And therein lies the problem,
For your average untrained Joe Schmoe simply running for hour after hour in a bid to ready themselves for the 26.2 mile course may not be the smartest way forward.
No, no, no, the smartest way maybe to listen
to former Tory MP Norman Tebbit.
Now, you may be a fan of his politics, you may not (I, of course, couldn't comment either way through fear offending future clients) but when discussing ways of tackling unemployment he famously uttered the words ‘Get on your bike’ (incidentally he did not actually say that exactly but that has become the legend over the years, so in keeping with The Sun's ethos I’m not going to let the truth get in the way of a story!).
Now, you may be a fan of his politics, you may not (I, of course, couldn't comment either way through fear offending future clients) but when discussing ways of tackling unemployment he famously uttered the words ‘Get on your bike’ (incidentally he did not actually say that exactly but that has become the legend over the years, so in keeping with The Sun's ethos I’m not going to let the truth get in the way of a story!).
Although Tebbit was talking about
unemployment he could quite have easily have been talking about marathon
training. As I’ve already alluded to, if the average untrained individual goes
from doing nothing to running a shed load of miles each week, he or she will be
walking, or should I say running an injury tightrope!
This is where marathon training can be a bit of a quandary.
On one hand the body needs to get used to working for long periods at submaximal levels, on the other, this can lead to a range of acute and chronic injuries.
A method that I now use to great effect with my clients was first brought to my attention by Vern Gambetta in his book ‘Athletic Development’. It is basically combining running with other lower impact cardiovascular exercises such as cycling and rowing in a bid to get the body used to doing ‘work’.
For example if you’re aiming to
do a 30 minute run (which may be a tough ask if you’re a novice), go and run and pound the streets
for the first 10 of those minutes and get the higher impact stuff done first. Then cycle for the middle 10 minutes and then perhaps go on a rowing machine for
the final 10 minutes, thus reducing the overall impact on your joints but still
allowing your body to ‘work’ for a relatively long period of time. (Of course if you haven't got access to a bike or a rowing machine you could mix up the running with walking and step aerobic-type activities).
As your fitness improves and your
body becomes accustomed to the impact of running you can begin to run for ever
longer periods and reduce the time you spend cycling or rowing.
Ultimately
you must get used to ‘being on your feet’ and running for hours as the marathon
will likely take you between 3 to 4 hours to complete and this method eases
you into that gently.
Good luck with your training.