Before getting into the running, I was actually a SMOKER who couldn’t even run down the block. I used to hold onto the belief that marathons and races in general were for people who were not like me. I genuinely didn’t know that it was physically possible for me to build up to be able to run long distances let alone a FULL MARATHON. Now I have 27 marathons under my belt and have helped thousands of people go from beginner runners to marathon finishers. In this episode we are going to talk about what it takes to build up to a marathon and how to do it safely so that you can continue to run for a lifetime and not just be a ‘one and done’. 

Marathoning maybe USED to be just for elite, but with the recent running BOOM we are starting to see that normal every day people with no experience can achieve amazing things and build up to a marathon.

1. If your goal was to run a marathon in the next 6-9 months and you had NEVER done a run before, where should you start?

   
   





1. Start with walking 

   
   



2. Run/Walk intervals every other day

   
   



3. Start with 10-20 min and build up

   
   



4. Cut back weeks every 2-3 weeks

   
   



5. Find a half marathon half way through the training

   
   



6. Join a a group or find someone/something to be apart of community is everything

   
   



7. Don’t worry about workouts- go at a zone 2 pace

   
   





2. How do you know if you are running the correct pace?

   
   





1. Zone 2 is going to be the safest place to be- grab a HR monitor and 60-70% of your max HR

   
   



2. Another way to do this is think of a pace that you are not needing to take breaks from- should feel super easy. Breathing is light

   
   



3. Your long run pace should be the same as your easy run pace

   
   





3. How to build the long run

   
   





1. You have to have increase long runs to be able to finish a marathon

   
   



2. Old rules state to not have a long run be more than 30% of your weekly mileage, but these rules may not apply if you are newer to the sport and just can’t run high mileage yet. - to balance out the fact that it is risky to have such a long run relative to weekly mileage (ie a 12 mile long run when you only run 20 miles a week) we will want to keep these long runs extremely slow.

   
   





4. Confidence is key

   
   





1. Everyone is nervous about the marathon distance

   
   



2. I’ve done 27 marathons and still freak out about long runs

   
   



3. It’s good to find something to distract yourself and remain calm in the early miles

   
   





5. FUELING!

   
   





1. This is no joke. You can get ‘away’ with faster on shorter runs but when you make the jump to doing 60-90 min runs, it’s going to hit different. Fueling is EVERYTHING

   
   



2. Eat a carb rich breakfast

   
   



3. Take 60 grams of carbs PER HOUR minimum. 

   
   



4. Aim for 1000mg of sodium PER HOUR

   
   



5. Train the way you plan to race

   
   





6. Don’t ruin your race by putting too much time goal pressure

   
   





1. It’s fun to push yourself but it’s not fun to overshoot your capabilities and end of hitting the wall.