Your preparation for the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon on the 29th of October in right on schedule, in addition to the basic conditioning, you integrated interval training and fartlek into your program. Super, that you choose this way and your first step in progression are easily being felt. Now, the real part of the trainings phase begins. In 10 weeks, you will be full of joy and standing at the starting line, now it’s time to run the actual marathon. The marathon is “really long “, a distance of 42,195 km and it is simply logical, that you have to work on this distance in training. That means, how many long runs do I need to be well prepared to take on the marathon?
With help of the long runs, we are trying to reach two goals. On the one hand, our muscles are tired with every kilometer. This is obtained and easy to see at competitions when you are running the same steady tempo and at the end being able to overtake numerous runners. Usually, a dynamic running style is no longer able to be seen and your muscles are not working with you. So, this doesn’t happen during your marathon, we have to train the run specific muscles for the long distance and show them that they can do a sports activity between 3 to 4 hours and longer if need be. A second aspect is the constant energy delivery by a marathon. Next to the little amount of energy provided by glycogen (carbohydrates), we also have an unlimited energy amount through the fat metabolism. But fat has a disadvantage, it is not so effective and is more efficient by lower level activities. But we can train the fat metabolism, so that it is more effective and supplies us better with energy over the 42 km kilometers. This takes place by slower longer runs and is called marathon-specific training.
If it’s not clear, why we run long runs to prepare for the marathon, there is still the question of how long actually is the long run and how often should it be in the trainings plan. To start, none of our training sessions or long runs should be the complete marathon distance and do not try to train 40 or more kilometers during your marathon training. After the training if you do this distance, you will need much longer to recuperate and thus putting a wrench in your training plans. Long runs should be around 30km or around 3 hours. We want to work towards this distance, week after week and it might look like: 25km, 25km, 26km, 28km, 30km, 30km. There might be one or the other runner that might want to add two or three kilometers to their runs. This might also be something that’s good for the head, but do it step by step and give yourself enough time to regenerate. I myself never ran more than 36 km in training and this didn’t stop me from running a faster marathon. With 5 to 6 long runs. You are good pretty well-prepared. You prepared your body step by step, to take on the longer distance and when it’s time for the marathon, your body doesn’t have any surprises. I would suggest doing one long run a week or once every weekend. After 3 weeks, give yourself time to regenerate by giving yourself a week off of the longer runs. Starting in October you should have already completed all of your long runs and start your tapering phase, here is regeneration the key. This, is how it is to show your body how a marathon is ran. Don’t forget to have enough drinks when doing your long runs and drinking by running should be just an exercise. Use a belt with water bottles or let a friend accompany you with a bike and let them take care of your thirst needs. This is how “Fans” stay fit by your marathon, now begin your marathon preparation and do it right!
Text by Carsten Eich
