Will this be your first Marathon? Need some tips? Lucky you came to the right place!
The five ingredients for a successful marathon training program
1. The 10% rule
The golden rule of marathon training; only increase your distance 10% per week. This reduces the chance of injury and allows your body the time to acclimatise to the extra running.
2. One long run every week
As soon as you start running one long run per week, your body will become so much stronger. 30km is the magic distance. Once you can run this, you can run a marathon. The more long run’s you get in leading up to the race, the stronger you will finish.
3. Stretch
I will say this once: If you don’t stretch your entire body properly and deeply, you risk injury and definitely won’t be able to perform to your full potential! Check out Youtube for some great runner’s stretches
4. Speed sessions
Not all your training runs will be long runs, in fact short speed sessions are a key part of your program. They will get you running faster and strengthen all your running muscles which helps cope with the longer distances.
5. Join a running group
This will not only improve the quality of your training but it adds an essential fun, social aspect to running. Check out Jog Suva or try Google or Facebook groups to see what you can find! You can also train with us – Suva Marathon Club members and other marathon participants, you can find our training schedule here. If you would like to ‘run with’ thousands of others across the world, there is a good sport app like Strava!
There are loads of training schedules online and anyone you run with will be able to help you with a training schedule. Check out below for a template Full Marathon Training Schedule.
Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Week 1 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | 6 km | OFF | 6 km | run 10 km |
Week 2 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | 6 km | OFF | 6 km | run 10 km |
Week 3 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | 8 km | OFF | 6 km | run 13 km |
Week 4 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | 8 km | OFF | 6 km | run 13 km |
Week 5 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | 8 km | OFF | 6 km | run 16 km |
Week 6 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | 8 km | OFF | 6 km | run 16 km |
Week 7 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 4 hills | 8 km | OFF | 6 km | run 19 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 8 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 5 hills | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 23 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 9 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 6 hills | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 26 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 10 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 7 hills | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 19 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 11 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 8 hills | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 29 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 12 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 9 hills | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 29 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 13 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 hills | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 32 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 14 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 hills | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 23 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 15 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 hills | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 29 km(3 km warm up + 3 km cool down) |
Week 16 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | 10 km | OFF | 6 km | run 32 km |
Week 17 | Long & slow | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | 10 km | OFF | 16 km | run 23 km |
Week 18 | Easy run | OFF | 6 km | 10 km | OFF | OFF | 3 km | run 6 km |