How to run a marathon - 13 - forced breaks

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 12).

While running is a life-long commitment, a marathon is a bit less than that. But only a bit. It's still a long-term commitment.

Last summer (that's seven months ago) I was forced by a hamstring injury to stop for an extended period and re-start my training from the very beginning - literally from 10-minute jogs. I have now managed to build up my fitness so that in just about two weeks I should be running my tenth marathon. It's taken me seven months, but I had seventeen years of experience in running, which helped me progress from zero fitness to marathon level in just seven months. A complete beginner should allow close to a year of build-up to a marathon, including several middle-distance races and preferably a half marathon.

Whichever way you look at it, it's a long term venture, and because of this any aspiring marathoner is bound to encounter pitfalls along the way that will force him or her to stop training for a certain period.

I would categorise forced stoppages from training into three: life- or work-related commitments, illness or injury, and the same adage applies for them all - prevention is better than cure. Let's consider them one by one.

Training for long-distance running necessarily involves several sessions per week. You need to establish a routine for the time when you do your training. I have recently found the midday break to be particularly convenient. You could of course prefer the evening, or the very first thing in the morning. In fact, whenever something crops up that prevents me from running at midday, I wake up early and finish off my daily training first thing in the morning. It's a last resort, and never an easy task, more so during winter! Still, if you're really determined to accomplish your training, early in the morning is probably the best option if you have an unpredictable daily schedule. As far as non-running related commitments are concerned, this is really a matter for you to decide. Basically, it's a matter of priority: if you wish to train, you somehow set time aside for it. Otherwise, you need to postpone the whole thing to a period of your life when you can afford to allocate the necessary time.

There are other, less dramatic causes that may make you miss training. Holidays abroad are notorious routine breakers. Saturday night parties are difficult to reconcile with an early morning Sunday long run, and you might probably need to give the big session a miss the day following such occasions. As long as this doesn't develop into a routine, it isn't a problem at all, and you will be perfectly able to resume your schedule the following week.

Then there is illness, which for most runners is the main cause of forced stoppages in training. I have experienced so many common cold infections that I've learned to immediately recognise the early symptions in my throat, sometimes even in the middle of the night in my sleep. Whenever this happens, I resign myself to the fact that I will need to endure the annoying process of this malady for a week. Also annoying is the fact that my training suffers from an unexpected setback. It's not a good idea to train through a cold, as you risk making matters much worse. Consider it an occasion to rest your muscles. Your rule of thumb for whether you should run or not is this: if you feel like going out for a run, you're probably fit enough to run. If you don't feel like running, it means you're still sick and shouldn't run. NEVER RUN IF YOU HAVE A FEVER! Or against your doctor's advice. There's no comparison whatsoever between the importance of going out for a training run and the maintenance or recovery of your good health.

Once you feel well enough to be able to run, take it easy in the beginning of your comeback. Ease back into your schedule to the point where you had broken off, avoiding anything stressful like a speed session or a long run on the day of your return to training. If the stoppage is not much more than a week long, you shouldn't notice any difference at all in your form. In fact, it's said that well trained runners maintain their fitness level through three weeks of stoppage. What should you do if you JUST manage to recover in time for a race for which you had already applied? [In a whisper:] Don't tell anyone, but I have to admit that I give it a try, applying the rule I mentioned earlier - if I feel like taking part it means that I'm fit enough to do it... Just keep in mind, as you race, of the fact that you shouldn't expect any personal best at that event, and give up at once if you feel unwell.

Of course, the ideal would be to avoid getting ill in the first place. In fact there are some precautions that can help you minimise the risks. There's a continuous controversy in the medical world about the effectiveness of Vitamin C in boosting immunity. Some say it only has a placebo effect. Others say it's really effective. I take 500mg of the prolonged release type each morning with my coffee, and it does seem to be effective since whenever I try to get by without it I'm soon after struck down by a cold. Precautions you should take include avoiding crowded closed spaces, such as buses, trains or closed chambers with lots of coughing people. If you cannot avoid such situations, and sometimes you really cannot, close your mouth and breathe only through your nose. If someone is evidently suffering from a cold (red nose, sniffling, sneezing, coughing), stay the maximum distance possible away from them. Think nothing of leaving your seat and going into another cabin. They may be a bit offended, but it's still not the end of the world for them...

This leaves us with the vast subject of injuries. It's not my intention here to describe the symptoms or treatment of any one of them. Rather, I will stress again the fact that it's so much better to seek to avoid them, through avoiding overtraining, sudden changes in training intensity or distances, and running through pain. The golden rule is for increases in training and physical and mental stress to be gradual, otherwise your body will not have time to adapt to them, with inevitable consequences.

However, it does happen, unfortunately, even though you're careful, that an injury prevents you from running. It's a frustrating situation, particularly if you have reached a good level of fitness and are forced to stop training, and watch other people jog along the pavement as you're driving. You're aware that your level of fitness is ebbing away with each day of inactivity. Sometimes it's just possible that a few days of rest are sufficient for a full recovery. If that's really the case consider yourself lucky. I've had hamstring strains that prevented me from running for months. I would try running every two weeks, and had to postpone each time as I realised I still couldn't run. In such situations my friends ask me if I'm seeing someone, or if I'm taking anything for a cure. No, I don't. I may be wrong, but it saves me loads of money, besides which I don't think I'm wrong. The way I treat my (thankfully rare) injuries is simple and straightforward: complete rest. Time heals.

Depending on how long you have been inactive, you may need to re-start building up your fitness from scratch, although you will not have lost any of the experience gained in your previous training. In fact, the injury plus the recovery phase themselves constitute further valuable experience. You will also gain, in the process, one very important factor that may well have waned considerably before the injury: renewed sky-high motivation.

Of course, hopefully none of the above minor catastrophes will happen to you, and you're merrily embarking on your 18th week of the beginner's guide to running a marathon. If that is the case, this and the following weeks would be more or less as follows:

Monday to Sunday (easy pace unless otherwise indicated):
Week 18 - rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h45min
Week 19 - rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, race/forced stoppage/10k/no long run
Week 20 - rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr
Week 21 - rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr

Enjoy your running!