Training for Your First Marathon
A Guide for Road Runners Wanting to Run the Distance
You have run a number of road races and want to test yourself with a very long distance. Entering a marathon is a good challenging road race.
Running a Marathon
After running road races, many runners want increasingly challenging races. Despite the existence of ultramarathons, most runners view the marathon as the ultimate running challenge.
Training Schedules for Marathons
You need to be properly trained to finish a marathon. With proper training you will finish the race, have fun, and possibly avoid hitting the dreaded wall.
For runners who like structure and schedules, there are many marathon training programs with detailed training schedules. Those who don't like schedules may want to try an unstructured training program.
Hal Higdon's Marathon Training Program
Hal Higdon has been running, racing, and writing about both for about a half century. So he has accumulated quite a bit of experience on the topic.
His novice supreme marathon training program starts with a runner who is able to run 3 mile training runs. Higdon also has more advanced marathon training programs.
Higdon's novice supreme marathon training program has a 30 week schedule. The schedule includes weekly long runs beginning at 3 miles and building up to 20 miles three weeks before the marathon. Higdon does not advocate training runs longer than 20 miles.
Higdon's schedule includes 3 weeks of tapering and two rest days before the marathon. He advocates running at a pace that allows comfortable conversation.
Jeff Galloway's Marathon Training Program
Jeff Galloway is one of the current biggest advocates of taking regular scheduled walking breaks to allow runners to go longer distances. He also advocates running at a pace that allows comfortable conversation. Galloway gives formulas to determine the running pace, the ratio of running to walking, and the amount to slow down on warm days.
He has a detailed 30 week training program for the marathon. The schedule includes two easy days of running a half hour and one day for a long run. The other days are for resting or cross training. The long runs start at 3 miles and work up to 26 miles 4 weeks before the marathon. The last four weeks are for tapering.
Joe Henderson's Training Program
Joe Henderson has also been running, racing, and writing about both for about a half century. His latest book, Run Right Now (Barnes & Noble 2004), has a 13 week training schedule for the marathon. Henderson's schedule is less structured than the others. It includes long days, limited fast days, easy days, and rest days. It does not however specify which day of the week for each type of run. Hence individual runners have more flexibility to work around their personal schedules.
In Henderson's program the long runs start at 12 to 14miles and work up to 20 to 22miles. It allows three weeks for tapering. It is designed for runners who can already run about 10 miles.
If you want to run your first marathon, pick one of these training schedules or an unstructured training program and start training.
