Jogging Tip

Archive for the ‘Boston Marathon’ Category

Running for marathons has become quite a rage and you have professionals and amateurs who start the marathon together. Professional marathon runners need to train effectively and must have well thought out training plan to gradually being up their fitness levels to competitive levels. Training is vital for marathons and if you are serious you will sit down and devise a training plan.

Professional runners normally break their training into different phases. What each entails and the duration of each phase depends on the runner?s fitness levels. It also depends on how much time the runner has to prepare for the event.

Immaterial how you break up your training, your aim should be to bring up your running ability so that you cover the entire length of the marathon. Normally amateur and novice runners face a problem with this. But a point to remember is that most beginners can not run a mile so they feel completely frustrated thinking about how they will cover twenty six miles of the marathon.

Some runners like to break their training into twenty six weeks. They go for long runs and gradually increase the distance, like adding a mile a week. This is not the only aspect of training but it one way of ensuring that you build up your stamina so that you have the energy to run the entire length.

Another important aspect of the training is to make sure you run every day. It is but natural that you should include rest days in your training. Many professional runners end up running five days a week and use the two days to do exercises in the gym to build up their upper bodies.

To become a serious marathon runner, it is important to have a training regimen and then sticking to it. If you do not take your training seriously, there is no way you would be able to compete with other professional marathon runners.

Marathon training plans are simply the tools that runners use in order to reach their goals. If our goal is to finish a first marathon then we choose a conservative and relaxed plan that will get us to the start line in good shape and then onto the finish line without an injury. If our goal is to finish a marathon in under 2 and a half hours then the training plan will have to be more rigorous, perhaps more risky, and definitely more involved.

No matter what our marathon goals are, every good marathon training plan will include at least some of each of the 5 essential ingredients:

1)Quantity. It is ridiculous to assume that you can succeed at your marathon goals if you don?t expect to put in the appropriate quantity of training. This is usually looked at simply in terms of miles or kilometers, but it can also be defined by hours, heart rate beats, VDOT points or even number of strides. This quantity will vary drastically with regard to your goals, but if your training plan doesn?t refer to the specific quantity of training then it isn?t a valid training plan.

2)Quality. This is a little more controversial, but it is true to say that every good training plan will refer in some way to the quality of the training involved. This can be very specific such as ?7 times 200m sprints at 86% Max heart rate with 1000m slow run at 5minute per kilometer pace?. It can also be very general like ?half hour slow jog?. Either way, a good marathon training plan will always make it clear how fast or how intense any workout should be.

3)Purpose. A good marathon training plan will be clear about the purpose of each of its elements. Each workout (or even each recovery session) should have a specific and valuable purpose. You should be able to explain exactly why you are doing what you are doing and you should be able to reasonably expect that you will achieve those benefits from doing that particular session.

4)Timing. The best marathon training plans include timing for various sessions as well as various phases of the program. They will refer to specific training phases through out a season, variations from week to week, the location of hard and easy days within a week and sometimes even the best time of day to do various workouts in relation to rest or other key sessions. Those programs that don?t specify timing, leave it open for a runner to be doing the optimum training with sub-optimal timing, leading to less than satisfying results or even injury. The timing must be optimized to make the most of the work that is being done while giving the greatest opportunity for recovery to do its job.

5)Recovery. Some call it, recovery, others call it rest, repair, growth, adaption, or even non-running-training. The most important element of training that many marathon training plans ignore is structured rest to make the most of the structured work. Every plan must include the correct balance of work and rest. It is in this rest time that our bodies respond to the loads we have placed on them. If there is no recovery then there is no improvement. A good training program recognizes this and does not leave recovery up to chance. The quantity, quality, purpose and timing of each of the training sessions are optimized to ensure that there is just the right amount of recovery to rebuild the body before the next load is introduced.

These are the basic 5 points that I use in evaluating any marathon training plans or any running training program for that matter. Of course there is a lot more to it as well, but this should help you to start evaluating any of the millions of ready made marathon training plans.

Marathon training plans come in all shapes and sizes. They are made to suit different time commitments, different runner goals, and different levels of experience. However, no matter who made the plan, or who it is for, there is always one element that stands out to me as the most important.

