Marathon training and racing is currently a major attraction to many. Marathon runners or finishers have been growing in numbers, races are reaching their entry levels sometimes within weeks of opening registration. This is a good thing (I believe?) for the races and their sponsors, etc.
With the growing population of marathon participants, why do so many literally jump off the couch and into marathon mania within weeks or a few months of running? Why not take the time to train properly and improve your chances of a positive and memorable experience? 
I once read, "you must first serve a running apprenticeship before attempting the marathon." I am fortunate to have read the quote and it has served me very well. I fully respect the marathon and so should everyone "running the distance."
(more comments from Ingrid Kristiansen)


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Marathon

The marathon is an extreme "project". The marathon distance is very demanding to run, and it is rather questionable running it from the point of view of health, even for the very fit. To prepare for a marathon is not a project for few weeks or months, but should rather be at least a one year project,  even for well trained persons.

How did Ingrid become a marathon runner? The real answer to this is that she just tried to run a marathon one day in the fall of 1977. She completed her first marathon in 2 hours and 45 minutes, but she had  already done endurance training for 9 years in 1977, both running and cross country skiing.

Let us take a look at the challenges for a marathon:

• A large part of our skeletal muscle mass gets activated when we run (it cries out for oxygen), while our central system, with its heart and lungs, will be the bottleneck in the oxygen supply system. Oxygen is probably the most critical and limiting performance factor.
• It is  42.195 km long and is normally run on a hard surface like asphalt or concrete. There will be an enormous and accumulative pounding and impact stress on your legs and muscles.
• Because of its length, the duration of this distance will last from over 2 hours for the elite to many hours for the casual jogger.
• Our body has a limited fuel storage capacity for this amount of time. We have learned that we only have carbohydrates for about 90 minutes "onboard", and we also lose a lot of water. Because of the nature of running with its constant  body shaking and impact "shocks", we are not able to supply enough energy and water during a marathon when we reach a critical pace. There will normally be a deficit of these two important substances; carbohydrates and water. The more you eat or drink, the more you are forced to slow down your pace.

Combining these  challenges and the general knowledge we have learned on previous pages, we have used typical analytical tools to evaluate what to do in the preparations for a marathon. Do not be overly impressed or scared about these tools; we only use simple logic and common sense. Typical methods/tools used:

• System/usage analysis.
• Bottleneck or chain analysis
• Sensitivity analysis
• Consequence analysis
• Energy analysis
• Quality analysis
• Training analysis
• Trend analysis

The casual jogger/runner.

You run/train 3-5 times a week. We hope you have time available to prepare for your marathons because, as mentioned above, it is a rather demanding project. You should have one long training session per week, say 1.5 -2 hours throughout the whole preparation period. Very often the limiting factor for people is that their feet are not able to take so much running. 

Your progression is very important here: start easy and build up your running volume gradually. Planning and goal setting are important. Alternative training (cross training) such as cross country skiing, cycling, swimming, rowing etc. is therefore an option. The good thing with these alternatives is that they all provide excellent training for the central system (the heart and  lungs), which is the general bottleneck for all endurance sports. The limitations with cross training are:

• The training is specific, if you row, you get good at rowing
• Your threshold is different for different activities (you cannot use the same pulse as reference)
• Even if you train your central system, (your heart and lungs), the peripheral working muscles are different from sport to sport
• The co-ordination and teamwork between the different muscles and organs is different in different sports.

Since a marathon is normally run on a hard surface, you should do much of your training on the same type of surface. We recommend about 70% on hard surface and the remaining 30% on a softer surface. This should be done during  the last 2-3 months before the marathon. To save your feet,  do as much as possible of your running on soft surfaces before the last 2-3 months.

You should also have one long run a week the last 2-3 months before the marathon. When we talk about a long run we mean 1.5-2 hours. You should also have one interval or fartlek a week; this is what we call threshold training. You should be careful not to push too hard; remember it is the aerobic energy system you want to develop. 

If you push too hard, you start up another energy system, the anaerobic lactic acid "engine". This is not good, simply because it fills  up "the engine room" with "smoke" , i.e. lactic acid. A way to express this is that this additional energy system in a way strangles the major energy system, the aerobic, with the effect that you are slowed down. The training is specific: if you want to improve the aerobic system, you should "overload" this system and not the anaerobic system as well. 

This theory is covered in the PhysicalLRP". When you plan your marathon project, progression is very important. If you start up your training too fast, you will have problems with the progression both in  volume and in intensity. Be careful with too finely detailed training program; it is very hard to plan ahead exactly how you will feel and behave in the coming months.

We have now just covered some few general thoughts about marathon preparations.

A part of our Services you should also remember to include in your marathon preparations:

• Planning and goal setting
• Mental preparations
• Nutrition

The elite runner.

We assume that you have been training for a number of years, and that you are presently active almost every day while some of you have two training sessions some or all days in the week.

Princess Diana cheers up Ingrid,
London Marathon.

Our advice is that you should not focus too much on marathon, but rather on endurance training or long distance training in general. Ingrid's focus had always been on general endurance training. There are so many misunderstandings and myths about marathon training. The most common misunderstanding is that you have to run  many long runs each lasting hours and hours. 

On the average Ingrid had one 2 hour easy long run and one 1.5 hour easy long run a week. Her most common training was a 45 min long run. She had, on the average, 2 harder training sessions a week (threshold training as intervals or fartleks), and 1 medium hard training run. The rest were long easy runs (45 min). We will try to more fully explain this training philosophy.

