How to run a marathon - 17 - what next?

(Concluding post of the beginners' guide to running a marathon.)

Whatever the outcome of your marathon, it would be best to take a whole week off running. After such an extraordinary effort, not only do you deserve a break, but you actually need it. The alternative would be to go back to training at once, and risk getting yourself injuried. So, lie low for that crucial week of recovery, bask in the glory of the great feat you have just accomplished, or mentally pick up the pieces if it didn't go quite as well as expected (in the latter case, don't take it very badly - there will be other occasions to make up for it). Your fitness won't deteriorate from a one-week break. On the contrary, it will improve.

Your return to the world of running would then take place eight days after the marathon, typically on a Monday. It should be an 'easing' back into training, similar to returning from a forced break such as a common cold.

The post-marathon programme would then depend on your next target or targets. You could settle into a yearly routine of running your local marathon, and then forgetting about it for a while and concentrating on shorter road running events in your area. This is very useful, as it allows you to 'recharge' your batteries while doing various interesting events, and after a few months starting to prepare all over again for the next marathon with renewed motivation.

The alternative would be to sort of 'shop' around. See if there are any marathons in different places in which you would like to participate. Maybe because you like the location, or due to the circumstances of the event. It's up to you to set your own goals. You simply aim to run as large a number of marathons as you can. This could be achieved by running your local marathon once a year: say, aim for ten marathons over a running career, or maybe more...

If you wish to run marathons in different places, you may choose to join the restricted number of afacionados who are aiming to run a marathon in each of the world's seven continents, including Antarctica. You could otherwise go for the most popular mass participation marathons, like London, New York, Boston and Berlin, but keep in mind that in this type of event it's sometimes already a challenge simply to be allowed to participate, apart from the fact that they're so crowded. I prefer smaller marathons where I can run at exactly my preferred pace without having to weave in and out of huge masses of slow runners for a good part of the event.

If you're adventurous you might try an 'exotic' marathon - the midnight sun marathon in Norway, the Great Wall of China marathon, the Hawaii marathon, the previously mentioned Antarctic marathon, a wine marathon in France, a nude marathon in San Francisco... Who knows, maybe in a hundred years' time there will be the first extraterrestrial marathon, on the moon!

Wherever you choose to run your next marathon, if you're normal, and not a natural phenomenon or an elite athlete, you should allow for a maximum of two marathons within a period of 12 months. More than that would probably be too much.

And whether you run your local area marathon once a year, in various places around the world, or in some future century a marathon on each planet of the solar system, always aim to stay injury-free, and most of all to enjoy your running!


END OF SERIES

How to run a marathon - 16 - the marathon

Continued from How to run a marathon (Parts 0 to 15).

I often say that the most difficult part of a marathon is to actually get to the starting line. To begin with, there's the crucial, life-changing decision to actually take up running, then the decision to attempt to train for a marathon. After that comes the long training schedule that leads to the event. Various things could hinder the process - injury, illnesses, life commitments, loss of motivation... But an iron will, discipline, perseverance, support from the people in your life and a fair dose of good luck will get you safely to the starting line. Once you get this far, all you have left to do is keep your cool, run the marathon sensibly, being prepared to suffer in the last few miles, and that's it. Mission accomplished!

In the last few days you need to be careful not to undo all the good work you've done during all the previous months, through some silly injury or illness. Try to avoid risky situations: closed crowded rooms, lifting heavy objects, strenuous physical activities, especially those you're not used to do. Don't eat any exotic food, avoid heavy meals, and include a good dose of carbohydrates: pasta, rice, bread, potatoes. But don't overdo it - the worst thing you could do is to get yourself a bout of indigestion on the eve of the marathon! If you like to have a drink, a glass of beer or wine a day won't cause you any harm. More than that, especially in the last couple of days before the event, would be asking for trouble. Besides having a dehydrating effect, alcohol strains our body, particularly the liver, which needs to detoxify the bloodstream from what is essentially a poison. You would best avoid it completely in the last few days before a marathon.

In the last week you will still be doing some easy running - the last 30-minute run being two days before the event. It's the only physical exertion you should be doing, apart from your normal walking activities. Make sure you get the required number of hours of sleep. Just keep in mind that in a few days' time you're going to make an extraordinary effort, using up a huge amount of energy.

Plan all the logistics well in time. Registration, getting the number, safety pins, sports bag, transportation to the start and after the finish, all your running gear, petroleum jelly for those sensitive areas of the skin, a change of clothes for the finish... You should have a fair idea of the weather forecast, so as to know what to expect on the day, especially the temperature, and therefore what you need to wear before and during the run.

You should also have some knowledge of the particular marathon that you're running: the route, its profile (hills, downhills, etc), the number of participants. Too many participants make for a slow, crowded start, and much meandering and frustration as you won't be able to run as you wish. You could, of course, be quite happy simply to be taking part in a world-famous event such as London or New York, even if you have to practically walk in the first few minutes. But if you wish to run a proper marathon from start to finish, you would better seek a moderately attended event, with up to a thousand participants or so.

As for any normal race, you will have consumed your last food at least two but preferably three hours before the start. This would normally be a light snack consisting of some form of carbohydrate, say, a toast, a biscuit, an energy drink... You will have drunk a fair (again, not too much) amount of fluid - water is always the best. You will have made extra sure you won't need to go to the toilet again, except for the final pee in the last half hour. You will have prepared your sports bag the day before. And you will get to the start with ample time - at least one hour - to spare. You will know where to leave your sports bag, and where to pick it up at the finish.

Now you're quite tense, as you anxiously wait for the time to start. Try and relax by finding somewhere to sit down in the last few minutes. Chat with your friends if there are any. If not, just sit down, relax and wait. I wouldn't bother with a warm up. You're not going to start fast anyway (if you do you won't finish the marathon), so there's no point in extending the distance run on the day beyond 42.2km...

The starting gun goes off!

You have been working for so many months just for this moment. Now make the best of it. DON'T GO TOO FAST! Pick an easy pace. Through the sheer excitement of the event, and due to the presence of the other (ideally not too crowded) participants, you will run at a faster pace than your normal training. It's the same thing that happens in other road races, except that here you shouldn't force your pace. I have on purpose avoided mentioning a target time, and for your first marathon it's probably best not to have any. Depending on the outcome of your first marathon you may then set a target time for the next one. Whatever the case, don't exert yourself at all. Rather than racing, imagine yourself to be flowing along the route. Drink in the scenes, the atmosphere. Enjoy the event. Don't force the pace, but just let it flow.

Take a note of the time elapsed, either at each distance marker or at regular intervals. Allowing for slightly different speeds due to initial thinning of the field of participants, changes in incline or due to the wind, the pace should hardly vary at all from the start right on until the end. Keep reminding yourself not to force the pace, and don't enter into any useless competition with other participants. That would be suicidal. Just concentrate on running at a comfortable pace. Make full use of drinking stations provided by the organisers, even if you take just a few sips of water each time.

This way, if you have trained well as described in the previous fifteen posts in this series, not only will you run an excellent marathon, but you will get a great thrill through passing one distance marker after another - and at a late stage you will also be overtaking other runners who had set off too fast - without any noticeable slowdown. Believe me, you can hardly experience a greater sense of achievement than finishing a marathon at a strong pace.

Something might, of course, go wrong, the most likely cause being either lack of sufficient training, lack of proper tapering in the last three weeks before the event, or excessive expenditure of energy in the early part of the marathon. The problem usually manifests itself at around the 32km marker, as the fuel reserves consisting of glycogen stored in the muscles become depleted and the body shifts to burning fat, which is much less efficient in producing the energy required for running. It's a situation referred to in distance running jargon as hitting the Wall. Running becomes very difficult, and the last 10km seem like an eternity. Try to avoid this situation by taking the precautions mentioned earlier. If you do hit the Wall, it's only will power that can take you to the finish, and the knowledge that it would be such a pity to give up at this stage, after having gone through so much, and having come so close to achieving your dream of running the marathon. As you struggle along, think of the large number of 10km training runs you have done in the past: now you need to do just another one, and your dream will be fulfilled.

If you do get to the finish, whether at a strong pace or a slow painful jog, you've made a great achievement. You're a hero. And you'll have gained invaluable experience for the next marathon. Very well done indeed!

How to run a marathon - 15 - the entire training schedule

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 14).

