As marathon training season arrives, you may be gearing up for the autumn Marathon Majors. Or perhaps youâve chosen a less hyped, but equally fulfilling, 26.2. So, I invite you to reflect: why do you subject yourself to this funâyet masochisticâactivity? For 99% of the worldâs population, itâs the equivalent of self-flagellation.
Running a marathon is way more than an Instagram post with a medal and a goofy smile (Image by Grok)
Some run a marathon to challenge their limits. Others just for bragging rights. Some want to fulfill a personal journey: 6-Star, 50 States, or something only you know. Regardless of your reason, it wonât define your legacy, affect your paycheck, or change the respect of your loved ones. Keep it in perspective. Enjoy the process. Suffer through with a smile. Embrace the suck.
Enjoying the process so you avoid burnout is the key to any successful marathon training cycle. Sure, it will be hard, and at some point, you will suffer. Absolutely, you will have to sacrifice certain events because you must train the next day. It is a given that something will eventually hurt. And somewhere during the process, you will question your sanity. But it wonât be a fulfilling process if you burn out. If you do, it will be miserable. Not worth pursuing and easily abandoned. So, let’s avoid that. Hereâs how?
Remember why you started âş This is a personal journey, whether it’s your first or your 100th marathon. Make the training a connection to the personal reasons that brought you here. No one is forcing you to do this. Embrace failure (it will happen), grow through the struggle, and own the process.
Trust the Process, not just the pace âş While time goals are worthy and valid and marathon pace training is a key component to the puzzle, trusting the process is more important. Remember that training is about a multitude of stimuli; it is not about perfection. Hit the effort, learn from the session, donât obsess over splits. If you trust the process, you should hit the pace.
It is your race âş Focus on your progress and donât let other runners define you. Beating your friend or earning a BQ are legitimate goals. But if you focus only on those, youâll drain your joy, push too hard, or skip recovery. This is your experience, and nobody elseâs.
It is about consistency âş Consistency beats perfection every time. Miss a workout? Move forward. Focus on the next one. Flexibility is important, but donât mistake it for complacency. Obsessing over a missed long run is stressful and unproductive, especially if you did complete the other 14 of 16 in your program. Life happens.
Fueling for a marathon goes beyond race day (Image by Grok)
Fuel your body properly âş Running a marathon requires a ton of fuel, not just on race day, but throughout training. This is not the time to lose weight, try a new detox fad, or fear carbs. Make sure your body has enough energy to perform and repair, so you can keep moving forward.
Remain resilient through strength training âş Strength training supports running. It protects your muscles, improves durability, and reduces the risk of injury. What more do you need to be convinced? Donât think you can skip legs just because youâre already running. You donât want to find out why the hard way.
Respect and prioritize recovery as part of training âş Rest days and easier weeks bring adaptation. Fitness grows when training and recovery are combined. Massage and therapies are a waste if you donât prioritize sleep. Recovery gadgets are useless if you think they can replace the rest day you need. Be smart. You are not a machine. You are not indestructible.
Make sure to have fun âş As I said at the start, remember the reason you started. Donât let social pressures take over the fun and fulfillment of the journey. Donât be afraid to go easy on easy days. Run with friends and laugh. Give yourself permission for that post-run beer. Remember, your finish time is not what defines you as a human being.
Running a marathon is a formidable achievement. The 26.2 is a remarkable adversary. The challenge of training is what makes it special. So, be present, be purposeful, and above all, enjoy the process. Finishing a marathon is way more than an Instagram post showing a medal and a goofy smile.
Please share your thoughts on this subject in the comment box below.
As in every aspect of our functional lives, we pick up bad habits while running. Some are silly or quirky, while others derail important areas of our lives. They become unnoticeable the longer they remain unidentified, so we become immune to them.
Image by ChatGPT
Weâve heard about Major League pitchers getting drilled because a certain move telegraphs their next pitch; or public speakers who get stuck repeating verbal fillers as they deliver a speech; or job interviewees who undermine themselves by constantly apologizing before answering a question. Those are just bad habits, all of which can be overcome.
Runners are no different.
These are seven bad habits to consider and analyze whether they are sabotaging your progress as a runner.
