For the past few weeks, Ive started training for a marathon that I want to run later this year. I stay relatively physically fit but I have almost no endurance whatsoever, I never have. Ive read tons of books on how to improve it, downloaded some apps to guide the daily running routine, but Im not seeing a noticeable difference and Im not sure why. Completing a marathon is one of my goals, so its something Im determined to accomplish. Focus: Ever trained for and then run a marathon or another significant physical goal? How did you train for it? Alt Focus: What are some of your (non-financial) personal goals that you want to accomplish?
I have trained for three, and run two, marathons and five half marathons. I trained by running a lot and not eating crap food. I would love to be able to complete the Murph Challenge. It will take me more than a year to even get close to actually trying to train for it. Even though I run a lot, I've never done much (any) weight training, and do not have much strength. Endurance? Yes, lots. Strength? No. Stop reading and stop downloading apps. If you build your mileage up to 35 miles a week, and do speed work at least one day a week, that's all you need to do for the basics of endurance training. Then, don't eat crap food the day before your long run.
To echo what ROM said, making sure your diet is on point is going to be just as, if not more important than doing the actual running training. Also, if you're already in some sort of strength training program, don't suddenly start neglecting that. Too many times I've seen people who think that endurance training and strength training are mutually exclusive, where some of the best runners I know actually increase their strength training to supplement their running training.
Agree. You don't have to start if you weren't already doing it, but you damn sure can't leave out speed work from your running. Even though sprinters and distance runners rely on a different type of training and muscle work, I am amazed at how many people train for marathons and don't do speed work. Past tense? So, you're done then?
Honestly, the most important thing you can do is stick to a program and follow it. Listen to your body. If you are feeling like you need rest, take it. If you can get close to the mileage you will be able to gut it out on race day so long as you are healthy. If you follow the mileage and get too beat up you can get injured and miss it. Also, on most of your runs, but your long distance runs especially, RUN THEM EASY. DO NOT GO FAST. If you push too hard on your long runs you will not get the aerobic training benefits you are looking for. You want to run them at a conversational pace. It is fine to push once in a blue moon, but run at an easy pace. This will make you significantly faster in the long run. You can definitely throw in speed work, but keep the fast stuff fast and the easy stuff easy. With regards to strength work, yes it can help but it can actually make things worse if you aren't doing a balanced program. You could definitely do some posterior chain training and some deadlifts to help balance things out. Make sure to work on your glute strength and do lateral movements too, for injury and overuse training prevention. Personal experience: I started out struggling to run a few miles max and hated it, so I decided to train for a marathon to make running seem easier. Decided I liked it, and started doing trail running. I started training with some people who run 100's and was training for a 100k not too long ago but got injured right before it. I also have experience doing strength and conditioning in a professional setting.
My best advice for running for a marathon is to not run a marathon. I ran long distance competetively for many years. I ran many half-marathons at about an 8 min pace, did many 16-18 mile runs too. I'm not even 30 and my knees still crack like the 4th of July every time I stand up. Playing with my toddler on the ground is difficult. Many in my family were runners (and some hold DI records), but I was the only one who did distance. They're fine; I'll need knee replacement before I'm 50. Like you, I also had the goal of running a marathon. I had been training for it for months, and somewhere along the way developed a stress fracture in my lower back. I didn't recognize it for what it was, because I was so used to running with knee pain, shin splints, random tweaked ankles etc. So it kept getting worse. Until ultimately one day, while out on a training run, I felt a distinct "pop!" -- it broke all the way through. I should have been paralyzed. I got "lucky," avoided surgery and instead had months of rehab. So if you must run: Do not ignore any small amount of pain. Take plenty of rest days. Take it easy, and slow. You're running a marathon, so your training should be a marathon too. If something hurts, take the day off. If that something keeps hurting, see a doctor. Buy multple different pair of shoes and switch them up, in order to avoid foot pain. Some stretching is good, but reserve that ballerina shit for the ballerina's. Build up foot muscles by running barefoot on grass (in order to help avoid injury). Think of it this way: in sports, the two teams who make it to the championship are not always the two best teams, but the two teams who have the most of their key players healthy. Oh, and running sprints is cool if thats how you warm up or you want to be competetive. But if you just want to complete a marathon? Not necessary. Think 20% of the effort for 80% of the results.
Running a marathon's still on my list of shit to do. I've signed up for three and deployments knocked me out of two and an injury (hip stress fracture) forced me to stop training for the third. That's when I took up cycling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Zátopek Try following this guys training regime. Monster. I was training for a marathon 18 months ago and was running between 40 and 50km a week but ended up with tendinitis due to playing too much sport at the same time. Haven't convinced myself to give it another crack yet.