I have now covered most of the important aspects related to taking up running and preparing for a marathon, starting from absolute zero.

I haven't mentioned yet that it might be a good idea to join a running club in your area. The club would be your reference point where running is concerned. You will make lots of acquaintances there, and new friends who are also addicted to running, and who could give you tips for improving. The club will keep you informed of events that might interest you. It organises training runs, particularly long runs, to help keep you company in those very long or not-so-long runs. They provide coaching, training tips, organise races. You might even wish to become actively involved in the club's organisation. And you will proudly wear the colours of the club you're representing in running events.

It's now time to recap. Here I will give a summary of the entire beginners' training schedule for running a marathon, starting from nothing.

Phase One - get into the rhythm (running at an easy pace):
Week 1 (no. of minutes run, starting on Monday): 10, rest, 10, rest, 10, rest, 15 (on Sunday)
Week 2 (starting on Monday): rest, 15, 15, rest, 20, rest, 20 (on Sunday)
Week 3 (starting on Monday): rest, 20, 20, rest, 30, rest, 30 (on Sunday)
Week 4: rest, 30, 30, rest, 30, rest, 40 (on Sunday)
Week 5: rest, 40, 40, rest, 40, rest, 50
Week 6: rest, 45, 45, rest, 45, rest, 60
Week 7: rest, 50, 50, rest, 50, rest, 60
Week 8: rest, 10k, 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 10min

In two months, we have progressed from a state of inactivity to a well-structured pattern of 3 midweek runs of 10km, and one longer run on Sunday. The second phase introduces the concept of quality training, consisting mainly of fartlek (speed play), tempo running, or interval training. This is done once, or at the most twice, per week. The long run on Sundays keeps gradually increasing, and will eventually become the mainstay of the build-up to the marathon.

Phase Two - the consolidation phase:
Week 9: rest, 10k, 10k fartlek, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 10min
Week 10: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h 15min
Week 11: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h20
Week 12: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h20
Week 13: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30
Week 14: rest, 10k, 10k intervals, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30
Week 15: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 1h30

From now on, it's just a matter of building up the Sunday (or whichever other day is most convenient) long runs to a marathon. The midweek quality training session may alternate between tempo running, interval training or fartlek. The other 10k "fillers" of easy running remain always the same.

Phase Three: building up to a marathon
Programming 4 weeks for each increment of 15 minutes in the long run will allow for one week off, due to a road race that you wish to do, or for unforeseen circumstances such as illnesses or the (caution) rare wild party. This will also give your leg muscles a well deserved chance to recover their strength after several consecutive weekends of running long distances.

From Week 16, the progression of long runs is therefore as follows (including one week without a long run in each batch):
Weeks 16 to 19: 1h45
Weeks 20 to 23: 2h00
Weeks 24 to 27: 2h15
Weeks 28 to 31: 2h30
Weeks 32 to 35: 2h45
Weeks 35 and 36: 3h

Alternatively, to simplify matters, you could progress by calendar months: 1h30 during the first month, 1h45 in the second, etc, taking one Sunday off each month. The whole, starting from 1h30 to marathon day lasts exactly 8 months. It's also possible to compress the build-up a bit by not including weeks off, but this could result in forced stoppages wreaking havoc with your schedule. The build-up recommended here is more likely to be fully achieved, and should get you to the big day in top form.

Phase Four: peaking
Week 37: 3h15
Week 38: 1h30 / short race / no long run
Week 39: 3h15 (exactly 3 weeks before the marathon)

The very long runs are the closest you'll get to the real thing itself, and they're crucial to enable you to get used to the physical and mental rigours involved in a 42km run. At the early stages of the build-up, a three-hour run would seem impossibly long. But with a gradual build-up the long distances become quite accessible, although you should of course be well prepared for the fact that you're not going out for a simple walk in the park... It probably helps to do these runs accompanied, but it's even more important that your companion(s) have more or less your own pace, otherwise one of you would certainly have to give up in sheer exhaustion.

Depending on your natural ability, the biggest run before the marathon, lasting about 3h15, will be around 33 km to 38 km long. Avoid a longer distance, otherwise you would have completed your marathon earlier than the organised event itself, wearing yourself out considerably in the process. This should be done at least 3 weeks before the event, after which training will taper out to enable your body to recover its full strength prior to the marathon.

Phase Five: tapering
Week 40 (Monday to Sunday): rest, 10k, 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 2h15
Week 41: rest, 10k, rest, 10k tempo, rest, 1h30 (on Saturday), rest
Week 42: 10k, rest, 10k, rest, 5k, rest, Marathon

That's rather neat. I swear I didn't plan this - a build-up from zero to 42k... in 42 weeks!

The tapering phase is a delicate part of the schedule. The hard work is over, but you need to be extra careful not to undo all the good work by falling ill or getting injured. If such a mishap were to happen, the time available for recovery would be limited indeed. So, take the precautions I mentioned in a previous post, and don't train too hard. What you need to do in these three weeks is to stay moderately active, while at the same time recovering from any nagging pains that you are bound to have acquired through all these weeks of hard work. Pamper yourself. Be moderate in everything you do and all you consume. You've invested too much effort into this to let it go to waste through carelessness.

There's a complicated diet for the last few days, called 'carbo-loading', that is said to boost the glycogen (fuel) levels in your muscles. I wouldn't bother. In my opinion, the best thing is to eat normally, avoiding excessive or heavy food like fats and red meat, drinking sufficient fluids and preferably no alcohol at all, and ensuring the required amount of sleep. That should get you to Marathon Day in top form and ready to go.

How to run a marathon - 14 - running at a "certain" age...

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 13).

In the beginning, I used to think that sports was only for young people. This is hardly surprising, since most people do in fact have that opinion. Football players retire from the game in their middle thirties. So do practically all other sports persons. A 40-year-old sports champion is a remarkable exception.

So imagine my surprise when I found out, as I took up running at the age of around 28, that a good proportion of runners are what used to be called 'veterans', and nowadays 'masters', i.e. older than 40. As an aside, I can't understand why a woman is considered to be a 'veteran' (mistress...?) at 35, whereas men only reach this grade at 40. Surely, it makes the mistresses feel 'old' at a rather early age, doesn't it? Anyway, that's beside the point.

Even now, at 46, when I line up for a race I'm very much in the middle of the pack as far as age is concerned. The impression I get is that I'm younger than a good proportion of my competitors. Which is all good news. Not only do many runners keep enjoying their activity practically into old age, but they also manage to clock in some quite excellent times.

In fact, long distance running is considered by many to be a sport for "mature" people. Whereas in most sports the best performances are obtained in the mid to late twenties, in long distance running, and particularly the marathon, it's very common for the top performers to be in the middle thirties. After that, age does start to have an effect on performance, but the decline is gradual, and hardly as dramatic as for other sports. One reason could be that long distance running is a combination of physical AND mental effort. You need to be very disciplined and mentally focussed to maintain the long-term regularity of training for a marathon, and this you acquire through life experience. One other reason may be that it doesn't involve the severe momentary stresses required by other sports. So, while there are probably hundreds of thousands of long distance runners who are over 60 throughout the world, you would find many less sprinters of that age.

If you're over 40 and just beginning to run, in fact even if you don't do any sport at all, you should carry out a general check-up of your state of health every one or at the most two years. If you don't have any particular problems, then you should have no problem whatsoever to take up, or to keep on, running. What you will notice, and this is inevitable unless you're a walking miracle, is that your performances will start to deteriorate slightly. It will become increasingly difficult to establish a personal best time at any distance. But if you train well it will still be possible to overtake a good number of rivals, most of them younger than you, during races. You may also aim to obtain an improvement on your performance the previous year or several years. This is perfectly possible. Besides, you can still aim to beat the 'usual' rivals, who are also not getting any younger.

Or you could take a different approach, and start a collection of completed marathons. For a marathon, the completion time doesn't matter very much. Whether it's sub-3 hours or 5-hours, a completed marathon is still another feather in your cap. If you just accept the fact that you're no longer at the very peak of your physical strength, you will be very happy if you manage to keep your optimum fitness. You will both feel as well as look younger than your contemporaries. Allow more time for recovery from strenuous training sessions, like very long runs and speed sessions, and (the overriding golden rule for all ages) don't overdo it. This, plus a sensible lifestyle with no exaggerated excesses and a slight dose of good luck should enable you to reach a well-advanced age in good shape.

