HOW FAR Do You Need To Run To TRAIN FOR A MARATHON?

Are you deep into marathon training, or just embarking on training for one? Let us know how you’re getting on, what your target is, and whether you’ve got any tips for other runners out there! Comment below!

I think The Running Channel should start a podcast of their own )

I have been running 1.5 miles in the morning and running “long run” on weekends, every week I add 1 mile, building up to tapper down when summer time comes. Tomorrow is my 11th week (11 miles for tomorrow). Super comfortable and easily manageable 👍🏼

The struggle between kilometres and miles 🥺

I'm just starting a 12 week marathon training programme so this was perfect timing!

For my first Montreal Half, I got to 15km before going for the full 1/2 during my training. A buddy said, you just did 15km, you sure can do the 21k. Boosted my confidence and did do the 21km on my own. During the cool of the day though and some of it on gladed trails. Montreal Marathons are always on hard hot pavement. A fellow I know runs several full marathons/year!!

So after I did my last virtual marathon on Thanksgiving, I decided to focus on getting my time down from 4 hours. In fact, I recently decided on a target goal of 2 hours and 45 minutes. In the past, my weakness has been to train too aggressively, so this past week I have been focusing on running more miles at an easy pace. Yesterday I did 12 miles but pretty much maintained an 8 minute pace until the last mile. I have been following a sub 3 hour training plan the last couple weeks. Before I run early in the morning, I only drink water and don't eat anything. Originally it was because I just didn't feel like eating before the run, but I read somewhere that it can train your body to run with no immediate energy or something like that. I do find, however, that I need to eat a protein bar, banana, and Gatorade immediately after. Obviously I would eat a good meal on race day, in hopes of using that energy for the run, so that's my plan. Speaking of race day, I'm looking at 2 marathons for next year, one in April and another in November. My goal is the 2023 Boston Marathon, because the qualifying time for me is 5 minutes longer than in 2022. So I'm looking forward to that!

I don't do any runs by mileage anymore. I've found that running for 3 hours has little more benefit than running for 2 hours so I'm trialling doing more 2 hour runs instead and will see how I get on with my spring marathon! Suits me as I never enjoyed 20 mile runs!!

I’m training for a 50k trail ultra in Feb. joined a coaching program a few months back. The emphasis has been on frequent shorter runs with lots of technical stuff, especially hills, running while fatigued etc. So far, I have been injury free and it is hopefully working better than the ‘self guided’ approach I would have been otherwise using!

I was a runner. I did the Eastleigh 10K back in 2007 in about half an hour, before my head injury

I started training for a Jan 30th marathon in earnest at -7 weeks, so a fast build-up. I've focused on slow pace to ramp up mileage fast without such a high risk of injury. The low-heart-rate approach has been heavenly compared to my old way of training way too fast. After just two weeks in this build, I ran 20 miles today with relative ease. I ran it faster than my daily easy pace, with a few miles near race pace. I took two gels for practice, and they injected wonderful energy into my muscles in those last 7 miles. The 20-miler is as much about building confidence and familiarity with the distance as it is about the physiological adaptations that come with it. With this build so fast, I won't cut back mileage for any of the weeks, but I'll stick with the easy pace for 90% of my running. I hope to squeeze in two more 20+ milers before the race. Excited!

For a beginner I would say around 300 miles in the 4 months leading up to the event. With a longest run of around 18-20 miles.

My longest training run prior to my first marathon was 22 miles, at easy pace about 2-3 weeks out before race day. On hydration, the advice I got at the time was to drink a small cup (then Gookin-Aid, now Vialyte?) every 5 miles, don't try to drink it on the run but stop completely, step off to the side and get the whole drink down. Take the last drink at 20 miles, after that I was told after 20 it won't help to drink any more as it won't get into your system fast enough to be of any benefit. About a month out I raced a 25k , I was told that a realistic goal/pace would be to take your 25k time, double it, then subtract around 20 minutes to get a goal marathon finish time/pace. I averaged about 100 miles a week for the last 8 weeks (took me about 6-7 months to build up to that) and then had a taper week of 50 miles. during which I did a carbo-depletion-load diet the last few days before the race.

Thank you thank you!! Your videos are always so positive and informed. I have a marathon in 4 weeks and I'm stuck at 16 miles, struggling to hit milage above this. But you've made me feel more relaxed about just continuing on my training and working towards race day. ❤️

A wise person once told me that a marathon is a 20-mile 'warm-up' followed by a 10KM race..Especially valid to those that have run London. Example Training Plan Week: Monday - Strength & Conditioning Tuesday - Tempo/fartlek (heehee) Wednesday - 'Bonus' long-run Thursday - Track/speed session Friday - Strength & Conditioning Saturday - (pre-covid) parkrun or recovery miles Sunday - Long run with marathon efforts at the later stages Circa: 55 miles, maximum Take care and stay safe!

I would love podcasts geared towards distance, breathing, form etc where you could listen to stay present while running.

I used the Hanson method for my first (and so far only) marathon and it was great. I was really surprised by what my body could do when I ran 6 days a week. On the day, a fortnight ago, I ran 3 minutes over my predicted time, but it was very wet and windy. The programme made perfect sense. It did take a lot of time each day, though.

I had 5k focus in first half of 2020 and 10k focus in second half. Switching to HM focus for 2021 and will only move on to FM when I got my HM goal. But HM goal may involve training up to 20 mile runs for aerobic improvement so I'm keeping aware of how it fits into future training. My plan is to do HM without fuelling probably so that is one area I will need to review most for FM.

Currently, I am preparing for a half marathon on a 12 week program. I just completed week 4. Next year I plan to run my 1st full marathon after I do one more half marathon race. Thanks for the information. I am using the "Hal Higdon" schedules which are in line with a 20mile long run and taper afterward.

With my last marathon training plan, the longest run was 23 miles. There were other pretty long runs (16-20 miles) that were different. A couple where it was a regular long run with 2 miles around 10K pace at the end. Also, runs where (after warmup) is was 10K pace for the first quarter of each mile. These weren't brutal, but they were harder than regular long runs and they really helped with fatigue resistance. Although very few plans would recommend this, I actually ran a marathon distance training run. It was about a minute per mile slower than marathon pace. Because it was slower, it didn't mess up the rest of my training. It seemed to make the actual race physically and mentally easier to handle.