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I remember watching the New York City Marathon in 2018 and getting that hot, bubbly, excited feeling in my brain. It was, as some of you may know, marathon fever. I promptly signed up for a February marathon. I counted the training weeks on my fingers. I was about 12 weeks away. It felt doable even though my running had been stagnant. I was barely hitting 10 miles per week, but I figured signing up for a race might fix my training. It would force me, I thought, to get back in a groove.
I was wrong. My life didn’t have room for marathon training and my body was not taking the sudden increase in mileage well. By week four, I was broken, limping, frustrated, and really hungry. I know other runners have fallen into this trap.
We get so hyped this time of year and sign up for races without enough time to properly train. Even when we make it to the start line of these fever-races healthy, the result is rarely our best.
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I am feeling marathon fever again this year. (Who wouldn’t with races in 2020 canceled and the Boston Marathon being shifted to October?) But I’m wiser, and more patient now, which is why I am planning to race in fall 2022.
Yes, my training cycle will be long, slow, and steady, and if you’re new or returning to running after a hiatus, yours should be too.
Why You Should Choose—and Train for—a Marathon a Year in Advance
Like many elements of marathon training, the time you need to properly train for a race will depend on your running history. In my book Master the Marathon, my research showed that intermediate or advanced runners should plan for a race that is at least six months away. A casual or beginner runner should plan for a race that is about a year away.
I can hear you gasping—a year! Twelve months? I know that sounds like a long time, but here’s the deal: When you give yourself time to learn about your body’s reaction to running, you are more apt to make training a whole-body experience. If you have your nutrition, strength, mental game, and recovery process keyed in, you will go into the actual “in-season” training (i.e. the 12 to 16 weeks leading up to the race) strong and prepared. You’ll need to make a few adjustments during that time, but you’ll face less pain and turmoil than someone who just woke up and decided to run a marathon.
I asked Erica Coviello, ACE-certified personal trainer, RRCA-certified running coach, and owner of Run Fit Stoked, why our bodies, especially that of a newbie, needs this amount of time to adjust.
“The human body reacts to stress,” she said. “In order to become a better runner, you need to both put yourself through a certain amount of specific stress and be able to recover from it, which is where growth and adaptation happen. To see real gains and progress, this process of stress and recovery takes time.”
Coviello says that experienced runners have the muscle memory and cardiovascular preparedness to start a hardcore training program three months from the race. But runners who rarely go more than 20 miles per week and who haven’t raced further than 10K need to prep their muscles, VO2 max, hemoglobin counts, and cardiac output to safely make it to race day.
“First-time marathoners who have not been running high mileage for a long time do not yet have those physical adaptations necessary to meet the demands they’re about to put on their bodies through marathon training,” she said. “More time is required to give them a chance to better stress the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems and recover from that stress to build a stronger body, allowing them to achieve their goals.”
How to Organize Your Training Cycle
If you’re a new or beginner runner, consider a training cycle that is four parts: pre- base training, base training, in-season training, and maintenance. Each of these stages serves a different purpose, and each stage builds on the previous one to help you peak right around race time. The progressive build is to help your body handle the load without overexerting yourself. This is essentially a simplified version of linear periodization.
Pre-Base:
Before you even begin officially training, you need a solid foundation. I call this stage pre-base. The length of pre-base will truly depend on the individual. Someone who is starting at zero miles per week will benefit from an eight-month pre-base, while a runner covering 15 miles per week could get away with five months of pre-base training. The entire goal of the pre-base stage is to get your body accustomed to running and build overall body strength. Here is where “time on your feet” is key. The best pre-base plans start with a combination of running and walking to help build your musculoskeletal system. It will eventually build to slow running miles and help you tackle 25-mile weeks with ease.
This is also the time to start adjusting your nutrition. Find the protein-to-carb ratio that is right for you. You will likely need to increase your calories and hydration. Finally, pre-base will expose any issues that could hinder a marathon training cycle. Life will get in the way of your best-laid running plans. How will you adjust if you must miss miles? By figuring out how to react to external obstacles, you will set yourself up for success when the training gets more intense.
Base:
“Before the true marathon training plan, you’ll want a block off at least four weeks of base training with mostly easy miles to prep your body for the upcoming increase in demands,” said Coviello. “Think of base miles like the pre-season of any other sport.”
In the base stage, you will increase overall mileage volume and introduce longer runs. Base is also the best time to prime your fast twitch muscles with plyometric strength moves, such as jump squats and jump lunges. This will help increase speed and decrease the chance of injury when you add in race-specific paces and speed workouts during your in-season training.
In-Season:
In-season training are the 12 to 16 weeks leading up to your race that most people consider “real training.” This is when, if your base is built, you will increase mileage intensity and volume. You will continue strength training, but it will be more to maintain muscle instead of building it. In-season training is like fine-tuning your body to become race-ready, but many runners don’t realize that all the work put in beforehand helps make a flawless training cycle happen.
Maintenance:
After you race, it’s important to keep running if you plan to complete another marathon and don’t feel like going through the pre-base stage again.
The Bottom Line: Patience Is Self-Love
So, dear newer runners, I understand the temptation to want to sign up for a spring marathon right now. But by giving yourself the time and space to train, you are showing kindness and compassion to your body. Patience will bring greatness.
“Are there people—usually younger ones—who can wake up one day and decide they want to run a marathon in a few weeks and are able to do without base training plan? Certainly,” said Coviello. “But that doesn't mean they wouldn’t have benefited from a longer or smarter training plan.”
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