That would be a great life achievement!

For the time being, most of us have a good lot of things to look forward to before we can crow about this achievement. Such as Weeks 22 to 25 of our beginners' schedule to running a marathon, which doesn't vary much, by the way, whether you're 28 or 58. We're now beginning to get close to our target. Here are my suggested workouts:

Monday to Sunday, easy pace, unless indicated otherwise:
Week 22: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr
Week 23: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, race / forced stoppage / 10k
Week 24: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr15
Week 25: rest, 10k, 10k tempo, rest, 10k, rest, 2hr15

Enjoy your running!

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!

How to run a marathon - 12 - road races

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 11)

Some runners manage to get by without doing any races at all. They are happy to go for their daily/three times per week jog, and stay fit that way.

I'm not like that. At regular intervals, I like to pit my strength against my peers. It's an occasion to monitor my progress. It's also a good feeling to join hundreds of like-minded people, at a different setting each time, or the same as the previous year, trying to improve my time, or to overtake those rivals who run at more or less my own pace.

For marathon runners, 5k, 10k, 16k (10 miles) races, and even (though to a lesser extent) half marathons, are simply stepping stones to the big event. They take these events as they come along, as welcome diversions or breaks from their regular weekend long training runs. They don't train specifically for them, but include them in their training schedule, as special 'power' speed sessions.

Of course, a beginner who is looking forward to his or her first-ever race would have a different outlook. Here, I intend to give a few tips to such a beginner, who is entering the world of road racing.

You will notice first of all the camaraderie among competitors. There are many rivalries, but they are generally friendly - sometimes keen, but rarely fierce or bitter. Some groups of competitors decide to run together from start to finish. Some experienced runners may opt to help newcomers by competing and running along with them. Still others start at the back of the pack, and are happy to cruise along and earn a medal at the finish. The elite runners take up a position at the front, after a long period of warming up and stretching, and concentrate on actually trying to win the race. The great majority of participants aim to finish the race in a good time, trying to establish a new personal best time or at least improve on the previous race of the same distance.

There are various factors that together contribute to your having a good race. First of all, you need to be well trained. I think this is fairly obvious, and doesn't need much explaining. If you have been following the schedule suggested in my previous articles, you are certainly fit enough to participate in a race of 5k or 10k. For a very first race I don't suggest a longer distance than 10km, since if you happen to start too fast and wear out early, it would be a long slog to the finish... It's probably best to attempt long distance races after gaining experience at middle distance events.

Don't train too hard in the last few days before a race - at the most carry out one speed session midweek before the race (assuming you're racing in the weekend) - plus your routine easy training runs. I prefer not to run at all on the day before the race, although there are those who go out for a short run at an easy pace. The principle is quite simple here - you should be well rested on race day, and this also means accumulating enough hours of sleep during the last few days before the race. Don't eat too much the night before, and keep yourself well hydrated by drinking lots of water, and no alcohol, especially if it's hot. If your pee is dark coloured, it means you need to drink more water.

To be rested, relaxed and concentrated at the starting line you have to avoid leaving your preparations till the last moment. The last thing you need on race day is a mad scramble to arrive on time, with hardly any time left to do a proper warm-up. You would normally aim to arrive about one hour before the start. This gives you enough time to pick up the number if you still don't have it, to have a good look around, chat with your friends, and of course do some jogging to warm up. Not too much - 10 to 15 minutes during the last 20 minutes before the start should be enough. Any earlier and you will lose the benefit of the warm-up, or wear yourself out before even starting! Be sure you're wearing comfortable clothes suitable for the weather conditions, and don't wear or eat anything with which you're not familiar. In particular don't eat anything in the last two hours before the race, or any heavy food (meat or fatty meals) on race day itself.

At last, the time arrives when you're in the middle of the crowd of eager starters, waiting for the starting gun to go off. Race participants start in the position they roughly estimate they will place at the finish. You should do likewise, and for very practical reasons. The beginnings of road races are crowded affairs, and jostling between competitors of different capabilities is a dangerous practice, which could result in a multiple pile-up of runners. The field should therefore spread out as smoothly as possible within the first few hundred metres - elite runners rocketing ahead at the front, aiming-to-finish joggers taking it easy at the back, all the rest at the proper position in between.

DON'T START TOO FAST! It's the number one golden rule, and many beginners fall foul of it, getting carried away by the sheer excitement of the occasion. Whatever the distance to be run, start at a moderate pace. It's so much better to save your energy reserves for the second part of the race, overtaking one rival after the other right on till the finish, ending in a strong sprint, than to start too fast and wear yourself out in the middle of the race, and helplessly watch an endless string of competitors go by as you shuffle along breathlessly without being able to match their pace.

Concentrate on settling down to a comfortable pace during the first third of the race. If you're in good form, you should feel the urge to increase the pace, but resist this in the early stages. When the first third is over, you may very gradually start to up the tempo. Look ahead, and try to catch up with the runner in front of you. Once you're in step with them, forget about them. They may well try to re-overtake you, but don't react. Your aim is to move up the field, not to beat this particular individual. Look ahead once again, and pick the next 'victim' to overtake. If you're in good form, you'll be able to overtake a good number of rivals this way.

Most road races have undulating routes, so you should expect a couple of hills along the way. Sometimes these may be quite tough to negotiate. Don't let them get you down. Remember, it's true that your pace will slow down and you get very breathless as you go uphill, but you're not the only one - it's just as hard for your rivals. Look down at the ground, concentrate on your footsteps and on reaching the top of the hill. If you're well trained you will probably overtake another few competitors on the way up...

After a good race, done in a good time, with a strong finish, you'll feel absolutely on top of the world. It could go the other way, and sometimes without any apparent reason at all. It might just happen that you have an off day. You might start at the wrong pace. You may have not trained or slept well enough. Never mind. Pick yourself up and look ahead. The next race will probably turn out to be much better.

The day after a race you may expect to have sore muscles, caused by the extraordinary effort of the previous day. Some runners go out for a light jog to loosen their muscles. I prefer complete rest, or an easy bike ride at the most. A couple of days after the race, you should have recovered enough to resume your normal training schedule.

For Weeks No 16 and 17 of our beginner's guide to running a marathon, this would be something like this:

Monday to Sunday
Week 16: rest - 10k easy - 10k tempo - rest - 10k easy - rest - 1h45 easy
Week 17: rest - 10k easy - 10k intervals - rest - 10k easy - rest - 1h45 easy

Now it's time to go to bed, because tomorrow I have a race of my own, the Hivernales de Boitsfort (19,2km). Let's just hope I'll remember to practice what I've been preaching!

How to run a marathon - 11 - building up to a marathon

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 10)

If you have been following my beginners' guide to running a marathon, you will have progressed from relative physical inactivity to becoming a fully fledged runner. You may well have acquired a life-long addiction, with running becoming an integral part of your life. If this is the case, it's an incredibly good thing for you. You will have already shed quite a bit of any excess weight you may have had. You are being more careful about living a healthy life, not just for health reasons, but because it helps you with your running. If you used to smoke, you will probably have given up by now. You feel good about yourself, and you're focussed on an important target - running a half marathon, and eventually a marathon.

Focus. It's the key word that keeps you motivated. You have to have a well established target, plus intermediate targets. By now, you will have settled into a general training pattern that, health and lack of injuries permitting, you could maintain indefinitely: three to five 10k's during the working week, including one or two speed sessions, plus a long run in the weekend. The variation, depending on what you happen to be targeting in your training, will occur mostly in the weekend long run.

We have set ourselves the ultimate target that is the marathon. But there are also other, intermediate targets. One of them is the half marathon. Before that, it would be a good idea to acquire experience doing road races of shorter distances, which may include 5k, 10k, 16k or other distances. These are excellent occasions to test your form, compare your performance from one occasion to the other, compete with rivals of more or less your own ability, and generally enjoy taking part in a running event with hundreds of like-minded participants. I'll consider these road running events in more detail in one of my next articles in this series.

To build up to a marathon, all you need to do is increase the length of your long run, bit by bit, until you reach a point that is close to the entire distance itself. During the last two to three weeks you then ease off the long distances, allowing your body enough time to recover its strength so that you'll be in optimal shape on the big day itself.

