Marathon Training 101

So I’ve been talking about these weekly long runs for a while and some of you might be wondering how much running one really needs to do to train for a marathon. Well, there are lots of opinions and training plans out there and some are very popular. A typical plan might look like this http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/inter1.html and would consist of running a certain number of miles each day, with some days off, days of cross training and finally, a weekly long run. The number of miles you run increases each week, with the total and maximum depending on your level of running and competitiveness.

I’ve heard of very busy people training only 3 days a week and doing cross training other days for a total of maybe 25 miles. Judging from my friends’ running and other people I talk to, I think most marathon trainers run around 35-55 miles a week. Personally, I tend not to adhere to a strict training plan; I aim to run 5-6 days a week, varying the lengths of my runs (ranging between 4-8 miles) and the pace and I listen to my body and how I feel. I do long runs every weekend and generally need a day off or very easy day afterwards to recover. My totals come out to around 35-38 miles a week, but will get into the 40s soon, with maybe a week or two around 50. As the marathon approaches, maybe 2-3 weeks out, I’ll probably start to cut back on the miles, shorten the long runs, in a period called the “taper.” I’ve been reading that it’s better to be slightly over-tapered than to run the marathon over-trained, burnt out and tired. This definitely makes sense!

As you can tell, running takes up a lot of time. Between getting ready to run, stretching, icing, and showering, it takes me an average of 2 ½ hours! I’m heading off to Montana for a week, so I look forward to finally having some downtime and running whenever I want (not at 6am!) I’ll be back in a week or so with more updates.


Thank you to everyone who came to Uno’s last Friday. It was so great to see many of you and catch up. Thanks for supporting Hospitality and my run!