1. Gradual increase
Firstly, you need to gradually increase the distance, most of the time, people increase daily and weekly distance by 10%. It’s important not to increase it by more than 10% each week, so this is the basic rule for most training plans and helps curb overly ambitious runners. It would be useful to begin with realistic goals – 5 km, then 10 km, a half marathon, and only then set a bigger distance goal.
The body must gradually prepare for increasing physical stress. Too many training sessions can lead to excessive fatigue, “burnout,” or injuries. You can use Good Coach App reports, especially "Relative Fatigue (rTFF)" metric, to observe your fatigue and strain with comparison to previous periods of training. It will help you to avoid overtraining.
2. Stick to the training plan
It is important for beginners to create a training plan, and there are many of them available today. However, it’s better to train with a professional coach, who knows the capabilities of the runner. You can create weekly or monthly training plans in the Good Coach App to track the progress and adapt workouts.
3. Pay attention to nutrition
During the preparation, it’s important to eat whole and healthy food and avoid consuming unhealthy high-calorie food. During and after long workouts, you need to develop your own diet of fortifying foods. The digestive system as well as the entire body, experiences extreme stress over long distances. After 1-1.5-hour workouts, you can treat yourself, but very wisely.
4. Find like-minded people
Each person needs support not only from their loved ones and relatives but from people, who face the same challenges. During the marathon preparation, informational and emotional participation from those who know what you are going through is highly important. If your friends and family are far from the topic of running, try to find like-minded people in running communities on social networks, running clubs, or even in the park where you usually train.
5. Don't forget about recovery
Recovery is a very important element in training as if you don’t give your body the opportunity to recover, you risk not only getting injured and having health problems but also getting acquainted with the so-called "overtraining syndrome", which is expressed in a sharp decrease in motivation for training, decreased immunity and even depression. To prevent this syndrome, the training plan should provide at least one day of rest per week. You shouldn’t overload yourself too much in the last two or three weeks before the marathon. The result of the training plan should be self-confidence, not exhaustion.
6. Exercises are important
Most often, sports injuries occur due to a relatively rapid increase in muscle strength and a rather slow adaptation to increasing loads of the ligament-tendon apparatus. To eliminate this imbalance, it is necessary to perform special running exercises. You can develop a set of exercises together with your coach that might include a combination of stretching and strength exercises aimed at strengthening the muscles, knees, ankles, and hips. You can easily track your training and plan new ones if necessary in the Good Coach App.
7. Listen to your body
You must learn how to recognise the signals of your body. You need to understand when you need to rest, and when you should push yourself. If pain makes you stop in the middle of a run, for example, or stays even after a few days, it can't be ignored. Most often, a little rest and rehabilitation at an early stage gives a good chance for a quick recovery, and ignoring it leads to aggravation, and then to prolonged, treatment.
All in all, it’s impossible to assess all the risks when preparing for a marathon. In addition to physiological moments, you can face difficulties from everyday life that can interfere with your training plan. However, the most important element of your success is a positive attitude toward anything.
Training and everything related to completing a marathon should be fun!