The build-up is fairly straightforward. On three successive weekends you run for 1h30; the next three successive weekends you do 1h45; followed by three successive weekends at 2h00. This goes on at the same rate of increase up to 3h00, again for three successive weekends. Finally, three to four weeks before the marathon itself, you carry out one or two runs of 3h15m, which will be equivalent to around 33-38k, i.e. almost there. The last two weeks you take it easy, as explained earlier.

Now, of course, a programme of 23 successive weekends of long runs is nearly impossible to maintain. You could get the flu (more on this in one of the next articles), you might go on vacation, and be unable to run, you might need to organise a wedding... and you will need a couple of breaks, to sort of recharge your batteries. Successive weekends doing, say, 2h45 - 2h45 - 2h45 - 3h00 - 3h00 - 3h00 - 3h15 - 3h15 would be just a bit too much to sustain. You should therefore allow for a few single interruptions in this build-up, for when you have the flu, your daughter is getting married, etc. However, if you're lucky, you'll still be able to run all weekends, and this is where you can fit in the shorter road races that are so much fun.

So, depending on how much time you have left before the marathon, the ideal thing would be to add a fourth weekend into each of the three-week phases mentioned above, so that your build-up would be something like this:

1h30 - 1h30 - 1h30 - something else - 1h45 - 1h45 - 1h45 - something else - 2h00 - 2h00 - 2h00 - something else - and so on. This is an idealised situation, and the "something else" will never occur exactly every four weeks. What you could do instead is work by months. Let's take the Malta marathon, which takes place end of February / beginning of March. The entire build-up will take 8 months. In July, your long runs will be of 1h30. In August you do 1h45. And so on. In each month, you can afford to have one weekend, whenever this is needed, for 'something else'. If you're lucky, this 'something else' will be a short road race. If something crops up that prevents you from running, you will have to give up that month's short road race - your main aim is the marathon, not the short road race.

With a shorter build-up, say starting on September (avoiding the torrid summer months), you can replace one of the three long runs with 'something else', so that certain stages in the build-up will only consist of two long runs, instead of three. This is a worse option, first of all because you end up getting less endurance training, with consequent effect on race day, and secondly because you will be at greater pressure to fit in all the training necessary, and you won't have much 'allowance' for any unforeseen stoppages.

So, my advice is to allow 8 months from when you're doing a 90-minute long run to marathon day, add 15 minutes to your long runs each month, include one weekend without a long run in each month, and you should be able to be in ideal shape come marathon day. A calendar would obviously help you map out this build-up by including those races you wish to fit in.

Weeks 14 and 15 of our beginner's guide to running a marathon are a repeat of Week 13, except for the speed sessions, which alternate between tempo runs and interval training:

Week 14 (Monday to Sunday): rest - 10k easy - 10k tempo - rest - 10k easy - rest - 1h30 easy
Week 15 (Monday to Sunday): rest - 10k easy - 10k intervals - rest - 10k easy - rest - 1h30 easy

Enjoy your running!

How to run a marathon - 10 - the long run

Continued from How to run a marathon (parts 0 to 9)

The one type of training session that is the yardstick of a long distance runner's progress is the long run. To do a marathon, or a half marathon, you need to be able to run a long distance, and this can only be achieved through sheer practise. Hence the weekly long run.

Why weekly? Because it would be very difficult to run long distances more often. Do a long run everyday, and you'll likely end up either injured or completely exhausted. It's only ultra long distance runners who undertake that type of regime, but ultra distance running is not our concern. We are 'only' long distance runners...

Shorter training runs during the week (for practical reasons, long runs are normally carried out in the weekend, specifically though of course not necessarily on Sunday) serve two purposes:

- less demanding training sessions to allow for complete recovery from the rigours of the weekend long run, and

- specific work on other aspects of athletic form, in particular speed.

In the weekend, most people have more time on their hands that will allow them to carry out a longer training session. And this is where we train our bodies to get used to running for a long time, over a long distance. This is where our muscles are made to work for a longer time than they are normally used to, which will in turn induce our body during the week to rebuild the worn muscle tissue and overcompensating in anticipation of the new demands being made upon it. This is where our cardiovascular system, i.e. the continuous work done by the heart in pumping blood around our body, combined with intake of oxygen through the lungs to be absorbed by the blood and transported to the working muscles, becomes ever more efficient and able to keep working at a relatively high rate for several hours.

It's called endurance. It's that characteristic that enables you to do an active exertion for a long time without getting too tired. To go up a staircase or walk up a steep hill without getting breathless. You will notice, as you get fitter, that your pulse rate at rest starts to get lower. This is because your heart becomes more efficient at pumping blood. In fact your pulse rate at rest is another measure of your current level of fitness.

In our beginners' schedule, we have, bit by bit, increased the time of the Sunday run to 80 minutes. These runs, as in the case of the standard 10k sessions, are done at an easy pace. Depending upon your natural ability, they may vary from 7.5 minutes per mile if you're a pretty fast runner, to 10 minutes per mile if you're on the slower side. The majority of runners do their long training runs at 8 to 9.5 minutes per mile. There's no specific ideal type of route for a long run, although it would be better to avoid very hilly routes, as the aim here is simply to improve running for a long time. Tough hills could be just a bit too much for this already demanding type of session.

Most runners prefer to carry out their long runs in company. This certainly has several advantages, among which:

- the camaraderie among runners makes the Sunday long run something to which to look forward;

- a group of runners possesses a wide pool of knowledge of different types of route and distances available from any given meeting point;

- being committed to meet someone is a big incentive to get out of a cosy bed on those occasions when your will power lets you down;

- running in company is much more interesting than a long run all on your own, where time and tired muscles tend to seem to last forever...

... but be careful to run with someone in the same league as yourself. If you agree to run with just one partner, this partner needs to have just about the same pace as you do, otherwise he or she will tire you out within a few minutes, or if they are too slow you will feel as if you're not doing any training at all. Alternatively, if you run with a large group it will be much easier to fall into step with someone who runs at your preferred pace. A third possibility (mine, partly due to circumstances, partly due to choice) is to run on your own, and you're 100% free to dictate the pace. But it's a lonely choice, and the longer runs seem to last forever!

That's it, folks. Next time I'll write on the build-up to a half marathon or a full marathon. In the meantime, enjoy your running. Here's Week 13 of our beginners' schedule:

Mon: rest
Tue: 10k easy
Wed: 10k tempo
Thu: rest
Fri: 10k easy
Sat: rest
Sun: 1h30m easy

How to run a marathon - 9 - tempo runs

Week 11 of the beginner's schedule to running a marathon introduces the tempo run. I discovered the tempo run quite by accident. I wanted to run a regular 10k away from traffic, so I decided to use an athletics track. Up till then I was not very keen on using the track, because I used to be easily bored by the repetition involved. Still, I decided to try it out - 25 laps.

I started off at my normal training pace, setting off my stop watch. I noted the time after one lap, and again at the second. Timing each lap would be something to keep my mind occupied, so I decided to time each lap until completion. Then I noticed something surprising. The third lap was considerably faster than my usual 2 minutes per lap (equivalent to the 8-minute miling that I used to train at in those younger times). In fact, I had chipped exactly 10 seconds off 2 minutes in that third lap: 1m 50 seconds. It's easy to calculate - the seconds count was 10 seconds less than the previous. There's no need to involve the minutes to complicate the calculation.

This phenomenon repeated itself on all subsequent laps, and I ended up running the 10k considerably faster than my normal easy pace. So what had happened? Probably, the fact that I was timing each lap was a stimulus to maintain a solid pace. I attempted the same type of session one week later, with a similar result.

Months, if not years, later, I learned that this type of training is known as a tempo run. It's a form of speed training, where you train your body to keep up a sustained pace for a prolonged period. In fact, at a tempo run, you're running closer to the limit of your anaerobic threshold - the maximum possible oxygen intake and oxygen use at the same rate. Any much faster, and you'll get breathless, having crossed the limit into anaerobic activity, where you run into oxygen debt.

This type of session is very useful to enable you improve your times at races, i.e. by running faster without having to stop three-fourths of the way through exhaustion. You can carry it out at the same place as you do your interval training. Both types of session are quite similar, the difference being that a tempo run is like an averaged out interval session.

