How to get ready for your first marathon

Melanie Ramos 5 min. of reading Running Leave a comment

The time has come to turn that desire that’s been chasing you your whole life into a goal achieved that you’ll always be proud of. Even if it’s just for the sake of completing your challenges and pushing your limits, you know you have to do it. This year, yes. This year you’ll finish a Marathon.

Running a Marathon is no joke. It requires intense physical preparation that will demand, at least, training 4 hours per week during the 4 months leading up to the race. Of course, this means keeping your motivation high and not giving up when things get tough.

Keep in mind that if you haven’t run a Marathon before, you’re putting your body through an extreme situation. If your half Marathon time is over two hours, finishing a Marathon will take you at least 4 hours and a half.

If you run under 1 hour 45 minutes, rest assured you won’t break 3 hours 50 minutes in the Marathon. Tough, right?

That’s why, before you dive into this adventure, take your time to read recommendations and learn how to tackle your plan successfully.

5 tips to prepare for a Marathon

Know your limits

Preparing for a Marathon is nothing like your Sunday runs around the neighborhood. As the distance increases, so do the chances of injury and the difficulty of the exercise. That’s why you should consult a physiotherapist or expert before starting your training.

They’ll help you pick the right running shoes and design a training plan with you that fits your situation.

Also, it’s good to research technical aspects of the race you’ll need to master to cover the 42 km.

Start preparing early

If you can, sign up for all the races this year. Even if they differ in technique and, obviously, distance, they’ll be a great starting point to measure yourself and an excellent way to boost your motivation.

Plus, this will force you to stay in shape and start training ASAP.[/box>

tips to prepare for a Marathon

Track your mileage

To do well, a beginner should aim to cover about 70 km each week. You can use this rule as a reference to plan your routines. That’s why it’s super important to use a pedometer to track your progress and jot down your evolution on a sheet.

How about putting your training chart on the fridge?

Increase distance gradually

Each week, you should increase your distance by 10%. For example, start week one with 12 km, the next with 13 km, then 14 km, then 16 km…

Doing this will help your body get used to long distances little by little and greatly reduce the risk of injuries.

Consider your fueling

You’ve probably heard about the psychological wall at 32 km. At that point in the race, glycogen levels run out and your muscles tighten, leaving you heavy and exhausted. It’s true there’s no supplement that fully restores glycogen levels, but if you fuel properly throughout the race, you’ll get that extra boost to break through the 32 km barrier.

Energy gels, pieces of fruit, or nutrition bars can be the perfect solution to finish the Marathon. Besides being a necessary food supplement, they’re easy to carry and quick to consume.

Evoenergy Gel from SportSeries

One tip: Refuel with 60 g. of carbs per hour.

5 classic mistakes when preparing for a Marathon

Monotonous training

A very common mistake is simplifying training to just running for a long time. If you only focus on long runs, you’ll only improve aerobic endurance. Try intervals, hill training, running with weights, different surfaces…

In fact, always training on asphalt increases injury risk. Since it’s such a hard surface, it causes a greater impact on your knees.

Even though it’s harder, it’s best to train mostly on grass or dirt and, in the weeks before the big race, run on asphalt.

Obsessing over time

When working on long distances, you should avoid obsessing too much about the clock. Here, just finishing is already a win. Also, obsessing over improving your time puts pressure on you and makes you train at a very high intensity pace.

This can backfire on your race and even cause serious injuries.[/box>

Underestimating rest

Resting is almost as important as training. If you compete as an amateur, your body should rest between 3 and 4 days per week.

Also, it’s highly recommended to alternate a rest day between your training days.[/box>

Being too competitive

Even if you’re surrounded by other runners at the starting line, in a Marathon you’re not competing against anyone. So don’t get caught up or live in constant comparison. You need to train your mind not to fall into frustration and realize that in these races, victory isn’t at the finish line but in every kilometer of the course.

It’s very common to see many inexperienced runners start out too fast in the first kilometers of a long-distance race and then fade as the race goes on.

The best is to go from slow to fast and save the last kilometers for the “final sprint.”[/box>