How Long Should I Take to Train for a Marathon: Part 1
As an avid runner, running coach, and student clinician treating other runners, I am often confronted with the question, “Do you think I could run a marathon by this date?” Every time, the answer to this question must be given having taken into account the unique individual in front of me. However, there are certainly common themes that we must consider when planning the route to accomplishing such a grand physical venture. In this two-part blog series, I am going to run through some of these considerations in an attempt to demystify the answer to this frequently posed question.
Training Age:
As with any movement, running is a skill we can get better at with time and practice. Consistent practice is certainly about logging miles and spending time on feet to allow for muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones to adapt to the physical stresses of running. But, the skill of running is also a part of that practice. Just as we grow more competent with the squat position after years of squatting, running becomes more familiar to our bodies as we stack training blocks on top of each other season after season, year after year.
For the novice runner, many of the physical adaptations experienced by the body’s tissues have yet to be acquired compared to those who have been training consistently for years. Muscles are the first tissues to fully adapt to any form of physical load and most 16-week marathon training programs mimic this continuum. However, the more avascular structures such as tendons and ligaments can take upwards of 110 weeks (that’s over 2 years!) to reach similar levels of adaptation.
When asking ourselves the question of when would it be considered safe to complete a marathon, we must consider this previously acquired adaptation. If we attempt to crank up the weekly mileage over 16 weeks without the requisite load tolerance, we leave these slower-adapting tissues at risk for injury. In other words, many running-related injuries are a result of load (i.e. training intensity, frequency, and/or duration) outpacing capacity (aerobic, metabolic, and/or tissue). This segues us into our next topic of discussion.
Training Progression:
The general rule of thumb for the novice runner when it comes to mileage progression is no more than a 10% increase each week with regularly spaced regression weeks to allow for proper tissue adaptation without outpacing capacity. Members of the elite/professional running population can often handle more aggressive progressions. However, there are many reasons their performances rank in the top 1% of the running community. Interestingly enough, the biggest predictor of running-related injuries in the recreational population was weekly mileage while the biggest predictor of running success in the professional population was also weekly mileage (Boullosa et al., 2020).
When it comes to choosing a race, we must consider how long it will take for a runner to safely progress to a training volume that will allow them to complete their race day goals. Simultaneously, we need to take into account the time needed for their tissues to adapt to the training needed to accomplish said goal. I do not believe that everyone who wants to train for a marathon needs to run 70-100 miles per week to complete the race. While this may be the route most amateur and professional runners take, the majority of recreational runners cannot handle this amount of training both from a tissue tolerance and time management standpoint. The professionals are paid to train; therefore, they have all the time, energy, and resources to do so. Your 35-year-old weekend warrior with a full-time job, spouse, and 3 kids does not possess those same luxuries to devote countless hours to training each week.
For the majority of recreational marathoners, a peak weekly mileage of 40-50 miles per week with a peak long run of 18-20 miles will likely be sufficient. Adding in low-impact metabolic conditioning sessions such as biking, rowing, and/or swimming can also help supplement aerobic activity while reducing the number of miles needed each week.
Goals for Racing:
Completing a marathon for the first time and aiming to race a marathon are two completely different goals. For some, the accomplishment of training for and completing a marathon is a phenomenal feat in and of itself regardless of pace per mile. The intensity and volume of training needed to achieve the task of completing a marathon regardless of pace is certainly less than that of a runner trying to push their physical limits at this 26.2-mile distance. This is not to say that completing a marathon is any less difficult than racing a marathon. “Challenging” is always relative especially when it comes to tests of physical fitness. However, to train to complete the marathon rather than race it, we do not necessarily have to be as aggressive with workouts and total weekly mileage progressions as we would with someone attempting to qualify for the Boston Marathon or the Olympic Trials. In this latter circumstance, we will need to be more specific with marathon-paced workouts, quality long runs, and the like.
Injury History:
One of the biggest injury predictors in the running community is the history of previous injury. Additionally, when training for a marathon, it is not uncommon to experience some sort of lingering musculoskeletal pain that may further manifest into a running-related injury. When constructing a training plan, we need to take into account the runner’s injury history and what movements or loads typically provoke their symptoms. Runners with a history of more running-related injuries may benefit from modifications to their training plan such as reduced running volume, increased aerobic cross-training (i.e. biking, swimming, rowing, etc.), and/or resistance training in different planes to offload the repetitive sagittal plane running motion.
Life’s Stressors:
While training volume and previous injuries are certainly big predictors of running-related injuries, we must consider all of the other factors at play. Imagine your life depicted as a fishbowl. Your life is filled with various stressors, may they be positive (eustress) or negative (distress) that are represented in this metaphor as the water inside of the fishbowl. These stressors include, but are certainly not limited to, sleep quality/quantity, nutrition, hydration, alcohol/caffeine intake, work performance-related stressors, physical training, relationship conflicts, self-image, family life, financial burdens, and the like. Our bodies only have so much time and energy to allot to these stressors before we become overwhelmed. More figuratively speaking, the water in the fishbowl begins to overflow. This overwhelming feeling can manifest as physical, emotional, and/or mental pain.
In an attempt to remedy this overflowing situation, we can resort to one of two options…
Option one: we reduce the number of stressors, or the amount of water in the bowl, by removing responsibilities from our plate. Sometimes, we don’t need to sign up for that extra book club or spend another weekend working a youth baseball tournament. Even if it sounds enticing, if it’s not essential to your current short-term or long-term goals in life, we might benefit more from revisiting this endeavor during a later season.
Option two: we increase our capacity to handle these stressors. Continuing our fishbowl analogy, we increase the size of the fishbowl allowing more water to reside without spilling over. This may take the shape of prayer, meditation, mindfulness, or any other practice that heightens our ability to cope with stress. Stress is not necessarily a harmful thing to our bodies. How we respond to stress or the collective effect of too many stressors is what can become detrimental.
Either path we choose to go allows us more time, space, energy, and resources to contribute to safely handling training volume and intensity.
As you can see, many things go into the equation of deciding when completing the marathon distance is achievable and/or safe for you. Next time, we will dive deeper into some of the myths and misconceptions associated with marathon training.
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