Again, you can have variations, the most obvious being the distance run. In fact, at the track I sometimes prefer to do 30 laps, using the first two laps for a warm-up, and mentally splitting the remaining 28 into 7 groups of 4 laps (one mile each). There's a lot of mind games involved in tempo running. To improve endurance at a faster pace, when I was really keen on running a good marathon, I used to do 40 laps - 10 miles - but I think that was a bit too much. Nowadays I'm quite happy to limit my tempo run to 10 km, and I would suggest that a beginner shouldn't exert him or herself more than this.

As for interval training, the same principle of hard day/easy day should apply. We have basically two types of speed training: intervals and tempo running. You may alternate between one and the other on successive weeks. Or within each week (rest, tempo, easy, intervals, easy, rest, long run). Alternation will give you the benefit of both types of training, while the hard day/easy day principle is essential to avoid the risk of overtraining or injury. Rest is necessary to enable regeneration of your muscle tissues.

There. That wasn't bad for a short entry to cover the Christmas period...

Week 11 - Monday to Sunday:
rest - 10k easy - 10k tempo - rest - 10k easy - rest - 80 minutes easy

Week 12 - Monday to Sunday:
rest - 10k easy - 10k intevals - rest - 10k easy - rest - 80 minutes easy

Enjoy your running!

How to run a marathon - 8 - interval training

As explained in How to run a marathon - 7 - speedwork, interval training consists of short bursts of running at a fast pace, with short recoveries done at a slow jog. The aim of this session is quite simple - to be able to run faster, so that once you start taking part in races you'll be able to perform better.

The ideal place for interval training is an athletics track. This could be freely available in your area, or you might need to become a member. If it's too complicated to run in an athletics track, there's a second option - to use a short loop, which need not be perfectly flat. Your best option, in this case, would probably be in a public garden or park, at a time when it's not too crowded, avoiding the possibility of motor traffic. As a last resort, you may choose a loop on the streets in a quiet neighbourhood with little or no motor traffic, taking great care to avoid dangerous blind corners.

The loop chosen should be one that you can complete at your regular easy running pace in around 2 to 3 minutes, i.e. close to 400 to 500 metres. A speed session must always start with a warm up jog of around 8 to 10 minutes. This may consist of 3 to 4 loops, or you could jog from home to wherever you intend to carry out your intervals session. After the warm-up you may wish to do some easy stretching, although I'm not at all keen on this (see How to run a marathon - 7 - speedwork).

At the final few metres of the warm up, take a couple of deep breaths and proceed to run two laps - fast. Not as fast as you possibly can, since you need to repeat this effort several times, but reasonably fast. Imagine you're trying to catch up with someone who is also running. Look at your stopwatch as you complete the first lap - you should complete the second lap at very close to the same time. As you approach the end of the second lap you'll be quite breathless, and your pulse will have rocketed. That's quite normal, and it's the whole point of this type of training. It will enable you to get used to running fast.

After two laps, slow down to a jog. It's better to jog than to give in to the temptation of stopping completely. During this jog, for one lap, you will recover your breath, and at the end of the lap you'll be ready for a second strong effort. Now you should aim to keep the same time for each lap as in your first effort. After two fast laps, you slow down to a jog once again. The pattern, therefore, is this:

4 laps jog - 2 fast/1 jog - 2 fast/1 jog - ... after your 5th or 6th (final) fast effort, the jog recovery should be extended to a total of 4 laps, i.e. about 10 minutes of cooling down. Six fast efforts will result in a total of 25 laps, i.e. 10km (assuming 400 metre laps at a running track). For a non-standard distance loop, which is incidently what I use nowadays, I keep repeating my fast efforts until at least 45 minutes after the start of the training session have elapsed. I then commence 8 minutes of cool down and head straight for a warm shower (it's very cold time at this time of the year...).

There are of course variations to the pattern outlined above. For instance, my very first interval sessions used to consist of four efforts of four laps each, with a one-lap walk in between each effort. But eventually I settled for the more straightforward 2 lap repeats, with a one lap jog in between.

This is a tiring session, but it's very good training for improving speed and the capacity to vary speed as necessary, especially in races and for going uphill. It should be preceded and followed by a day of rest or relatively easy training, i.e. the standard 10k run at an easy pace. To avoid the risk of overtraining or even injury, I think it's best to limit this type of session to one per week.

We will now introduce this session in Week 10 of our beginner's schedule for running a marathon. Here it is:

Week 10 (Monday to Sunday)
rest - 10k easy - 10k intervals - rest - 10k easy - rest - 75 minutes easy

Enjoy your running!

How to run a marathon - 7 - speedwork

All training that we have considered up till now consisted of running at an easy pace, just slightly faster than jogging. It's a pace at which the regular long distance runner doesn't get breathless at all, unless he or she is running up a steep hill. The cardiovascular system is in equilibrium - it's working faster than the state of rest, i.e. greater oxygen intake through quicker breathing and faster heartbeat, but at a moderate rate that can be sustained for a long distance. It's called aerobic training, meaning that you're breathing in oxygen at the same rate as you're using it up through physical activity.

But this type of running is rather slow. If you wish to start taking part in races, and having a target event is certainly a strong motivator for your training, you will probably aim to improve your performance. This you can achieve through quality training. A quality training session consists of a speed session or an endurance-enhancing long run.

Your training schedule should ideally consist of an alternation between quality training and easy recovery runs, including a long run once per week, traditionally during weekends, and at least one day per week of no training at all. You will have by now perfected the 10 km run at an easy pace. It's now time to introduce the speed session.

The main types of speed training are called 'intervals', 'tempo running' and 'fartlek' (a Swedish term meaning speed play).

Intervals consist of brief periods of intense running at an anaerobic rate, i.e. using up oxygen at a higher rate than that at which you can take in through breathing, followed by recovery periods of slow jogging, when you literally have to recover your breath.

A tempo run is midway between your normal 10 km run at an easy pace and a 10 km race - let's say at a moderately fast pace. This is very good training for improving BOTH endurance and speed.

Fartlek, meaning 'speed play', is a training session with varying speeds. You set out at a slow warm-up pace, and after 10 minutes or so speed up for, say, the distance between 5 lamp posts, slow down to a jog along a slight uphill, run at a moderately strong pace until you reach some particlar landmark, slow down again, and keep varying the pace according to your whim. It has the advantage that you can regulate the hard bits according to the way you feel, but you need to take care not to be too lazy, otherwise it wouldn't be a quality session at all.

A typical speed session consists of three phases: the warm up, the speedwork, and the cool down. The reason for the warm-up is fairly obvious, and is implicit in the name. Your muscles, and your body as a whole, need a transitional phase to go from a state of rest to one of hard work. If you start running very fast without a warm-up you risk getting injured. A ten-minute jog is the gentle way to ease into a hard workout.

After the warm-up, it's time to do some stretching. In running it's the leg muscles that do most of the work, and it's those muscles that we need to keep most flexible to reduce the risk of strain injuries. Basically, we need to stretch the calves, the quadriceps and the hamstrings for anything from 15 to 30 seconds. DON'T overstretch, otherwise you would risk injuring yourself, and preferably do your stretching when already warmed up.

The speed-work session itself I will describe in the next section, dealing with interval training and tempo runs.

The cool-down is equivalent to the warm-up, but at the other end of the session. It's the transition from a state of hard work to a state of rest, and facilitates the dissipation of the waste products of anaerobic exertion, especially lactic acid, from your muscles.

So, how often should you do speed training? It depends on your number of training sessions per week. The important principle to keep in mind is the alternation between hard days and easy days. Here are some possible typical training patterns:

4 sessions per weekMon: rest; Tue: 10k easy; Wed: speedwork; Thu: rest; Fri: 10k easy; Sat: rest; Sun: long run

5 sessions per week
Mon: rest; Tue: 10k easy; Wed: speedwork; Thu: 10k easy; Fri: speedwork; Sat: rest; Sun: long run

6 sessions per week
Mon: 10k easy; Tue: 10k easy; Wed: speedwork; Thu: 10k easy; Fri: speedwork; Sat: rest; Sun: long run

The pattern you choose depends on how important it is for you to perform well in races, compared to all other non-running aspects of your life. In my beginner's schedule to running a marathon I'm proposing the easiest option based on 4 sessions per week, but this can easily be 'upgraded' to 5 or 6 per week following the models given above.

