the marathon build-up
How long do you need to prepare for a marathon? If you are starting from scratch, you should ideally give yourself at least a year of regular training before even thinking about running a marathon. During this period you can gradually extend the distance of your longer runs, as well as the total number of runs and miles that you are doing each week. Your first major goal towards the end of this period should be to run a half-marathon, and when you’ve achieved this you can then start to set your sights on running the full 26-mile distance. The longer your preparatory period of developing fitness, the more confident you will feel when you come to think specifically about training for a marathon. The minimum length of preparation that I advocate for the first-time marathon runner is the three-month period outlined in Chapter 1. Thereafter the build-up itself – the period of marathon-specific training – should last a further three to four months. (Its exact length will depend on your running experience and your level of fitness.) Table 2.1 is designed to help you – as a first-time marathoner – assess your readiness to embark on a three-month marathon build-up, relative to your goals. The key point here is not to stick rigidly to the figures shown, but to set your goals for your marathon according to the level of running that you have attained before starting your marathon build-up. More advanced runners may be interested to see how I determined the length of my marathon build-ups based on my fitness level immediately beforehand (see Table 2.2). Note how my build-up periods were sometimes shorter than three months, simply because I already had a good base of endurance from the preceding block of training. When the pre-marathon period included more racing and a reduction in the volume of training (as in the autumn of 1993), I used a full 12-week build-up.
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