If you’re considering a marathon or are already training, it can be confusing knowing what to do. Can you switch out runs for lower-impact activities, how can you work around injuries?
I’m relatively fit and play a lot of sports but have never run more than a 5km. I decided I wanted to run a marathon before I turned 30 so at age 29, I ran my first marathon in November 2023.
As you can tell I am not an expert. The idea of this article is to reassure you if you’re on a similar journey so I hope it helps- these are the things I searched for but couldn’t find a clear answer to.
Training plan
There are lots of free training plans available online but they do vary quite a bit. I did some research and landed on this plan from Women’s Running, starting from the 5km distance. I took a bit longer to complete it – 23 weeks rather than 20 weeks. It served me very well. The extra three weeks were for:
- Relatively near the start of my plan I was abroad for three weeks and it was crazy hot. I was really shattered when I came home so I had a gentle week here before continuing the plan. This was after week 4 of the “10K to Half Marathon Plan” section
- Around 10 weeks before my marathon I went on holiday for a week. I snuck in one run but that was all I did that week
- I knew I had a spare week before my marathon so I repeated the 16 mile week (week 3 of “Half Marathon to Marathon” section) with an 18 mile run at the end
I had the misfortune of injuring my quad so instead of doing tempo runs, specific hill work or any short sprints, I just stuck to the timings. For example, where the plan says “Tempo Run
15 min Easy + 22 min Moderate + 15 min Easy”, I just did a 52 minute run.
The best part of my training was that I wrote up my plan on paper, and I crossed off each step of the plan as I went. Hugely satisfying!
Switching out runs
This is something I tried to research when doing my training but couldn’t find a proper answer to.
I did not switch out any of my long runs but I did switch out some of my other runs. If you want to cycle instead of running, you can definitely do this but double the length (or time) you’re supposed to be doing. This worked well for me, but I didn’t do it very regularly. I did this if I had a little injury (like the aforementioned quad which was often not in a good way after my long runs).
For non-impact cardio, I’d usually swim, cycle or go hiking.
When should I enter my marathon?
I entered my marathon in late August (12 weeks before my marathon) however for very popular races you may need to enter further in advance. If you’re unsure if your race will sell out, email the organiser as they should be able to give you an idea.
I didn’t run any training races beforehand but if I was doing it again I probably would have run a training race, even a 10km, to get an idea of the layout of the day.
Entertainment
Keeping my mind occupied on runs was so important. You’ll be running for hours and I have a very short attention span so I needed something to keep my attention. I started with music, but then moved to podcasts. When I was running for over an hour I found I was getting annoyed with podcasts which is why I tried audiobooks, and this was ideal for me.
- Music → run less than 30 minutes
- Podcast → run up to an hour
- Audio book → anything beyond an hour
For audiobooks, you may have them on your Spotify account, otherwise try your local library as they often have an audiobook subscription with lots of options. I tried to listen to books that were entertaining without needing all of my focus – I found detective type novels were the best, even though I don’t actually read or listen to them in real life.
To encourage myself to get out on my runs, I didn’t listen to audiobooks in between runs. It was surprisingly effective.
Training snacks
I originally used energy gels but after a tough long run, I couldn’t bring myself to use them anymore. So I did some research and switched to a combination of medjool dates and nut bars which I used through to, and including, race day.
For anything over 1 hour I would eat just medjool dates; usually 2 dates. Make sure to remove the stones before going out on your run – I chopped mine in half long ways to make them smaller to nibble on too.
For anything over 1.5 hours, I’d add a nut bar to my medjool dates. The bars I ate contained Roasted Nuts (59%) (Peanuts, Almonds, Macadamias), Glucose, Sunflower Seeds (6%), Rice Crisps, Honey (3%), Pepitas (3%), Rice Syrup, Sunflower Oil, Sesame Seeds (1%), Salt (0.5%), Natural Flavour, Humectant (Glycerine). If you’re in Australia, they are from Sam’s Pantry.
I’d start bringing snacks into your run as soon as you get over the hour mark so that you can find out what works for you. I never ran out of energy on my runs – I don’t know if that’s because of my snack or just because I eat quite a lot generally!
Training fluids
I always run with water; at the start I carried a bottle but I moved to a hydration vest around the 10km mark. The hydration vest was a game changer for me; drinking from a tube was much easier than trying to use a bottle, and I could carry my phone and all of my training and race day snacks in the pockets.
Post run I would drink a 750ml isotonic drink (something like this mixed with water).
Tracking your training
I used Strava to track my training all the way through, using the app on my phone. I used the free version of Strava and don’t have a smart watch or anything else. It was incredibly useful.
I did find that Strava wasn’t always accurate, and it definitely didn’t like it when I ran with the data turned off when I was abroad, but it was essential to my training. Without it I wouldn’t have known how far or how long I was running for and it was nice to be able to track progress. It also gave me a good idea of the pace I should be running my marathon at in case the adrenaline got to me and I was struggling to find my rhythm.
Pre-race tapering
The week (or two depending on your plan) before your marathon you will be tapering down. I found my legs went really heavy this week and I felt lots of niggles in my legs. I think this was largely in my head but I found this article from Endurance Physio really reassuring. If you have any of this, don’t panic. Trust in the fact that you’ve done your training, you’ll be okay.
Training tips
The final thing I wanted to share were three training tips that I found helpful:
- Do a run without your music/ audio playing just in case there are issues during the race
- Recreate your marathon morning plan two or three weeks before your race
→ For me this involved getting up at the time I would on race day and following my timings in terms of stretching, going to the bathroom etc. I even did a practice bathroom and water stop on my run. I even had the same meal the night before that I was planning to have before race day. - Don’t let your marathon training define your week.
→ You have to be disciplined for the training regardless but if you plan your week well it can have limited disruption on your “normal” life. For example, I did my long run on a Monday up until 4 weeks out from the marathon (yes it meant an EARLY start) but it also gave me my weekend to enjoy. If I’d run on a weekend I wouldn’t have wanted to do much during the day afterwards, and I wasn’t a fan of this.
I hope this information will help you with your training – it’s a long old slog but if you stick to your plan and put in the effort you’ll be absolutely fine! For reference I ran my marathon in 3:48:01 which was below my target.