In Week 9 of our schedule, I'm introducing the first speed training session, which consists of speed play - a 10km run at a pace varying from a jog to a sprint, according to your whims:

Mon - rest
Tue - 10km, easy
Wed - 10k - fartlek
Thu - rest
Fri - 10km, easy
Sat - rest
Sun - 70 minutes, easy

Enjoy your running!

How to run a marathon - 6 - the standard 10k session

A training schedule for long distance running consists basically of a combination of three different types of session:

1. A standard 10 km run, at an easy pace, normally carried out several types per week.
2. A speed session, normally carried out once or twice per week.
3. A weekly long run, traditionally (although of course not necessarily) done during the weekend.

Up till now, my suggested training runs for budding marathon runners have always been given in minutes of easy running. The schedules given here have been working up to the standard 10 km run. We are basically there. In week 7 it was suggested that three of the four training sessions would be 50 minute runs.

Now, of course, the distance equivalent to a 50 minute run at an easy pace depends on the natural ability and speed of the individual. In my case, I normally run 10 km, at an easy pace, in 53 minutes. When I started running around 17 years ago, I used to carry out the same session in just 48 minutes or so. One can't expect to be as fast at 46 as one was at 29... Mind you, when I race I expect to run 10 km in around 44 minutes, so there's still some good quality steam running around in me yet!

Whatever my pace, which is not very relevant here, normal runners who are neither exceptionally fast nor terribly slow should expect to run 10 km, at an easy pace, in 45 minutes to 60 minutes. This should be your "regular" midweek training session, when you're not doing a speed session or the weekend long "endurance" run. It's what keeps the running machine ticking - the filler, not-too-difficult sessions to allow for recovery in between the more demanding quality sessions.

How do you find out your 10 km time? I wouldn't recommend taking this measurement by running 25 times round a 400 metre track - as here the tendency is to run faster than normal. I'll explain more about this when we discuss speed training. The best way is probably to use the car odometer (mileometer) to measure a 5 km stretch of road, along which there's a good pavement where you can carry out a normal running session. The average time of three separate runs along this stretch of road and back will give you your 10 km time. Once you know this, you need not measure the distance run each time you go for your regular 10 km training spin - just run at your normal pace for 26 minutes (if your 10k time is 52 min.) and do exactly the same route back.

You may also opt for hi-tech, and wear a GPS on your wrist that gives you lots of data about your run - distance, time, speed, average speed, pulse rate, and lots more - they're getting better all the time. This old timer, however, is quite happy using traditional methods - a stop watch, and that's it.

Week 8 of the beginner's schedule for running a marathon (Monday to Sunday, running at an easy pace):

0, 10k, 10k, 0, 10k, 0, 70 minutes.

Enjoy your running. Vary your routes. Sleep well. Limit your alcohol intake. Run on an empty stomach, while keeping well hydrated. Soon, you'll be taking part in a race.

How to run a marathon - 5 - dogs and other problems

By now, if you have been following my step-by-step schedule, you will have become a regular runner, going out for a training spin anything between 3 to 6 times a week. You will have noticed an improvement in your physical condition, and more so in your self perception. You're doing something useful for your fitness, and it's beginning to bear fruit. But the best part is yet to come. This is still very much the beginning - you're laying a strong foundation for a lifetime of running.

You are bound to encounter challenging situations. In the previous section I dealt with problems caused by the weather. Today I will consider some other problems you will need to tackle, namely, difficult terrain, dogs, injuries, illnesses, or simply off days.

Difficult terrain

This could be due to the weather (which I dealt with in the previous section) - there is no magic formula here, you just have to be careful if it's rainy or snowbound. You should of course avoid choosing routes that are prone to becoming muddy, as well as rocky terrain - both of which situations could result in a sprained ankle if you're not extra careful. These are rather obvious, common sense precautions.

What I have in mind most when I mention difficult terrain is hills. You will have immediately noticed how much harder it is to run uphill than on flat terrain. You become breathless more quickly while running uphill, especially if you're a beginner. Experience will teach you how to approach hills, so that eventually you will simply take them in your stride, without much ado. But in the beginning, the best idea is to avoid them, although in many places this is much easier said than done.

Here are a few tips about going uphill. First of all, be confident - you'll just need to work harder than usual for a few minutes. Be prepared for the fact that your pace is going to slow down. Decrease the length of your stride, look down to the ground, concentrate on taking small steps, thrust your arms to help propel you uphill, and don't be too concerned about reaching the top of the hill. The less you think about reaching the top, the quicker it will seem once you get there. Don't worry about getting breathless. Let your lungs and your heart pump away, but don't force the pace. The magic formula here, most often valid wherever long distance running is concerned, is to take it easy. It will definitely become much less difficult as you gain experience.

Dogs

On rare occasions, dogs can be a nuisance to runners, especially if they're not on a leash (the dogs, I mean...). The worst possible encounter would be if it's you and the dog (or dogs!) and no one else. Clearly, the best policy is to ignore them, and in most cases they will leave you alone. Once they realise that you're not threatening their territory they will lose interest in you, and go back to their doggy world. Very rarely, a dog persists in pestering me, in which case:

(i) I turn upon it, shouting an animal growl, and literally chase it away, hurling kicks if necessary. This action works wonders, and they always disappear in a flash; or

(ii) for added security I keep a stone handy when anticipating an unfriendly doggy encounter. Throwing a stone or even an imaginary stone at them, again, should scare them away.

In 17 years of running, I have never had any trouble with dogs other than the very rare occasions that I resolved by (i) or (ii) above.

Injuries and illnesses

If you don't make any abrupt changes in training distances and intensities, you shouldn't have many injury problems. However, people do get hurt without even running at all, and this is true for runners as well. Where injuries are concerned the golden rule is this: if it hurts to run, stop, and walk back home. Don't run if it hurts. Just in case you may have misunderstood this point, please allow me to clarify a bit more: don't run if it hurts, unless you want the pain to get much worse. Too bad, you'll have to take time off training, until you're fully recovered. Only then is it safe to ease back into running again.

The same principle applies if you're feeling ill. Again, "listening to your body" will tell you if you should run or not. My rule of thumb here is that if I feel like going out for a run, I'm probably healthy enough to do it; if I feel run down and plain miserable, I take a good rest and allow myself time to recover.

This subject, i.e. having to take time off training due to injury or illness, and how to ease back into normal training, deserves a future section all by itself.

Off days

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, you feel more tired than usual and don't seem to be able to get a satisfactory rhythm in your run. There could be various reasons for this. You may have had a particularly tiring day, didn't sleep well, the weather is humid, or there may be a different reason altogether. The "off day" is an unexpected factor that could strike on a training run or during a race. You'll just need to sweat it out, puff somewhat more than usual, and look forward to a better day. Make sure you have not been overtraining during the past few days, in which case you should ease back on your training.

Don't let the odd bad day discourage you too much. In the next run you'll probably feel on top of the world again.

Week 7 (minutes of running at an easy pace, starting on Monday): 0, 50, 50, 0, 50, 0, 60

How to run a marathon - 4 - when the going gets tough...

... the tough get going. I sometimes repeat this saying to myself when I run, and it often helps.

Running is not always like a walk in the park. You're going to encounter challenging situations, including bad weather, difficult terrain, dogs, injuries, illnesses, or simply off days.

Bad weather

The worst weather for running is not when it's rainy or wintry - you can normally overcome these conditions - but when it's hot and humid. That's a nasty combination, and you need to be extra careful here. You have to ensure you're sufficiently hydrated (this applies for all your running, but especially when it's hot and humid). In the peak of summer, i.e. in temperatures exceeding the high twenties, you should only run early in the morning or in the evening, and drink enough water before, possibly during, and after the run. Running in late morning to early afternoon on a hot day is a definite no-no - you would be risking heatstroke, which is a potentially fatal condition. Just don't do it.

The other extreme... winter. Rain is not much of a problem. I find that I get wet anyway when I run, whatever the weather conditions. Many runners wear waterproof jackets. I don't - I dislike having sweaty air trapped inside this type of clothing. I simply ignore the rain. For me the only change when it rains is that I'm extra careful where I tread. There are puddles, which could easily hide dangerous potholes, besides which the ground is slippery and motorists have limited visibility. Basically, when it's rainy you have to be a bit more careful. Otherwise, I normally find running in the rain to be an exhilarating experience!

Strong wind is a bit of a nuisance - when it's a headwind. But again, unless it's an extreme case, in which case you should be looking after your own house and not training, all you need to do is literally take it in your stride. Accept the fact that you'll have to run at a slower pace, and console yourself, if you're running in a loop, that for half the time the wind will be pushing you forward.

