Ten Tips For Your Best Marathon

For many of us, marathon training is in full-swing right now, with both weekly mileage and the distance of your long runs steadily increasing. Unfortunately though, some runners will suffer from one of the many common running injuries that plague marathon runners, both new and experienced.

Although it might not feel like it right now, training for a marathon should be an enjoyable and positive experience! With a good marathon training plan, there should be clear progression week-by-week (recovery weeks excluded), giving you a satisfying end result as you cross the finish line, either setting a new personal best time, or simply with the accomplishment of completing a new challenge.

There are a number of common pitfalls that marathon runners encounter, impairing their ability to perform to their potential come the big day. Below I’ve listed a number of the key pieces of advice I give runners who are looking to embark on a new marathon training block, be it their first or fiftieth race over the 26.2 mile distance.

marathon training tips

1: Get Fit for Marathon Training

Some of the biggest improvements I’ve seen my runners make in their marathon times have come not from dramatically increasing weekly mileage, or doing more specific speed work (although these are important factors), but from becoming stronger and more resilient as runners.

The simple fact is that when many runners approach marathon training, the mind might be willing, but the body is often less than able.

Often, I’ll opt not to give a runner an 18 or 20 week marathon programme, instead I give them a 16 week marathon programme preceded by 4 to 6 weeks of preparation work.

This preparation phase focuses heavily on run-specific strength workouts in the gym and on the track, with medicine balls, resistance bands and kettle bells. The running sessions in these weeks are minimal in terms of volume – just enough to maintain fitness, and very much technique focused.

You’ll love our Free 30 Day Challenge as a means of building running strength, stability and technique…

I strongly believe that runners of all levels benefit hugely from the strength and resistance to injury that this preparation phase develops. This strength enables them to take maximum benefit from the heavy weeks of running that lie ahead, with reduced risk of sustaining an injury.

When it comes to determining how many times per week you should be performing these workouts, a good goal to aim for is 3-4 times weekly. This article on running injury prevention workouts explains why.

2: Embrace Strength Training & Circuits

Following on from the point above – it’s important that once you get into your marathon training block, and your mileage starts increasing in earnest, you maintain at least a maintenance level of strength and core conditioning. The motion of running is obviously very repetitive and cyclical in nature. Even a small biomechanical flaw can create imbalances in the body of a runner once mileage is increased significantly.

A great way to break the cycle of imbalances built up by running is to maintain a combined weekly core, strength and flexibility workout in your schedule. If you make this a high intensity circuit session in it’s own right, you can easily left dropping a short midweek run for this important type of workout.

Usually I’d rather see a runner complete five runs and one of these high-tempo cross-training sessions in a week, rather than six runs and no conditioning work!

16 Week Beginners Marathon Plan With Strength Workouts
Free Download [PDF] >>

3: Avoid Running Junk Miles

You’ve probably heard this before, but junk miles really do hold little value!

What do I mean by running junk miles? Look at it this way: Every run session you complete should have a distinct purpose. Be it a long aerobic run, a tempo session, an interval session etc… you should know why you’re setting out on each run workout. If however, you’re just clocking the miles up with no specific structure, chances are that you’re not training as smartly as you should.

The temptation for many sub-elite runners is to panic about the impending marathon and add extra running mileage, when what their bodies really need is rest and recovery between quality sessions. It’s usually far better to fill your running week with a number of key, well executed sessions, each with a purpose, balanced out with good rest, than to try and squeeze as many mediocre runs in as your time allows.

4: Maintain Good Running Form

Most of us have first-hand experience of what happens to our running form once fatigue kicks in. Rarely in the last few miles of a race will you feel as spritely as the first mile. Pictures and video taken on the course often tell the full shocking story! There’s no hiding from it, once we hit a certain state of fatigue, even the best athletes start to lose good running form to some extent. The key is to practice running with good form so that this deterioration in technique is lessened when fatigue kicks in during longer runs.

