Using a Marathon Training Plan to improve performance 

A marathon training plan can either help you achieve your marathon running goals or in some cases kill your marathon running dream. As a coach I see this happening all the time. You see not all marathon programs are created the same and they definitely don’t produce the same results for different people. It is important first to understand your marathon training needs before you even consider designing or buying a marathon training program. Sometimes it is easier to just jump into another group of marathon runners or any other long distance runners for that matter and adopt their program without first looking at their program. In such cases you can either be lucky and fit into their training program or stagnate or even worse forced out by an injury. There are two main approaches to training that most good marathon training plans or programs take into account as far as improving performance in concerned; by increasing your mileage gradually, or increasing your training speed gradually. A combination of both of these training elements or principles is ideal.  

Training by Increasing Mileage Gradually

A good marathon training program is designed to allow you to increase your training mileage slowly but steadily over a period of time. The increase is usually on weekly basis, but no more than 10 percent. It is advisable to keep a certain distance for at least three weeks before making another increment to allow your body adapt to the training. Most athletes that I know have been forced to quit marathon running due to injuries resulting from overtraining. It is tempting to want to increase your mileage faster than recommended by your coach or in your marathon training plan or program, but please don’t. Gradual mileage building in your marathon training will yield better long term results than trying to get in shape within few weeks. It is especially crucial for beginner marathon runners or any other long distance runners for that matter to pay special attention to mileage increment; it is so easy to over-train without knowing.  

Training by Increasing Speed of Training

Another principle used by marathon training plans designers or coaches is that of playing with speed. This can be done in different ways, either by running faster over a certain distance for a certain period of time. To be honest, this is not something you want to do every day in your training especially if you are training for marathon. Increasing speed will only help you with some aspects of your marathon training or running, but not all. Remember, you can only go so far with speed even if you wanted to. Speed training put more pressure of your body than long but slower training. There are several ways you can achieve speed in marathon training; you can do short speed interval training, tempo runs, fartlek running or do time trials. When used properly, they will help you improve your performance both in marathon training and running.

Therefore a good marathon training plan or program should be designed to include both gradual long slow miles as well as some shorter fast runs. For beginner marathon runners, slow long miles are better than short fast runs because of the injury level involved. Speed training should be no more than 25 percent of your weekly mileage. However, no one marathon training principle is more important than another; it is a matter of personal marathon training goals.

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