Snow... is definitely a problem if it's thick on the ground. If you live in an area with snow for extended periods, you'll have to either find yourself a track or trail that is maintained and de-snowed regularly, use a treadmill indoors, or simply wait for the end of the snowy season. In the meantime you could take up cross country skiing, which is the snowbound version of long distance running.

Hail is even worse. Running while it's snowing is OK if it's not thick on the ground. It's rather fun, in fact. But hail is bad - a shower of stones falling down on your head. If you're unfortunate enough to get caught running in a hailstorm, just cover your head the best you can with your arms and run for shelter.

Cold weather is as unpleasant as hot weather, except that you can do something about it. All you need to do is wear enough (but not too many!) layers of clothing so that you don't feel cold. This you can only fine tune through trial and error. Before I run on a cold day, I normally check the temperature and cover myself accordingly - cycling shorts, number of shirts, long or short sleeves, sweat shirt, thin gloves, thick gloves, two sets of gloves, woolen cap...

The other challenging situations will have to wait for my next blog in this series. I'll sign off for tonight with Week 6 of our beginners' schedule:

Week 6 (minutes of running at an easy pace, starting on Monday): 0, 45, 45, 0, 45, 0, 60

Enjoy your running :-)

How to run a marathon - 3 - Endurance build-up

If you have been following my suggested schedule for taking up running, How to run a marathon , you will have done more or less easy running, somewhere on the following lines:

(Monday to Sunday, minutes of easy running)
Week 1 - 10, 0, 10, 0, 10, 0, 15
Week 2 - 0, 15, 15, 0, 20, 0, 20
Week 3 - 0, 20, 20, 0, 30, 0, 30

This is basically a build-up of endurance, the essential component of distance running. Endurance is a measure of your capacity to carry out an aerobic activity for a prolonged period. It involves the burning of glycogen stored in your muscles, using oxyen (hence the term "aerobic") that is dissolved in the blood, to provide energy. We derive glycogen, the fuel, from carbohydrates that we eat. Oxygen enters the bloodstream through our lungs, and is pumped via our heart through the arteries to our muscles. As you build up endurance, you increase the efficiency of oxygen intake into the bloodstream, as well as the capacity of your heart to pump oxygen-enriched blood to your muscles. There is no speed involved yet, but your ability to maintain a running activity for a sustained period without getting breathless is improving continuously.

You could build up to a marathon simply using this method of gradually increasing your endurance, although as the distances get longer you would need to limit the longer runs to once per week at the most, filling in the rest of the week with shorter runs.

However, this has an important drawback. Improving your endurance through long slow distance training will only result in long slow performances once you start competing. This could be good enough for you, but you might be a bit more ambitious, hence the need, once you have built up a strong endurance base, for speed training.

Unfortunately, three weeks after taking up running, the endurance base is still not good enough to support speedwork. Remember, distance running is all about patience, perseverance and discipline. We need to continue building up our endurance, our capacity for running without losing our breath, for a few more weeks. Here's my suggested schedule for the fourth and the fifth week of build-up:

Week 4 - 0, 30, 30, 0, 30, 0, 40
Week 5 - 0, 40, 40, 0, 40, 0, 50

In the meantime, it would be a good idea to vary your training sessions as much as possible, by running along different routes. Otherwise, repeated running along the same route tends to become quite tedious.

As you run on a regular basis, the distances run get longer, and the routes chosen more varied, you are bound to encounter difficult conditions - bad weather, difficult terrain, dogs, injuries, illnesses. I will be considering these factors in the next section.

How to run a marathon - 2 - Safety first

Whether you wish to run on a regular basis, or go somewhat further and run a marathon, I will repeat the overriding principle that is most guaranteed to succeed. They are the same words with which I concluded my last entry on the subject: take it easy. Going too fast, or running long distances that you're not used to, can easily lead to injury. You need to be patient, and build up gradually. Patience, perseverance and discipline are the qualities of a successful distance runner. A good physique and natural talent are obviously extremely useful, but without the necessary mental qualities, physical qualities are simply not enough. On the other hand, you could possess an iron will and strong discipline, without being particularly gifted physically, and still become a reasonably good distance runner.

The approach I'm suggesting here is built on this method of cautious, gradual build-up. In the first week, we did our first easy runs of 10 minutes each, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, plus a slightly longer 15-minute run on Sunday. We have the beginning of the structure of a typical running week, with regular runs on weekdays and a longer run during the weekend. You could of course adapt the system to your own life schedule. Here I'm advocating an extra-cautious approach, that with the onset of middle age I've found particularly useful - a one day on, one day off system that allows my muscles to recover on rest days. Nowadays I typically run on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday plus a long run on Sunday. When I was younger I used to run everyday except Saturday. Then I added another rest day on Monday (to recover from Sunday's extra effort), until my present four runs per week. How many times you run per week is up to you, how you feel, and what you wish to achieve. But I do suggest at the very least one day off per week to allow your muscles and joints to recover.

During these first few weeks, the idea is to become used to the routine of running, to establish your preferred running routes, and to train your body to adapt to the rigours of running. If your aim is to lose weight, don't expect to achieve it at once. You will certainly lose weight eventually, but this takes time, at least four weeks, probably more. Remember, running is a long-term commitment, not a temporary whim. At my running club in Malta, St Patrick's Athletics Club, our slogan is "running is a way of life".

Patience, perseverance, discipline. These first few runs are your most crucial. If you manage to find the time, insist to go out for your run, and don't make up silly excuses to miss out, you will probably keep it up. In that case: congratulations, you may now consider yourself a runner. You won't regret it!

In the second week, you may repeat what you did on Sunday (a 15 minute run) on Tuesday and Wednesday. The following Friday and Sunday, you move up one notch to 20 minutes. Your first two weeks would therefore be something like this:

Week 1, starting on Monday - 10 min, rest, 10 min, rest, 10 min, rest, 15 min on Sunday.
Week 2 - rest, 15 min, 15 min, rest, 20 min, rest, 20 min.

I'll be away for a few days, so here's the third week thrown in for good measure. It's basically more of the same, building up more and more endurance, until we start considering speed training and eventually racing... Here's the third week, still doing simply running at an easy pace:
Week 3 - rest, 20 min, 20 min, rest, 30 min, rest, 30 min.

Safety first
I started today's piece by advocating caution. Caution is not only about training: it's also about safety. Unless you intend to do all your running on a track (which may tend to be boring), or in a park, you may need to do at least part of your running in streets. Even if you run mostly on the pedestrian pavement, you will often need to cross the street, or use some roads that do not have any pedestrian paths at all, and therefore share the road with motor traffic. Always keep in mind that car drivers are not expecting to encounter joggers on the road: so it's up to you to keep a watch out for cars. Never go out for a run in the dark wearing dark clothing. Wear yellow or white, but preferably a brightly coloured bib. It's generally a good idea to run against traffic, so that you can see the vehicles approaching you, but this is to be absolutely avoided at blind curves, because you would really be risking a bad accident that way: always run on the outside part of a curve in the road, to give drivers ample time to see you. And be extra careful when crossing the road!

Finally, as far as jogging or running on the road is concerned, unless drivers clearly and unambiguously stop to allow you to proceed, always give way to motor traffic. The road was built for motor traffic, not for joggers, and whatever the law may say, it's never a good idea at all to be hit by a car. It could mean the end of your running career, if not your life.

How to run a marathon - 1 - The first steps

The overriding principle in training is this: don't try to achieve too much in a short while. Any abrupt increase in intensity or duration is the perfect recipe for an injury or burnout. Gradual and continuous progress is the key to long distance running.

Therefore, the length of your very first runs depends on your current state of fitness.

Now here's another golden rule, that should serve you admirably throughout your running career: learn to read the signs given out by your own body. The way you feel is a strong indicator of your state of fitness, your readiness to undertake a particular run, whether your muscles are up to the stresses involved. If you feel pain, it means something's wrong. If you're simply itching to go running, you're probably in good shape.

So, how long should your first runs be? I'll consider three possible situations - although there are of course many different intermediate degrees of fitness.

