Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Marathon Training Schedule

By Brad Wontin

Marathon training is essential if you would like to finish a marathon. You see if you don't train for your marathon then you'll in no way cross the finishing line. The reason for this is you need to build up your endurance and stamina should you ever wish to run a marathon. And also the way to increase your endurance and stamina is to train for a marathon the best way. Basically marathon training is all about getting miles into your legs. Nevertheless there's a certain training methodology and procedure to get the required miles into your legs the best way.

There's virtually no point whatsoever about training hundreds and hundreds of miles in a row since it doesn't permit your muscle groups the chance to recover. By this I mean hundreds of first-time marathoners never even make it to the beginning line every year because they do not consider this seriously. Instead they think it's a great idea to go out and try to train plenty of miles and get as 'fit' as they are able to prior to their marathon race.

However, what most of these novice marathoners don't understand is that they will more likely than not develop an injury in the first couple of weeks. The majority of beginner marathoners who use this marathon training approach they will also drop the motivation that they have to cross the finishing post.

If your motivation drops when running for the marathon then you'll usually struggle in the later stages of the marathon because you will not have the fitness levels from a marathon training schedule to get you past the finishing line. It's this fitness that you need to get you to the end of one's marathon race simply because otherwise you are much more likely to hit the wall at around the 20 mile mark of one's race. The wall is a term coined by marathon runners as to what occurs to your system when your glycogen levels turn out to be depleted. Essentially what occurs is you run out of energy at close to mile 20 into your marathon race and then your energy levels are depleted. However, if you adhere to a marathon training plan that's particularly created for first-time marathoners to finish their first marathon then it is much more likely than not you will cross the finishing line.

The point here however would be to adhere to a marathon training plan which has been proven to work. There's no point placing the time, work and energy into a training schedule that will leave you getting frustrating injuries when you get deeper into your program. For example, most great marathon training schedules adhere to a step-by-step procedure to obtain the endurance and fitness levels into the legs of their participants. These types of programs for running a marathon will usually include both shorter runs, semi-long runs and long training sessions to the programs. It is also essential that there are rest periods incorporated your plan as well. The main reason for this is that it enables your muscle groups the chance to recover within the build-up phase of your marathon training. These rest days also permit your muscles the opportunity to recover and that means you are less likely to develop an injury.

Nevertheless, the very best marathon running programs also are created to make sure that you are feeling fresh and at your optimum health and fitness degree on the day of your race. That's why the very best marathon running programs also incorporate a taper time period into their layout. Typically a taper period starts close to 3-4 weeks before your actual marathon race. In this time you also reduce your real weekly mileage by close to 25% in any given week. The reason why you want to reduce your marathon training and make use of a taper period is since it allows your muscles the opportunity to recover prior to your marathon. There is no point training right up until the day of the marathon because your body will most likely be feeling lethargic and drained on race day. That's why it is critical you include a taper session into your marathon running plan.

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