Rob's Cork City Marathon Blog Week 2 - Training plans are great, but not gospel
Most marathon training plans for beginners and intermediates run for 16 weeks. If you’re really fit, 12 weeks might just be enough but you’ll be pushing yourself to the limit.
By now you should have a solid base of four weeks done. If this time hasn't exactly been productive then there is zero need to panic or declare your intention to retire.
Stay calm, people!
The first few weeks of a training plan, no matter what the difficulty level, are about finding your fitness and listening to your body.
If you’re constantly exhausted, you’re running too much. If you’re not feeling any improvement in your distances and lung capacity, you’re running too little.
THE RIGHT PLAN AND APP
Most marathon websites have downloadable training plans for beginners, intermediates and elites. Use these as a schematic for yourself rather than adhering to the letter.
The Cork City Marathon website has some great tips and Run Ireland has easy to follow plans for all levels.
If you’re a tech geek, there are plenty of apps available to download for your phone.
The most comprehensive of these are the Hal Higdon plans but they are quite pricey and you’ll find loads of free apps on the web.
Map My Run is excellent for iPhone and Runkeeper is good if you’re Android inclined.
Your training will determine how well you do on the day of the race so finding a middle-ground between the advice you get from experts and how your body is feeling will give you a great chance of achieving your goal.
A friend of mine (who shall remain nameless!) once decided to run a marathon on a whim - not realising the size of the task involved.
They put off training time and time again, using every excuse under the sun.
Actual footage taken during your run yesterday. #GifParty pic.twitter.com/wwdbd1rGZu
— ASICS Runkeeper (@Runkeeper) March 3, 2016
Marathon day came and they had close to nil training done. ‘No problem’, they thought.
Astonishingly, they finished but it took nearly seven hours, they walked 99 percent of the course and couldn’t walk properly for a week afterwards!
They haven't done a marathon since.
Contrast this with another friend of mine who did his first marathon a couple of years ago.
He soaked up all the information he could get his hands on, trained properly, ate well and came in sub four hours with a bit to spare in the tank.
Respect the distance and you won't go wrong.
LIFE ALWAYS GETS IN THE WAY
If you miss a day, or even a week through illness or injury, don’t try to make up for lost time.
It happens to us all and rushing back into it will only hamper your progress further.
I had a really bad cold two weeks before last year’s Manchester marathon.
I was off the road for a week but I concentrated solely on getting better through rest and relaxation.
On race day I ran a PB four minutes under my previous record.
You can be guaranteed that life will get in the way of your training routine. Work, family and social commitments will play havoc with your schedule.
Don’t feel bad about it.
A short run is better than no run so, when things are getting on top of you, do what you can and return to your training plan when it’s possible.
It's only when you're consistently missing sessions that you need to think about adjusting your goals.
REST
There’s a great anecdote about Brian Clough, one of the greatest football managers of all-time.
He would insist his players would rest for two or three days after a big game. If he found out they were doing any sort of training during that downtime, he would fine them, or worse still, drop them.
He was right. Recovery and rest are just as important as getting miles in your legs. Use your training plan as a guide and adapt it to your own needs.
Training plans are a great guide, but not an exact map.
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