(Disclaimer - This Blog was written prior to COVID-19 so some ideas may not be suitable or available at this time)

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Written by Ron New

SETTING GOALS AND PLANNING

Thinking of running your first Marathon!! If you are already, you are halfway there, now it’s time to plan!!

How to choose Your Marathon location

This is an important process, as you want to remember this for years to come, make it memorable, choose a great race either overseas (one that has a great atmosphere & have a trip while you are at it), or keep it local with family & friends there to cheer you on; either way, the most important thing to do is: ”Make it Happen” by BOOKING IT NOW!!

You want it to be an event that motivates you every time you think of it, when you get up in the morning to train.

A few suggestions for great local Australian events;

• Gold Coast – Beautiful location, this flat run takes you along the amazing Gold Coast coastline.
• Melbourne – Showing you all sides of Melbourne, the city streets, the coastal paths, over some 'mini' hills and through some of the best parks Melbourne has to offer.
• Sydney – Who doesn’t want to run over the Sydney Harbour bridge and through on of the world’s best parks (Centennial park)

What Is your Marathon Goal?

It is very important to set yourself a great (& realistic) Marathon day goal.

To Finish -
Being your First Marathon, this goal could be as simple as a, to ‘complete’ the full 42kms and get that well deserved finishing medal.

To Beat the clock -
If you’ve taken an extra step and aiming for a specific time, this will give you a great target to aim for while training, as well as during your marathon.
To assist with your training & more importantly pacing, there are some great apps out there (eg. Stava, RunKeeper or Mapmyrun) that can help you along the way.

 

Training

This being your first Marathon you want to give yourself as much time as possible to train for the event, the better you prepare the better the result.
6-months is ideal, depending on how much you have run before & you may already have a base fitness level.

There are many terms used around marathon running

• Getting km's in the legs, or, pounding the pavement - This is simply completing the specified Km's each week to reach your goal.
• Running on tired legs - This is a great way to build strength & power in the legs.
• Types of training;
  • Speed work - A session much faster than your marathon pace, focused towards building additional leg strength and power.
  • Interval sessions - based on changing your pace within one run, ranging from slower recovery pace to faster speed pace. 
  • Tempo runs - A more intense run to get you prepared for the big day. This run is close to race pace (don't forget to warm up & down on these sessions)
  • Long runs - as the name calls it, this is usually your weekend slog, generally running at a pace 45-seconds to 1-minute slower than the planned race pace.
  • Recovery runs - Similar pace to your Long run, but a lot shorter  

Every session must have a purpose -
For most of you, this being your first Marathon, your focus may be more towards doing the weekly km's rather than focusing specifically on the pace.

To help in building strength & confidence in running a Marathon, see below what your last 4 weeks of training MIGHT look like.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
30k Long	8k Recovery	REST	18k Long	8k Recovery	8k tempo	REST

Nutrition

To complete all of this training you are going to need plenty of energy, to do this you require a great eating plan, it could be the difference between you finishing strongly vs finishing at all.
There are many ways to create a plan & many Nutritionists & running coaches out there with great ideas, make sure to do your homework and add eating into your training plan, this could be as simple as getting your stomach used to (during your long runs) consuming energy gels & bars, or to take it further to trying things like Banana's & Muffins.

What to wear for your Marathon

Wearing the correct footwear -
Through your training is the opportunity to work out what it is you want to wear!! If would be remiss of me not to make sure you have the correct shoes on your feet, this being said it is important for you to visit your local The Athlete's Foot store and be fitted by a Fit Technician, this way you can go over MyFit3D to make sure you are fitted into a great pair of running shoes & socks based specifcially towards your feet and the event you are aiming for. If you can't make it instore, make sure to contact the MyFit Virtual team to help you in getting the right fit.

Wearing comfortable clothing -
When we talk about testing & working out what you want to wear, this literally covers everything;

Must haves;

• Shorts or Tights 
• Shirt or singlet
• Shoes & socks

Optional additions;

• Hat
• Sunglasses 
• Compression socks 
• Sweat bands (wrist, head)
• Taping, strapping, Band-aids
• Gear belt
• Watch, Phone
• earphones (for music)

Tapering (or resting Pre-event)

There are many forms of taper, this is the rest period before the race.Tapering is usually anywhere from two & a half weeks to a week depending on many individual factors.
Tapering is primarily where your weekly running km's go down, and your rest goes up.

I personally find a good medium is approximately just over a week out, as I still want my body & my mind to be fit & ready to GO!! I run all my normal runs up until the Friday the week before, easy run Saturday, while Sunday is a smaller easier long run, then in the race week most runs are easy runs reduced in distance much like a recovery run.

 

Written by Ron New
Ron is not only a part of The Athlete's Foot team, but is also a running tragic & holder of an exclusive 6-star finisher medal (Completing all 6 major Marathons of New York, Berin, Chicago, Boston, London & Tokyo)

Check out other Blogs by Ron:

• Additional Marathon Prep
• Marathon Race Day