The training is specific (you improve in what you actually do); it is therefore important to simulate and get as much training exposure as possible in the pace you are looking for in the different distances of competitions. For Ingrid, this was a pace around 3:20 min per km for the marathon. As you may understand, she could not run all the time at this pace on the long easy runs, but she could more easily do it on her 45 minute runs. 

If you do many long easy runs, you get very good at running long and easy, or you get very good at slow running. When you do regular long runs of 2 hours and more, we all know that we have to run rather slowly simply because of several limitations; you gettired and exhausted. Oxygen supply, dehydration and limited carbohydrate storage are the major limitations. 

Unfortunately, it is not possible to train or adapt your body to handle dehydration, it is a non-trainable quality. Most of the waste products produced while training are water soluble. The more dehydrated you get, the higher the concentration of the waste products in your body. When you are running, it is not possible to compensate for all the dehydration like it is when you are biking or cross country skiing. If you drink too much while running, your stomach will stop you. 

We believe that too much training while partly or totally dehydrated (a typical condition on long easy runs) limits endurance growth  in your muscles; very often the conditions in the working muscles get toxic and break down your endurance. As a rule of thumb, you lose 10% of your performance capacity for each 1% of your weight you lose as liquid. If your weight is 70 kg and you have lost 1% of your weight, 0.7 kg water, then your performance capacity is only 90% of your capacity. Dehydration also reduces the cooling capacity of your body. 

Did you know that 75% of the energy produced by your muscles is heat (energy loss), while only 25% of the energy ends up under your shoe soles. Our body loses a lot of salts and minerals when we get dehydrated; is very important to replace these losses. Remember also from the Physical chapter that the principle of overload is fundamental in the study of exercise. 

However, if you do a lot of easy long runs there will not really be an aerobic overload on your central system (your heart and lungs); and it is this system that is normally the major bottleneck in general endurance. There will also be no real aerobic overload on your peripheral system either; when running too slowly your working muscles will not improve their threshold level. Other drawbacks with too many and too long easy runs:

• You get good at running slow
• You get a slower stride
• You lose your elasticity
• You end up running on your heels
• You need longer rest periods to recover

Actually, the main objective with the few long easy runs we recommend is to improve the fat burning capacity of the muscles. The better oxygen capacity you have, the more fat you are able to burn at a higher pace. Remember that fat requires about 16% more oxygen to produce the same amount of energy as carbohydrates. 

There will always be a trade off situation of how many of these long easy runs you need, but we think the limited number of long easy runs Ingrid did is one of the major reason for her results. Another objective with the long easy run is to get used to all the pounding on your legs and muscles.

Ingrid got her running volume by running more, but shorter long runs. On these shorter long runs she then got much more training exposure to:

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  Faster running, more aerobic "overload"
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  "Simulating" the actual competition pace
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  More mental acceptance of the actual pace
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  Running with faster strides
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  More elasticity
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  More running on her toes
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  Need of shorter rest periods, easier recovery
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  Less dehydration
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  Less emptying of carbohydrate reserves

In the system and sensitivity analysis in the Physical chapter we could see how important the central system with its heart and lungs is to endurance training and how vital the aerobic energy supply was relative to the anaerobic. In the marathon close to 100% of the energy supply will be aerobic. 

You should not do any work within the anaerobic zone when you prepare for a marathon, simply because you do not need it and as we have already stated, you should simulate the actual work condition for the race when you train. If you get too eager and push too much on the harder workouts, you can easily interfere with your whole endurance capacity. 

This is in conflict with most cultures where we are praised if we do "something" more, harder and faster. However, the lactic acid environment can be like poison for your aerobic capacity.

We also want to explain for you that we have different understanding for the two words:

• Exhausted
• Tired

When you run long and easy you get exhausted but not necessary so very tired. You get dehydrated and empty your glycogen storage. Very many runners "drown" themselves with too much exhaustion, and there is likely to be no energy to run harder when you are supposed to. 

There are some bodily systems that go into an "overload" mode when you get exhausted, like the pounding on your legs, but most of your body is in an "underload" mode. These systems in the underload mode (i.e. oxygen capacity and muscle threshold) get practically no training; it's a waste of time.

You get or feel tired when you push around your threshold. We are now talking about pure pain. It is important for a long distance runner to get tired, but without too much lactic acid. There are many systems put into an "overload" mode when you get tired, and the challenge is not to push too hard.

Ingrid produced world records at 5,000m, 10,000m, half marathon and marathon, quite a distance range. All of these distances have one thing in common; all of them are almost 100% aerobic. 

At the same time, Ingrid is a very slow runner if you measure how fast she can run 100m, 200m or 400m. But remember, to run a 10,000m in 30 minutes flat, you only have to run the laps in 72 seconds, that is every 100m in 18 seconds, which is very slow per 100m, but fast in a 10,000m. 

Your training should be growth oriented and not performance oriented. The performance belongs to the competitions.

The most common mistake marathon runner commit is that they are very afraid to taper down their training the last weeks before the marathon. It is very common to see runners more or less worn out on the starting line. Most athletes think they will lose something when they don't train very much the last week. 

If you are used to training one to two times a day, you will not feel good if you suddenly stop training; you will get a feeling of abstinence. Many panic when they get this feeling, and to stop it they go out and run. The last week before a marathon Ingrid ran about 60-70 km including the marathon. Why so little training?

• You get well rested before the race
• Your body super compensates in its glycogen storage
• For each gram of glycogen your body also stores 2.7 gram of water

If you do your preparations correctly, you can end up increasing your weight between 2-3 kg the last week. You will not feel good with all this glycogen and water, your muscles feel filled up and stiff but don't panic, this is the best preparation you can do. As we have mentioned, the two main components you are now loaded up with are two of the major critical "fuels".