If you're unfit, possibly overweight, your first outings should be on the cautious side - a brisk walk, breaking into a slow jog for a minute, back into a walk, and so on - for not more than ten minutes. This you should repeat on alternate days. Eventually, the jogging intervals will get longer, until you'll be able to jog continuously for 10 minutes.

If you're not unfit, but simply untrained, you should be able to jog for 10 minutes without stopping to rest. If you haven't done any sport for a long time, it would be a good idea to limit your first three runs to just 10 minutes, on alternate days. The days off will give your muscles time to recover from the exertion to which they are not accustomed, with resulting inevitable soreness. This initial phase will simply serve for your whole self to get used to this novel activity.
You may be reasonably fit already, through being active in another sport. In such a case, you could even put in a longer run, say 20 minutes or so, depending on your level of fitness.

But whatever the case don't overdo it, in intensity as well as the distance run. It's better to err on the safe side than risk getting injured. And, at least in the beginning, do not run fast at all. An easy jog will do; speedwork will come later, after you have built a solid base of endurance through easy and steady running.

What should you wear while running? Good running shoes are the most important running gear. Also, socks are important to absorb sweat, and lessen the risk of blistering or catching athlete's foot through your feet being constantly wet. It's not a good idea to run without socks. If it's cold, i.e. less than 10 degrees C, you may need warm gloves and a woollen cap. At the other temperature extreme, dress as lightly as possible. No fancy stuff - any old loose-fitting tee-shirt or sleeveless top plus comfortable shorts will do. Make sure, if you're running in the dark, to wear light colours, preferably a bright fluorescent bib.

Where should you run? The most practical, if the surroundings are suitable, is straight out of the front door, for 5 minutes in any direction, 5 minutes back and you're done. You could otherwise go to a park, a jogging trail, a pleasant promenade, anywhere without too much traffic which is reasably flat and smooth. But travelling to a park and then coming back takes up precious time, which may be in desperately short availability... In fact, I normally do a combination of the two. I run on a pleasant route, being the Cinquantenaire park in Brussels, or the lovely St Julian's to Sliema promenade when I'm in Malta, but I include the time taken to jog towards my preferred running haunt as part of the training.

At what time of the day should you run? It depends on various factors, particularly your life schedule and the conditions outside. In the peak of summer, running at any time from late morning to early afternoon should definitely be avoided, as you risk getting heatstroke, which in bad cases could even be fatal. In very hot weather, running should only be undertaken in the early morning or from late afternoon onward, also making sure you drink lots of water before and after your run. Otherwise, i.e. in cooler weather, it's up to your preference and the time you have available.

What should you eat and drink? Anything you like, in moderation. Not too much meat and fats. Carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables are definitely the best. And of course, lots of water, and no more than one unit of alcohol per day (except on rare occasions if there's a good party, you're not driving, and you're prepared to face a couple of days hungover). It's never a good idea to party late into the night if you intend to go out running the day after... Never. In particular, you shouldn't eat a heavy meal, especially one containing meat or fatty foods, if you intend to go out running within the next few hours.

To recap, here's a typical beginners' programme for the first week (as explained, unfit persons should do brisk walks including short jogging intervals, until they reach the fitness level required for a 10-minute jog):

Day 1 - 10 minutes jog
Day 2 - rest
Day 3 - 10 minutes jog
Day 4 - rest
Day 5 - 10 minutes jog
Day 6 - rest
Day 7 - 15 minutes jog

Good luck, and enjoy your first training runs. Three last words before you go - take it easy!

How to run a marathon - 0 - The big decision

Most runners take up their sport in order to either lose weight, gain fitness or stay fit.

Those are already desirable goals in themselves, and running is a very efficient way to achieve them. Cycling, swimming, walking and other sports are also fun, but none of them, I think, burn up calories as fast as running, and neither are they as conveniently easy to practice.

Soon, however, the motivation changes. Running becomes an end in itself. Once you settle into a training routine, you start setting goals for yourself - a 10km race with a particularly interesting route, a series of races, a half marathon, a marathon if you really get into it - and each target that you reach gives you a tremendous sense of achievement.

For a non-runner, 10km might seem an impossibly long distance to run. Believe me, it's easy to build up, bit by bit, to that distance and much beyond. Your initial goals of losing weight, keeping fit and staying healthy end up being simply positive side-effects, which you almost take for granted.

The training runs themselves are also an opportunity to let your mind relax. You enter a different world, your thoughts going off on any imaginable tangent, sometimes even working out solutions to pressing everyday problems. You become an expert in the geography of your wider neighbourhood. You feel good about yourself.

Running also disciplines you into adopting healthy habits. If you're a smoker, you realise what a bad effect it's having on your endurance, and inevitably end up giving it up in order to improve your performance. If you're committed to going out for a run, you don't drink too much or stay up too late the evening before. Effectively this means that most days you have to moderate your alcohol consumption. You watch your weight - cause and effect are now reversed as you keep your weight down in order to maintain your running form. Most of us started to run in order to keep our weight down...

Whatever your target, the most important step of all is to take the decision to start running. The other targets will come later, according to your preferences as they develop. This is not a light decision to take. Running requires a firm commitment. It's not an activity you carry out every now and then. To become fit, and to stay fit, you need to run on a regular basis, meaning at least three times per week. Unless you're determined, you'll never become a runner. You need to find the time to run, early in the morning, during the mid-day break, or in the evening, ideally also some time during the weekend. To some extent, you'll need to model your life schedule around your training.

You have to make sure that you're healthy enough to take up running. Most people are, whatever their age. My own rule in this respect is quite straightforward. If I'm ill I don't run. If I feel the urge to go out running, it means that I'm healthy enough to run. It's called listening to one's body, and I'll come back to this concept later. However, if you're in doubt, consult your doctor whether you should take up jogging, especially if you're not sure about your heart being 100% OK, or if you're over 40. Normally, however, if you have no particularly serious ailment, it should be OK for you to run. Your main problem might be your weight, but that will gradually resolve itself as you improve your training.

Having confirmed you can start training, you need to equip yourself. You will need:

1. A pair of good running shoes. Make sure they're of a good quality, reputable brand, and that they fit comfortably.

2. Several pairs of shorts, and if the weather is cold cycling shorts.

3. Several pairs of sports socks.

4. Several sleeveless vests for summer, tee-shirts for temperate weather, long-sleeved shirts and sweat shirts for cold weather.

5. A very bright-coloured bib if you're running before sunrise or after sunset.

6. Warm gloves for cold weather.

7. Optional - a friend to accompany you on your runs, but you can do very well without this, especially if you wish to run at your own pace, without having to keep up with or slow down to your companion's pace.

8. A stop watch that you can wear on your wrist, i.e. an ordinary digital wrist watch with timer.

You don't need any music equipment. It's rather dangerous in fact, as it drowns out the sound of any oncoming traffic.

That's it. You decide you want to become a runner. You establish you're healthy enough to run. You equip yourself to run (basically, get yourself a good pair of running shoes). Within a week you'll be ready to hit the road.

A step-by-step guide to running a marathon

Back to blogging. This is the point where this blog starts to live up to its title.

run42k. It's a nickname I chose for my online identity a few years ago, and clearly refers to running a full marathon. I think the name chosen is appropriate, since I would calculate that at any randomly chosen point in my life, from 1994 up till the present, there's a good probability that at that moment I would happen to be undergoing training to run a marathon. By now it's more than 17 years that I have been running regularly, and if my legs can take the strain, and my health continues to serve me well, I hope to carry on running for at least another 17 years. Possibly much more than that.

I wonder, by the way, if it's just a coincidence that these 17 years were exactly the same period that I have been married to my dear wife Sue. Surely, then, it must be her influence that inspires me to run... :-)

Whatever the inspiration (and I hope to go into this subject sometime in the future), I feel that all these years of running, including 9 marathons, hundreds of other races, and countless training runs, have given me an enormous wealth of experience, some of which I wish to share with you, dear reader, with the hope of inspiring you, in my turn, to take up this wonderful activity.

In my previous blog I mentioned a project that was mulling around in my mind. This is it. I propose to recount the full process, starting from scratch, then to a novice runner, a regular jogger, progressing up to a half marathon, and if you really get into it, on to a full marathon. Drawing from my experience mentioned above, I intend to cover the various aspects of the process, and (roughly) on a weekly basis provide a step-by-step guide to running a marathon.

I look forward to the first step within the next few days, hopefully this weekend. So, till then, cheerio and good night!