1 â Diminishing your accomplishments: If you are training for a marathon, running âjust 10 miles todayâ is an easy day. But running 10 miles is running a lot of miles. Take your car and drive 10 miles from your house, and see how far it is and how long it takes. It is a matter of presentation. Be proud of your accomplishments, whether the medal is around your neck or you are training to earn it.
2 â Refusing to embrace rest: Working hard is essential to maximize your running potential. Recovering so your body can adapt to the stress of those hard workouts, so you can do it again and get better, is equally important. If you return to grinding while unrecovered, you will overwork an unprepared body and get injured. Never feel guilty for âexecutingâ your day off as written, or for taking an additional one when needed. Resting is not a sign of weakness, but of mental strength.
3 â Believing you are not a real runner: Do you run? Then you are a runner. You are not a marathoner if you donât complete a marathon, but there is no pre-qualification in terms of time or distance to define you as a runner. The only qualification needed is to run. So, stop feeling guilty because you think you are slow, or because you donât run what you feel like far enough, or because you take walking breaks. None of that matters. You run; you are a runner. Done!
You must ensure your body remains strong and resilient (Image by Grok)
4 â Comparing yourself to others: If youâve read my blog before, you have seen this one: Stop obsessing about what your friends are doing. Avoid overthinking what others share on Strava or Instagram. Donât worry about how fast your friend is running his mile reps. Worry about you, what you can do better, and how you can become the best runner you can be. That last sentence says âyouâ four times. It is on purpose, because your running is all about you.
5 â Running while injured: This is non-negotiable. If you are injured, you donât run. I am not talking about aches and pains, or little niggles here or there. I am talking injured. Not all injuries require a bone sticking out of your flesh. If you compensate your mechanics to avoid pain, you change not only the way the body was designed to move but also the way your body is used to move. This guarantees that something else will get out of whack. And then, instead of taking two or three days now, your body will force you to take two or three weeks (if not months) sometime later.
6 â Neglecting Cross Training: Running is a repetitive exercise. A high-impact sport. You wonât have to crash into a 300-lbs defensive lineman, but in a 10K, you are landing about 5000 times per leg at 3-5 times your body weight. Constant repetition leads to overuse, and overuse leads to injury. You must ensure your body remains strong and resilient. Strength training is key. You can also do other sports activities, such as yoga, cycling, or swimming, from time to time. This will provide physical gains without the pounding of running.
7 â Forgetting to have fun: Does your next mortgage payment depend on your next PR? Is the happiness of your marriage dependent on your invitation by Abbott to the next Marathon Major? Is next weekendâs race-pace effort the key to qualifying for the Olympic trials? Most likely no, no, and no. Understand why you run. Sure, some people run to get over a tragedy or to regain control of their health and lives. But most of us weekend warriors run because of the joy it brings us. The post-run high, the outdoors, the sense of freedom and accomplishment, or the social component. Never forget that. If you do, you are in for a short running career.
Running can be a lifelong sport if we diligently strive to do it right and remain injury-free. Donât overcomplicate it. You have plenty of worries in life to add running to the list. Especially since you are not a professional.
A handful of weekends ago, while running with a friend, I asked her about her latest marathon. She had plenty to say about the poor organization, but what bugged her the most, and with plenty of reason, was her pacerâs strategy.
Banking time is the worst racing strategy ever (Image by Grok)
My friend and her buddy were aiming for a specific time goal and decided a pacer was the way to reach it. Isnât that why theyâre there? But this particular one decided the way to achieve the goal was to go faster so the group could âbank time and be ahead when they were tired at the endâ.
What? Seriously? What running genius came up with that one? WTF?
The reason for a pacerâs existence is to keep a pace, hence the name. Theyâre there to facilitate the feasibility of you achieving a preset finishing time. I wrote about running with a pacer a few years ago, so Iâm not going into the details of what it entails. I do recommend you check out that post by clicking here.
Letâs illustrate how bad this strategy sucks with an example: Letâs say you trained for a 3:59 marathon, so you’re averaging about 9:05 per mile. If your pacer is running just 5% faster, which doesnât seem like much, he/she will be guiding you at 8:38 per mile. If you can make it to 15 miles in 2:09:30 without imploding, you will be 6:45 ahead. To make your goal time, you now have 1:49:30 to complete 11 miles. That is a 9:57 pace.
Does this make sense for someone who trained to run around a 9:05 pace?
