body to recover and extend its limits. Speed work can be dangerous for the body: because such fast running stresses the musculoskeletal system and the cardiorespiratory systems, you should have a base of 25-30 miles a week for at least a few months before attempting these demanding workouts.
Strides - Once known as "Wind Sprints", this type of workout involves a series of 6-10 individual accelerations to fast running over a 75-100 meter straightaway. The runner should accelerate into this, getting to 90% of maximum for 40 meters, and then gradually decelerate.
Marathon Goal Pace (for marathoners only) ñ In the last eight weeks leading up to the goal marathon, advanced runners practice running at their goal pace for 20 to 60 minutes at the end of the long run. Waiting until the end of the long run to pick up the pace simulates the fatigue that you will experience near the end of the marathon.
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Typical Strength Workouts |
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Tempo Run |
10 minute warm-up
15-25 minutes of brisk running
(approximately 30-60 seconds faster per mile than conversation pace)
10 minute cool down |
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Fartlek Run |
10 minute warm-up
5 minutes brisk - 2 minutes easy
4 minutes brisk - 2 minutes easy
3 minutes brisk - 2 minutes easy
2 minutes brisk - 1 minute easy
1 minute brisk
10 minute cool down |
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Hill Workout |
10 minute warm-up
20-40 minutes of running a hilly course. Brisk going up - recover coming down
10 minute cool down |
Weekly Mileage
Weekly mileage can vary from runner to runner. Some marathoners can get by on 20 miles a week, while others need at least 50-60 to maximize their abilities; nonetheless the more you can run healthily, the better off youíll be. There are a couple of generally accepted rules of thumb concerning mileage that most runners subscribe to with which we generally agree:
The 10% rule: Avoid increasing your weekly mileage more than 10% per week during a training season. As an example, if you are running 30 miles per week and want to bump that up a little, take 10% of 30 to get 3. Add the 3 to the 30 miles you ran last week to get a maximum total weekly mileage of 33. This rule can be bent on occasion, but large weekly mileage swings of more than 10% can be considered inconsistent training and can lead to injury.
Donít Increase mileage and Intensity: Avoid increasing weekly mileage while increasing the intensity of your hard workouts in that week. The safest way to handle this is to build up your mileage to a desired point then follow that with increased intensity one to two weeks after running the higher weekly mileage.
Key Thoughts
- Mileage trumps all. The more mileage you can do while staying healthy, the better youíll run.
- Heed the hard/easy principle: follow your effort sessions with recovery
- Be sparing with speed work ñ avoid injury by being patient with fast running
- If possible, allow yourself the opportunity to build a base of at least 300 miles of easy, conversation-paced running before beginning speed workouts or a demanding racing season.
- Negative splits teach you to have successful races. Negative Splits are any time the latter split times of a workout or race are faster than the one or ones before it. Athletes that neglect this concept in workouts are doomed to falling apart in the later stages of a race.
- Perfect your hard workouts by repeating them once a week for 3 weeks. By the third week, you have received all the benefits of this workout. If your third session of a particular workout is positive, you can walk away from it with the confidence necessary to move to the next level.
- Running should be fun most of the time. If it is not, try a couple days or a week off. Nobody wants to hear anybody complain about running.
- There is no such thing as a fluke good day, but there are fluke bad days. Consistent and smart training will bring the good races and performances. Donít dwell on the bad days.
- Listen to your body. If it tells you that an occasional interval session should be skipped, listen to it. Be big enough not to start particular workouts rather than quit in the middle. Quitting in the middle will make it easy to do so in a race.
- In the midst of hard training, you should allow your body to catch up and recover from the stress of running. We like to call this cycling down. Do this by building in an easy week once per month. You can decrease the mileage 20% or so or plan to skip a hard session or long run.
- Work when itís time to work. Donít give up on workouts, donít drop out on long runs.
Randy Accetta, Ph.D., competed in the 1996 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, and
has personal bests ranging from 4:08 in the mile to 2:19:25 in the marathon.
Randy has been published in a range of publications, including Runner's
World, Running Times, and the New York Times. The President of the Southern
Arizona Roadrunners, Randy is the program director for both the Craftsbury
Running Camps and Passport to Adventure Running Vacations. He teaches at
the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona and is a new
member of the Carb-BOOM! team.
Greg Wenneborg, M.A., is one of a handful of Americans to have qualified for
three consecutive U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. With a marathon personal
best of 2:18:47, Greg has qualified for and competed in the 1996, 2000, and
2004 Trials. He has won the 2003 Vermont City Marathon, the 2001 Valley of
the Sun Marathon, the 2000 and 2001 Maui Marathons, and the 1993 Mule
Mountain Marathon. He teaches math and coaches at Flowing Wells Junior High
School in Tucson, Ariziona, and is the Head Coach and Director for
Craftsbury Running Camps, a premier running camp for adults in scenic
Northern Vermont
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