Marathon Training 101

Many months ago we asked our Warriors if they had suggestions or questions for blog topics.  One of the suggestions was a posting explaining what is involved in training for a marathon.  So I thought about it and considered that maybe that topic would be of interest to our Warriors who have run marathons or are runners, but I thought that perhaps most of our Warriors don't really care or want to know what kind of twisted things we do to ready ourselves for the challenge.  But now as Katie's third marathon approaches, and training is a subject of conversation with our Warriors, I thought maybe it was time to explain some things that only runners know or understand.  Actually, it was Jerry sticking his fingers and in his ears and saying nah, nah, nah this morning when Katie was talking about her thighs chafing that prompted me to write this blog.

So here's the boring side of what it takes to train for and run a marathon:

• Build a running foundation of at least 6 months to one year of running 20 or more miles per week
• Follow a formalized running program for 12 to 18 weeks that readies your body to run the distance
• Add some cross training and strength training to your fitness program to complement your running
• Try to get 8 hours of sleep per night to enable your body to recover for your next workout
• Run at least one killer speed workout and one progressively longer run each
• Eat a balanced diet that replenishes glycogen stores and provides enough protein to maintain muscle
• Build a support system of family or friends who will allow you to spend hours and hours running
• Get regular massage, stretch, and foam roll to keep all those body parts injury free
• Run your heart out for 26.2 miles.

So to myself, after running numerous marathons, and to Katie after building a strong running foundation over the past 8 years, the above seems like normal and sometimes mundane stuff.  But what makes each marathon experience unique and memorable are the challenges and humor that we encounter during the many weeks and months of training.  So we thought we would share the "fun" side of training for and running a marathon.

First, a little running terminology explained:

I am going to follow the ten percent rule so that I don't have to go home to RICE.
This does not mean I am tithing 10 percent of my income to an organization so that I don't have to go home and live on rice.  It means in my training plan I am not increasing my mileage by more than 10 percent each week so I can avoid injury and the need to Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate.

I have been doing a lot of LSD in hopes of earning a BQ.
This does not mean I have been taking drugs in order to increase my Business Intelligence.  It means I have been building endurance by running a lot of long, slow distance in hopes of running a Boston Qualifying time.

For the race I will position myself in one of the middle corrals and hope to pass the Clydesdales and sneak by the bandits
This does not mean I am going to get in a horse pen and when the race starts try to pass the Clydesdale horses and hopefully not get robbed by a bandit.  It means I will line up in the middle of the pack at the starting line and will try to pass the Clydesdales (who are male runners who meet or exceed a specified weight and are placed in that category for awards purposes) and I am hoping there aren't too many bandits, or unregistered runners, clogging up the roadway.

I have been doing a lot of fartleks building up to this race.  This does not mean I have been eating food that does not agree with me and the runners behind me are paying a price for it.  It means I have been running a form of speedwork (fartlek is a Swedish term) where you determine your own interval distance, say running hard to the next telephone pole and then recovering.

So one of the first and most frequent questions we are asked when we tell people we are running a marathon is "How far is this marathon?".  A marathon by definition is 26.2 miles.  Period.  Any other race of any other distance is not a marathon.  Okay, I admit I don't know a Birdie from an Eagle from a Bogey, so we are on "par" with each other there.  I do know what par means.

Following the logic above, a half marathon is half the distance of a full marathon, or 13.1 miles.  One time when I said I had just run a half marathon, the person asked me which half.

In addition to mastering running terminology there are other indicators that Katie has become a seasoned runner over the past 8 years.  For instance, when she ran her second half marathon in Hawaii 7 years ago I got an absolutely panicked voicemail that she had a black and blue toenail and WHAT IF IT FALLS OFF?  Now, I just get a text message saying it looks like she might lose another one.  I also remember squeals of horror when she first discovered what running many miles in humid weather does to tender skin.  It's called chafing and it's not pretty when you get in the shower.  And this is one rare instance where guys have it worse than ladies.  It is known as the dreaded nipple chafing.  Ouch!  Sorry Jerry.  And much to Katie's dismay, she has discovered that for runners the race course sometimes is the bathroom.  Just sayin'.

So Katie has followed the 10 percent rule and she hasn't had to RICE very much.  She has been doing a lot of LSD and is on track to BQ.  She knows just where to position herself in the corral to avoid getting trampled by Clydesdales and elbowed by bandits.  And she has run more fartleks than ever before in her training build up.  And believe it or not, she told me she really wants to qualify for Boston and she would do anything I tell her to do in her training WITHOUT talking back or giving me dirty looks or attitude.  She gets an A+ for following her training plan and only rarely giving me a questionable look.

She is in the final week of her taper and she has checked off every box on her training plan and all of her training runs indicate she will meet her goal time.  There is just one more thing though about the marathon.  We can control our training, sleep, diet, etc, but we can't control the weather on race day.  So here's hoping for a beautifully cool and cloudy day with a slight tailwind!