Ensuring you hit the wall with enough time to spare when the suck fest begins will not improve your chances of hitting your goal. Thatâs a guarantee. My friend and her friend did the right thing; they ditched the pacer and ran their own race.
This said, what is the most sensible racing strategy for a race?
Negative Split
The best strategy is usually the negative split. Even though it sounds bad just because of the word ânegativeâ, it is the sensible way to go, especially as distances or time on your feet get longer.
A negative split means you complete the second half of your race faster than the first. This can be achieved by properly managing a race. You start easy as you warm up and sort out the initial foot traffic, you follow your race plan to the tee, you hydrate and fuel properly, and then, you have plenty in the tank to coast to the finish line. Strong, happy, and having achieved your goal. Speaking for me alone, this is a better experience than having a few minutes to spare during a guaranteed, miserable end of the race.
In the example above, imagine the runner took three miles to warm up at 20 seconds over marathon pace, then picked it up at 5 seconds over pace until halfway. Then she picked it up for 10 miles at marathon pace, and when she found herself at mile 23, she still had enough to kick it up a notch, going 7 seconds under pace. That is a marathon in 3:59:28. First half in 2:00:50 and the second half in 1:58:38, a 2:12 negative split.
What makes more sense?
But What About a 5K?
One thing is a 5k, another one is a longer distance where you canât push with all your might for the duration of the race.
There is a valid 5K racing strategy where you run the first mile as fast as you can, the second one a tad slower as you adjust for fatigue, and then you hold for dear life on the last mile to give it whatever you have left. This is different from banking time, as it is a short race in which you are taking advantage of being fresh at the start. You donât have time to adjust if you make a mistake, and you still have enough in you to finish strong, even without a negative split.
There are plenty of bad racing strategies, such as running someone elseâs race, running ahead of the pacers, trying new gear, not warming up if you plan to start fast, etc. But among all these crappy ones, there is an undisputed world-record holder: Banking time for later.
Any thoughts? Please share in the comment box below.
When I started running over four decades ago, there was very little literature on the sport. A new book here or there, mostly from runners sharing their own experience; or a subscription to Runnerâs World or The Runner magazine, was it for sources of knowledge and inspiration?
Well into the second running boom, with the internet in play and billions of Dollars to be made, companies started investing in science, research, and development. Colleges and Universities began promoting their exercise physiology departments, and suddenly, we have more information than we can digest.
Many bad habits and myths remain from those prehistoric running days. There are still runners who believe that consuming the 7th serving of pasta the night before the marathon will give them an edge. We still have those who prefer collapsing rather than chop a mile from their long run on a mid-summer day.
Below you will find six basic strategies to unlock your training, especially now that racing season is almost here.
1 â It is about consistency: Hitting all those splits is awesome, but it is not whatâs going to make you better. You hit the splits because you are better. There is no magic workout that will take you over the top. Good and bad workouts are part of the mix, and if you have more good ones than bad ones, you are on the right track. Every time you perform, you get a little bit better. All those little bits eventually fill the bucket. Thatâs where your PR lies. Not on that PR 400-meter repeat in training. Focus on the long game as you train as often as your body allows. You will see the difference.
2 â Progress smartly: There are no shortcuts in running. Sure, you can run a marathon while untrained, but at what price? Is getting injured through a sufferfest worth a medal? What got you to the marathon will not get you to the 100-miler. What got you to the 5K PR wonât get you to the marathon PR. You must have a plan to get from Point A to Point B and then to Point C. If you plan to keep running for a long time, you must play the long game, and that requires smart progress.
3 â Accept the runner you are and train for it: You are not Eliud Kipchoge, and most likely you wonât be in the leading peloton at the Boston Marathon. Regardless of whether you are a local semi-elite or a back-of-the-pack runner, accept it so you can become the best runner you can be. If you are a 5-hour marathoner, it doesnât matter how much you train; you will not make it to the Olympics. But you can go sub-5. Focus on what will help you improve your journey, not through the pressure of Instagram make-believe lives. Eliminate external, unnecessary pressures and pursue the big goal that aligns with your reality.
Technology can be great and can be detrimental to your training. It is up to you to use it properly (Photo: Pexels).
