Training Tips

Training encourages you to make positive choices with your diet, social life, and sleep
patterns. Here are some training tips that will help you towards your goal:

1. Keep a training log.


Write down your daily mileage, run times, race distance and times, and how you feel. It’s
hard to remember what you did later, so write it down immediately. This will help you learn
from your training, especially if you end up doing more races in the future.

2. Increase weekly mileage by no more than 10 percent.
This allows for a gradual increase in mileage and reduces the risk of injury over time.

3. Include a “cut back” week.


Every third or fourth week of training, take your foot off the gas and cut back a little. This means reducing your mileage and using it as an easy week.

4. Run three to four days a week.


Include one long run, two shorter runs for speed and strength, and an optional easy recovery run day. For speed, focus on your run pace one day a week by running slightly faster in short increments of time or distance. For strength, include some hills one run each week. Long runs are runs that increase your distance. Run these at a slow, comfortable pace, about 1 or 2 minutes per mile slower than your expected goal pace.

5. Alternate a hard day with an easy day or a day off.


This allows your body to properly recover from the hard effort, which is when real adaptations take place.
6. Take at least one day completely off per week.


Rest, and recover. Two days a week for rest and recovery is okay when you’re new to marathon training, too!
7. Monitor your resting heart rate.

What Is a Normal Resting Heart Rate?
Take your resting pulse each morning before arising or use a smart watch that measures heart rate. Keep track of it in your training log. After several readings, you will have a baseline number. As our fitness improves, our resting pulse decreases. 

If you see your resting heart rate spike up by 10 percent or more Above your normal resting pulse, take it easy that day. This can be a sign of fatigue, lack of recovery between workouts, or an illness coming on and it is best to take the day off, sleep in, or change a hard workout to a very easy one, until your resting heart rate returns to normal.

8. Consider cross-training one or two days a week.

Performing complementary cross-training activities will increase your aerobic conditioning without additional running. Swimming, cycling, or rowing are good options. Keep cross-training activities to 45 minutes, one or two times a week, and do them at a very moderate intensity level.

9. When in doubt, always listen to your body.


If you are tired, rest. If a workout feels hard, it is hard. If you need a day off, take one. No matter what a training plan says, the real coach of your training will be your body, so tune in and take notes on what it’s telling you throughout your journey.
Remember some of these tips have been included in our training plan!