How to train for your first marathon

by Daniel, answer by Marius
(Downey,Ca)

Fiist Marathon - How to train for your first marathon

How to train for your first marathon is a question often asked. In training for it there are two very central point you need to take care of.

These are :

1) the duration of the marathon

2) your general health.

Daniel sent this question :

"I have been jogging for about a year now, 30 min. about 3-4 times a week. Would it be safe for me to run the whole marathon?"

Daniel :
If you have been jogging 30-40 minutes in the last year it would be safe to run the marathon but preferable after doing this :

Say you have the marathon 5 weeks away. Then you would need to get used to the duration of the marathon. Otherwise you will get into loads of trouble around the 25-30k. Good news is, you need only three of these to get ready :

Alternate walking and running for 2-4 hour sessions

What you want to do is to get out there and alternate walking and running for very long sessions - ranging from 2 to 4 hours total and do this 2 to 3 times before the marathon.

And no closer than 8-10 days before.

The first time you walk 70% of it and run 30% of it. For example run 3 minutes, walk 7 minutes, run 5 minutes, walk 15 minutes etc. Next time 50 % / 50%, same manner. Last time 70 % running, 30 % walking. This is usually enough to get used to the duration of the marathon for a someone training for their first marathon.

How to Train For Your First Marathon In Terms of Health

Now, this is a big one.

Running the marathon is a huge stress on your body, especially your heart.

Recent studies shows that the right ventricular wall of the heart (the part that brings blood to the lungs) is working against abnormally high pressure during the marathon on those that are not long time marathon trained.

You want to prepare your body for this type of stress.

What you want to do therefore is to have at least 2-3 very hard sessions of at least 1 hour total of intense running ; around 1 hour at least above 80 % of maximum heart rate effective (for example a half marathon race or sessions such as 6 x 10 min at 80-87 % of max) This will help you adapt before going into the marathon and not risk your health when on the starting line of your first marathon and is the best tip in terms of health when asked "how to train for your first marathon".

I wish you all the best !

Marius