4 â Variety is the key: Long-slow running is good. Zone 2 is good. Intervals are good. Cross-training is good. Goal pace runs are good. But you need to mix them up the right way to give your body enough recovery time to adapt to the work. In a recent article I read, Will Lennox wrote in GQ Australia: âTaking a leaf from the Bible and training for 40 days and 40 nights in a row in the hope some biblical-level miracle will happen to you is not going to get you into running heaven.â Rest. Give your body the chance to recover so it can do it again and guarantee your progress.
5 â It is not about gear and technology: While running on the wrong shoe can certainly be detrimental and even harmful to a runner, it is never the shoe that makes you faster. It is all in your preparation. A pair of super-shoes will give you an edge to shave those last few seconds from a 5K, but itâs not what will get you from a 3:30 to a Sub-3 marathoner. The same applies to the GPS watch. Donât let it rule your life. Turn off all the indicators of parameters you donât understand and/or distract you. Let them be tools, not the beacon that guides your running.
6 â Donât forget to have fun: Nothing kills the joy of running more than comparing yourself with friends and influencers. While the reasons for running vary for every athlete, running because you like it makes it easier to stick with it. Rebounding from a bad race or an injury will be easier. Accepting your limits instead of quitting will be a given.
In conclusion, we should simplify our running. This doesnât mean taking it easy, nor working hard, nor forgoing progress. It means unlocking the running potential you have today, smartly. This is what will keep you running for years to come.
Share your favorite running training strategy in the comments. Which one works best for you?
Back in June, I watched online as Faith Kipyegon unsuccessfully tried becoming the worldâs first sub-4 miler woman. The event was one of those multi-million-dollar circus shows put on by Nike to test human physical limitations. It was elaborate enough that, just like Eliud Kipchogeâs Sub-2 in 2019, it would not have counted as a world record should she succeed.
Athletics and the principle of diminishing returns (Image by ChatGPT)
Kipchoge needed to improve his marathon time by 100 seconds, and he did, finishing 19 seconds ahead of his previous record. Kipyegon needed to shave about 8 seconds (7.65) to achieve her goal, but she ended up about 6.5 seconds short. Even with the circus, space technology, support, and male pacing, she couldnât do it.
The failed attempt got me thinking about a basic concept in economics that easily applies to running: the principle of diminishing returns. In economics, this means that ff you improve one variable while keeping all the others constant, the incremental output gained from each extra unit will eventually fall. In other words, building a skyscraper in one day wonât be solved with more workers.
The same principle applies in athletics. Dr. George Sheehan, one of the greatest running writers, put it this way: âThe first mile is the most helpful one as far as conditioning goes. Each succeeding one gives less and less benefit than the one before. Runners who work more and more are working for less and less. [âŚ] It doesnât take much to get 90% fitness, only a few miles a day. But it takes progressively more and more training as you get closer to your ultimate potential. At the highest levels, you are putting in a huge investment for a very small return. It is the small gains what makes the difference between winning and losing.â
Think about it, itâs obvious. If not, it would be a matter of time and more miles before we all became elite athletes and broke world records. We all have a limit, and while reaching it is feasible, it requires a tremendous amount of work.
I recently heard Coach Steve Magness share a story where Shalane Flanagan told him something along the lines of, âThe difference between being in 2:30 marathon shape and 2:20 is astronomical.â For you and me, average, mid-to-back-of-the-pack marathoners, a 10-minute improvement may be a diligent training cycle away. For elites in a Marathon Major, this same result guarantees them peeing in a cup to verify cheating.
Nice background, Coach! But how does this apply to me, the average weekend warrior?
It is about training smarter, not harder (Image by ChatGPT)
I am glad you asked! The point of this introduction is for the reader to understand that the curve of progress in running flattens as we improve. It is a reality we canât solve with harder training. Progress is not a linear proposition.
And, while achieving the last 10% requires an astronomical effort, it is feasible. It is about figuring out what works for you. Just because Jacob Ingebrigtsen uses the Norwegian double threshold method doesnât mean it is the solution youâve been looking for. He is in such shape that this is the only type of training that will extract the extra hundredths of a second needed to break a world record. This training may land you, my dear average-runner reader, on the injury list.
