Preparing for a marathon successfully…

Last week we discussed executing a successful marathon race…

• Why that before preparation?
• Start with the end in mind… what are we trying to do?
• Now that we’ve established what we want the end to look like, let’s talk about how to get there…

What’s the goal?

(Remember our definition of success? It’s getting the most possible out of yourself on a given day)

Goals in preparing for a marathon…

• IRONIC ANSWER: Be as ready as possible.
• What does that look like?
• Building as much fitness as possible in a given time
• Being ready to handle the distance/effort
• For a marathon, this means the goal is to be both strong and resilient and efficient and economical

Training the Systems

Order matters…

• Musculoskeletal → aerobic energy → neuromuscular
• Marathon prioritizes musculoskeletal more than other distances, but we would argue that there is too little emphasis on developing it as it is
• In part because of either a misunderstanding or underestimation of the influence of aspects of training on the aerobic system

MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM

• Strong and resilient structure
• Best to build in phases
  • Why we start a less experienced runner lower and easier
  • Why we ALL start a new season/time after a break or injury with lower and easier
• First priority is load (nothing else matters with a marathon if you can’t cover the distance strongly)
• Next priority is efforts
• Kind of infinite in terms of how long you develop this system…
• So how do you apply to a finite season?
• Goal is to build to a given load (substantial enough to be iterative weekly without injuring and causing serious fatigue)
• Lydiard was the first to truly test and refine this, and his conclusion: 
  • about 160km/week (100mi) or 
  • around 12 hours
• Next step is figuring out how long it takes you to build up to that
• Everything to do with how well the body is or is not adapting
• Effort is irrelevant during this time (and can increase recovery time unnecessarily)
• Once the load is set, move on to dynamic efforts
• Key is to build strength efficiently over time
• Tax the system enough to adapt, not so much you can’t do it again tomorrow
• Final step is to work on the harder efforts over longer durations (key for the marathon!)

AEROBIC ENERGY SYSTEM

• No doubt some science person will note that we are committing a kind of heresy…
• Lumping Cardio in with energy system
• System has to be ready for serious sustained output and efficiency… providing energy for hours
• The key for marathon is getting oxygen all over
• Training is largely about lower efforts for longer periods of time
• Easy running for long time can’t be done every day, so mix it up
• Avoid less effective and less efficient training options

Related: The Science of Building Fitness with Dr. Todd Buckingham

NEUROMUSCULAR SYSTEM

• Relationship between mind and muscles
• Movements
• Developing this system means improving autonomic movements, increasing muscle recruitment, maximum voluntary contraction, etc.
• Example: this 2018 study
• If all you do is long slow running all the time, muscle recruitment will not be as effective, max voluntary contraction will be low (probably okay)

Check out Zombie Drills on Mike Swingers YouTube channel.

Related: Why you should run like a zombie with Mike Swinger

Running Drills

Fartlek article, fartlek episode

How do you know you are fully prepared?

In some ways, you’re never fully prepared…

• Always building/growing/developing
• You’ll keep making improvements all the while

But there’s also a practical limit to the degree of adaptations you’re likely to make in a given window of time…

• As things progress, rate of growth eventually starts to decline
• When? Depends on the degree to which you are training
  • Usually around 12-18 weeks
  • Depends on the kinds of things you are doing as well
  • Anaerobic types of training maximize their benefit quite quickly
  • Aerobic takes longer

The right signs of readiness (there are 2 clear and key signs)

• ONE: Running high load effortlessly (easy long runs are piece of cake, not especially tired day-to-day)
• TWO: Running stable in harder efforts over longer distances
• *Helpful: You’ve put in 12-18 weeks of substantial load