Marathon Training Schedule Depends on Primary Goal

Your marathon training schedule really depends on where you’re coming from. If you are new to running and you’re using a marathon as the motivation for your work out schedule, that’s one thing. If you are seasoned athlete who is looking to finish a marathon in a respectable time, that’s another. And if you are veteran marathon runner who is looking to improve your run time, that’s all together a different place than where the other two types of marathon runners are coming from.

 

Goals Dictate your Running Schedule

If you are a new runner, then your goals for your training schedule should be:

• modest weekly mileage
• gradual increase (10% a week is a good rule of thumb) in your long run mileage

If you are a veteran marathon runner who is looking to increase their time, we’re talking about the following goals:

• speed work
• hill repeats
• getting ready by entering half-marathons and other shorter races

After you’ve started your baseline training, you’ll need to come up with a training schedule where you’ve worked out your distance or speed goals on a weekly basis.

All training should focus on injury prevention. Make sure you stretch out, warm up and cool down to give your legs a chance to keep up with what you’re telling it to do mentally.

As a practical guide to the 26.2-mile journey, How To Run And Enjoy The Marathon is a series of 15 self-help and service-oriented articles about running marathons - the proper shoes to running etiquette - is written by James Raia, a journalist and veteran middle-of-the-pack marathon and ultramarathon runner in Sacramento, Calif. Click Here to download the ebook!
 

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