Working around the principle of diminishing returns to reach your apex requires smarter training. Not just harder. As gains slow, finding that sweet spot between effort and recovery is the magic sauce. It may mean varying your workouts, adjusting intensity levels, or prioritizing recovery and nutrition more seriously. As we improve, we must tune into our bodyâs signals, such as fatigue, soreness, or lack of motivation. These can guide adjustments before you hit a training (or overtraining) wall. If in doubt, a training plan tailored exclusively for you may help you progress without burning out.
In conclusion, In athletics, more is not necessarily better. Most of what elite runners do to squeeze that last sliver of greatness out of their performance does not apply to you. We are all limitless, sure, but not in all areas of our human performance, athletics being one of them. Letâs work hard to reach our goals, but not at the expense of burning out.
What are your thoughts on this principle? I will read and answer your comments.
As long-distance runners, we focus on the long-distance run. Obvious. For marathoners, that 20-miler has been a staple our training for decades. The psychological advantage of having achieved that distance starting with a 2 instead of a 1, when you are about to run 26.2, cannot be overstated.
The benefit of that 20-mile run lies in the time it will take you to complete it (Image by ChatGPT)
Yet, there is no magic to be gained at 20 miles. If you train in kilometers, 20 miles is 32.18 Km, far from a round or memorable number. The âmagic markerâ for those who train in kilometers is 30, for the same psychological reason. This is equivalent to 18.64 miles. Nothing special to that figure either.
But, is there a physiological benefit from running a 20-miler or 30 kilometers, or two or three of them before your marathon? Does it apply to all marathoners? What does science say about this? How does all this apply to you and your training for your next marathon?
Letâs get into it.
While the confidence boost of having a 20 or 22 mile run under your soles is undeniable, its benefits are proven to diminish the longer you are on your feet. The elite Kenyans can cover the distance between less than two hours. The 3-hour runner can do it in 2:30-ish at an easier pace. But the 4-hour marathoner may take 3:45 at an easy pace. You can see the progression.
According to scientific studies: âafter running 3 hours the aerobic benefits (capillary building, mitochondrial development) arenât markedly better than when you run two hours.â This means that a 3-hour run will provide as much aerobic benefit as a 2-hour run. So you will accumulate additional fatigue and need a longer recovery before resuming your normal training.
Iâve read about coaches that do not prescribe 20-mile runs for anyone looking to run over 3:45 in the marathon. Others say 3:30 or even less. Remember that coaching is the intersection between art and science. An art based on science, not a science per se, so trial and error are part of the deal.
In my professional experience, runners that will run their marathons on the slower side than 3:30ish, will benefit from back-to-back runs that will allow accumulated fatigue to do its thing without breaking down the body too much. A long run today followed by a âlongishâ run tomorrow, where you accumulate from 18-22 miles in a weekend, produces better results than plowing through that mileage in one push.
You can achieve more with less time on your feel and more time to recover (Photo Pexels)
This is not to say that for certain runners, at a certain level of fitness, with a certain goals and with enough time to recover, may not benefit from a 20-miler. And I am not discounting the psychological benefit either. What I am stating is that the 20+ miler is not the key to achieve your marathon goals if you are not on the faster side.
Coach Jeff Gaudette, from Runnersâ Connect, wrote recently that one of the two primary reasons why runners get injured is âorogressing their training volume and running speeds at a pace that their body is not ready to handle. Or, as coach Jay Johnson would technically define it, âmetabolic fitness precedes structural readinessââ.
Before you ask, the other reason is structural imbalances and/or bio-mechanical issues.
Coach John Davis, a PhD in biomechanics at Indiana Universityâs School of Public Health, provides the following recommendations when it comes to the long run in a marathon training cycle.
Donât overemphasize the long run, especially when training for the marathon. Not only do aerobic benefits flat line after 2 hours of running, but as this research shows, injury risk increases significantly.
Think prehab rather than rehab. Work on strengthening known or potential weak areas in your running mechanics.
Fix flaws in your running form that become exacerbated during long runs. Improving posture, learning to generate proper hip extension, and fixing overstriding can help prevent many potential injury issues.
In conclusion:
The long run continues to be an essential element of the marathon training. Thereâs no way around it. But contrary to what has been drilled to us for so many years, the qualifying aspect of the long run is time, not necessarily mileage. It is not the longer the merrier. It is the longer you can run without hindering your recovery, the merrier.
