Posted on July 16, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

This week the blogs from the personal training gang in Leeds are about training methods so Chris has asked me to write about my marathon training plan.

Most of my personal training clients will know that I am very anal about getting my sessions in, and making sure I stick to my training plan with regards to distances and paces as much as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I have days where I’m tired and just need to run for the hell of it instead of being a slave to the old GPS watch but 95% of the time I stick to my plan, otherwise what’s the point of writing a plan?!

At the start of the year I entered the Yorkshire Marathon, I decided that it might be more appealing to run a late Summer/early Autumn marathon as I could train in the Summer rather than running in the cold, wet and sometimes snowy, wintry conditions.

So, what does my marathon training programme look like? Well, I started my marathon training way back in January. January to March focused on aerobic conditioning so quite a lot of long runs, but nothing above 13 miles in this phase of my training as it wasn’t needed at this early stage, and steady state runs. This phase was to build up my heart and lungs and how effective they are at delivering oxygen to the muscles without becoming fatigued.

After this phase I focused on anaerobic conditioning to improving my lactate threshold so that I can run faster and at a higher intensity without become fatigued. For me, this is the tough part of training, lots of tempo running, 1 mile and 1k interval sessions…..sessions that no-one looks forward to as they are tough, but whilst they are hard I secretly love them as I like the feeling that you have really pushed yourself out of your comfort zone! I also kept one long, easy run per week in this phase of my marathon training so I could keep my distances ticking over and I used these long runs as recovery runs from the hard interval and tempo sessions.

I’m currently in my aerobic capacity phase and then I’ll finish off with a short anaerobic capacity training for 5-6 weeks. The main aim of my current phase of marathon training is to build up my distance so I’m ready for the big day. Many of the books about marathon training will advise the novice/amateur runner not to go beyond 18-20 miles for their long run as research shows that the risk of injury is higher than any physiological gains form going any further. Whilst I don’t dispute this, I’m quite a psychological runner so I like to get to 22 miles for my longest run in my marathon training, as I like to know that when I hit this marker on the day I only have 4.2 miles to go…..if I can do 22 miles then I can do 4.2 miles!

If I’m being honest, I think reading magazines and searching the internet for marathon training plans is a bit of a minefield. These are generic plans made for Joe Bloggs, I’m not questioning the knowledge of the authors, but surely it’s better to get a personalised program designed for you. I’m not using this as a plug on this blog, but that is such a benefit of having a personal trainer, regardless of how frequently you train with them, design your running plan. YOUR personal trainer, knows YOU, YOUR capability and fitness levels and can design a programme specifically for YOU and YOUR goals!

When I design my own running plans I tend to re-read books and do some research to see if there are any new training methods out there and then apply them to my plan. So, what is my marathon training plan? Well, again going back to the plans you may find online and in magazines, they often call for you to be running anywhere between 4-6 times per week, which personally I don’t think is needed and for someone is new to marathon training could cause injury. I personally think it is better to run 3-5 times per week , depending on your experience, and compliment this with 2 strength training sessions to minimise the risk of injury.

My training plan consists of 4 running sessions, with 2 strength sessions which focus on run-specific strengthening exercises, core and glute work and some upper body work (I love working my upper body!). Currently my long run is up to 16 miles, and as crazy as it sounds I’m loving my long runs……2 hours 15 minutes (and more once the miles creep up) of my own company, running in the country lanes with just the birds and bees for company…..bliss! However, I actually think the main reason I’m enjoying the long runs on my marathon training plan because I feel strong, and that’s because I’ve stuck to my training plan and it’s all coming together ready for the big day…..let’s hope it stays that way!