A marathon is a crazy distance race which many people seem to love the idea of.  It is a long distance running race which is strictly 26 miles and 385 yards long or 42.195km if you like talking in new language. Why do people want to take on this epic, silly challenge?  Many reasons, 10,000s of thousands do it to raise money, others for fun and others to see how far they can push their body.  At Coopah, we create and help athletes like you to complete a marathon. To date, we’ve had over 1000 people complete our plans with over 95% achieving personal bests.  We’re proud but we want to help 10 million people so keep reading on.  This blog is for those thinking about running a marathon and want to know if 4 months is enough to train for one. The answer is yes. Yes, a 16 week marathon training plan will help you cross that finish line with a smile on your face. Read on to see our marathon preparation and tips

Challenges of training for a marathon?

When training for a marathon, it’s likely you will train for 16 weeks and with that, the key challenge will come around 8 to 10 weeks in.  You will have started to see your training plan step up, including long runs reaching 20 miles and you might start to realise you are having to put running before friends, family and maybe even work!

Don’t fear though, there are lots of ways to combat this.  Firstly, use Coopah.  Our smart personalised training plan helps you adapt your training so if you want to go for Saturday night beers or spend a weekend with family without running for 3 hours, you can. You just simply change your Sunday run to say Thursday or Friday. 

The amount of running you need to do 

Another challenge runners may face is in their early stages of training.  It is likely that you might not have run much before and you’ll see lots of running on your plan along with a range of sessions.  You might find that the speed sessions hurt, the long run takes a long chunk of your day up or the easy runs are just annoying but to finish that marathon with a smile on your face and a time you are proud of, you really need to mix your training up and hit the pavements.  When times get tough, think about the finish line and the celebrations that wait for you!

The Taper

Finally, the final challenge your might face is around the taper.  You’ve been running for 13 to 14 weeks and building up to marathon distance however you are now being told to rest but you’ve only managed 20 or 22 miles to date.  Do not fear.  The taper is probably one of the most important sessions of your plan.  This is giving your body time to rest, time to recover for 14 weeks of marathon training and ensuring that when you stand on that start line that your body is in its fittest state it has ever been in.  Enjoy the rest, try to get lots of sleep and try not to do too much work.  If you travel for work, try to work from home for your taper period.

What is hitting the wall?

‘My mate did a marathon, she said she hit the wall’...this is something you will hear often. The wall occurs somewhere around the 20-mile mark and it is the point when a runner's glycogen (stored energy) within the muscles is depleted. This forces the runner to slow down considerably, sometimes to a walk.

DO NOT FEAR… it is possible to avoid hitting the wall. A Coopah training plan includes long runs, on a weekly basis which gets your body used to running further on a weekly basis.  Secondly, you will have ran a few 18 to 20 milers which means your body is ready to go at 20 miles for the final 10km not thinking, what is going on and you will have done lots of tempo runs at marathon pace.

The key to then avoid hitting the wall on race day is to:

1. Consume enough calories - energy gels are a great way to do this

2. Do not go out too fast, try and ensure your pacing is what you want to average at the end.  Too many times we see people hitting the wall because they have tried to buy time at the start of the race…DO NOT DO THIS!

In conclusion, everyone can run a marathon with just 16 weeks of marathon training which is the perfect time for marathon preparation but it is not easy.  The challenges and marathon tips above should be considered fully and remember that with Coopah you have 24/7 access to your coach so any questions you can reach out to Coach Coopah and we will support you.

If you would like to learn more, please drop us an email at run@coopah.com or head to coopah.com to learn more.