The most important part of any plan is more important than how far you run and more important than how fast. It is more important than how many weeks you train for and how you test your performance.

Not everyone will agree with this, but I strongly believe that the most important thing that every excellent marathon training plan will specify is the exact quantity and timing of recovery. I believe that the most important part of any training plan is this recovery component.

Some runners see recovery as the opposite of training. They believe that it is simply a gap between productive training sessions. In reality, the training effect is only possible because of recovery. It is only when we rest that we are able to make the gains that we have worked so hard to achieve.

Now this could be called ?Classic training concept number one?. We all know this, but hear me out.

Effective training involves over-performing the level that your body is used to. This shocks your body and makes it realize that it will have to rebuild itself stronger next time. It starts this process straight away, but it is only able to get right into the rebuilding phase properly when the training (and subsequent stress) has stopped. Recovery can take the form of a rest from all activity, or a return to less stressful daily life, or even carefully planned active recovery. Which ever form it takes, adequate time and opportunity for recovery is essential for us to receive the training effect that we are working so hard for. If it wasn?t for adequate recovery we would be continually breaking our bodies down without giving them chance to re-build. This is often called over-training and can lead to injury, low motivation, illness and often premature running retirement.

An excellent marathon training plan will specify exactly when, in a week, you should run hard sessions, easy sessions and no sessions. The best programs will even give guidance on separating the sessions by specified hours. For example you can see the difference it would make if you do Monday?s hard session first thing in the morning or last thing at night. The difference could be up to maybe 16 hours of recovery leading into Tuesday?s early morning run. If you run at 6:00am on Monday and then 6:00am on Tuesday, your body gets maybe 24 hours (less run time) to recover. If you run at 10:00pm on Monday, and 6:00am on Tuesday, your body has only about 8 hours (less run time) and then it is back into the work, perhaps only half recovered.

So it is not just the quantity of recovery that is important it is the timing of recovery that really makes a difference. I firmly believe that if we are to get the most possible benefit from all of our training then we have to ensure that we recover as well as we possibly can. This can take the form of:

1) Fine tuning our sessions in a day
2) Sensible location of sessions in our week
3) Using an optimal balance of hard and easy weeks and hard and easy training phases
4) Treating ourselves to end of season recovery and perhaps even a mid-season break if we have the courage.

Now, all this talk of rest and recovery is making me feel tired so I am going to lie down and put my feet up. I have a session planned for 5:00 pm today and I want to make sure that I am over yesterdays 6:00 am session before I pile it on again. That will have given my body 35 hours (less run time) of active recovery, sleep and easy daily life to get over yesterday. Some would call this extravagant, and this is extreme even for me, but I know that my body will be 100% recovered before today?s session. This means I have made the most of yesterdays work, I am ready to train hard today, and I have significantly reduced my risk of injury.

One thing I learned about from sports is that a lot of people talked a lot of smack before the events. They would always tell you how great they were and try to psyche you out. It never worked with me, it actually did the opposite. It fired me up and got my adrenaline to flow like water. I noticed that the marathon level at the starting point there was the same type of talk, but it was a little more low-key.

Now in life when someone tries to tell me how great they are or brag about all the things that they’ve done all I want to do is get them back out at the start of a marathon and strip away all the BS and tell them let’s go. Because in a marathon it’s all about performance and nothing else; Talk is just talk but if you can run the run then it’s okay to talk the talk.

Next time you hear someone bragging up a storm with an unearned ego driven personality, ask yourself could this person run a marathon. How far would they get? What excuses would they make?

• I had shin splints.
• My ankle hurts.
• I have blisters.
• I ate the wrong food last night.
• I pulled a calf muscle.
• I can’t run in these shoes.

In fact over my lifetime in athletic footraces, I have heard more excuses from more people who I had previously respected until then; that I could fill an entire book, hey maybe I just might one day, no BS. What I’m saying here is how tough for you? Let’s strip away the BS and run a marathon.

I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple, to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.

This is only a test Post for this blog.  I needed to kick off my Jogging Tip blog with something so here it is.  A bland post about nothing.  Needed though for me to practice talking about running and jogging.