Marathon is conceived from the historical Greek soldier who ran from the battlefield of Marathon towards Athens to announce victory over Persia. This Greek messenger, named Pheidippides, ran the 26-mile distance without stopping and delivered the message before dying. In 1896, it became popular and was included in the Athens Olympics. Experiencing years of dormancy in terms of the number of participants, marathon regained its popularity in the last two decades. More and more people are now considering running a marathon.
People are now starting to engage in running for the purpose of physical fitness and leisure. The mental and physical demands of running a marathon are so great. That is why stamina, endurance, and mental well-being needs to be developed by training. Running for 26 miles without stopping is not something to be taken lightly and so marathon trainings must be taken seriously.
Training for marathons mostly requires 5 challenging months of training, but some athletes, who already are advanced and competitive, create shortcuts. Beginners who plan on running a marathon are encouraged to follow the ideal training programs to prevent injuries. Flexibility towards the training program is also implemented for runners who are assessed to be less fit for the next phase of the program. They are advised to extend their present training and gradually increase their running miles until they are comfortable with running the said mileage for the specific phase.
Running a marathon demands every runner to undergo the same phases of training in a half marathon but for longer durations. The program includes training for endurance, strength, speed and tapering. To be more on the safe side, these phases have their very own pre-training week schedule to help the runner assess his level of fitness. The marathon training program also varies for beginners, advanced, and competitive runners. A beginner marathon runner includes rest days in the training schedules. Although scheduled rest days are also present on the training program for advanced runners, most of the training weeks have no scheduled off days. For competitive ones, no off days are allowed.
Some additional tips on running a marathon include doing your long runs on the race course itself. This way, you will become familiar with the route and visualize your starting position on race day. It is better to stay near the side of the road for your scheduled walk breaks. Eating appropriate foods and proper hydration also helps in staying healthy and keeping on the race track towards the finish line.
For more information about this article, please check out Strategies For Running A Marathon, and Run to Finish.