A good habit to get in to is to maintain your running cadence (stride frequency) when you feel tired, this will have a positive effect on your stride length and posture, amongst other factors.

It’s absolutely no coincidence in my mind that many marathon runners tend to get injured when their weekly long runs hit the 14-18 mile mark. This seems to be the range at which many runners, who could for example normally complete a comfortable 10km training run (pre-marathon training) begin to lose form through fatigue. This is purely my observation; if anybody has any research either backing up this claim or otherwise, I’d love to see it!

Pushing the mileage onwards into this fatigued state with poor form only serves to increase impact loads and reinforce imbalances built up through fatigued, flawed biomechanics.

Of course, let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is marathon training, and your weekly long runs are essential – arguably the most important element!

So, to avoid this breakdown in technique build up the mileage of your long runs gradually, your legs need to build the strength endurance that only weekly long runs can build. As you fatigue, however, keep a close eye on form. Perhaps try running with a metronome.

5: Learn The Value of Recovery

One of the biggest differences between the training regimes of serious amateurs and professional runners is the quality of recovery. Where we have to fit our runs in between working hours, and eating on the go, professional athletes get to go home after a hard workout, eat and sleep… Then do it all again. This quality of recovery enables them to complete a greater volume of quality workouts in their schedule.

It’s only when the body rests that we get the opportunity to make the physical and physiological adaptations to the training load that result in improved fitness.

So the right balance must be found between training and recovery for you individually. The load bearing nature of running makes it far harder on your body than swimming or cycling for example. Thus going from 3 runs per week pre-marathon training block, to 5 or 6 runs per week in a marathon training block is a big step-up in training frequency. Try to give your body a chance to adapt to this increased load – listen to your body.

Nutrition, hydration and sleep are huge factors in recovery. Burning the candle at both ends, and eating poorly will impair your ability to properly recover from sessions, meaning you fail to benefit from each session. At best, you will not see much progress in your running, worse still, you may end up injured or sick.

6: Stick To Your Marathon Plan – Avoid Playing Catch Up

Sounds simple enough, right? But we all know that life gets in the way from time to time.

In an ideal world, we’d all have a personally written marathon training plan, and execute it to the letter. What happens though if you have to stay late at work, or you get sick?

I find it helps to prioritise the runs in your week, knowing which are your key sessions, and which are ok to drop if the worst happens.

As a general rule, in marathon training, the weekly long run is obviously the most important. Try to avoid skipping these, as your body needs to build aerobic endurance through these steady efforts. You also need to maintain the consistency in increasing the duration of these long runs, enabling you to progressively build up to one or more 20+ miler in your training block.

While sticking to your training plan is the name of the game; as long as you keep building up your long runs, don’t fret if you have to skip the odd running workout in the week. If this happens, the worst thing you can do is start to play ‘catch up’. Let it go! Just make sure you execute the next running workout on your plan perfectly.

If injury strikes, don’t try to run through it, stubbornly trying to stick to the plan. Instead, go and see a Physiotherapist immediately. Once given the go-ahead to begin running again, do so cautiously in terms of volume – resist the temptation to try long runs in the first 2 weeks, instead just rebuild training frequency. Be realistic, it’s better to get your return to running right first time, with a progressive approach than end up back at the Physio clinic injured again!

If you’re planning on running more than one marathon in a short time-frame, then recovery becomes even more important. Check out this post about training to run two marathons in a month!

7: Slow Down to Run Faster on Race Day

I’ve been guilty of neglecting this in the past, like so many other runners!

The majority of us know that in simple terms, our long steady run should be completed at a relatively easy, aerobic pace. While for example, the comparatively shorter repetitions in our interval sessions should be completed at a harder, faster pace.

The problem is, that in reality so many of us spend a great deal of our time training in a ‘grey area’ between the training zones that will provide us with most benefit. My colleague Neil Scholes terms this well as mid-pace mediocrity.

In short, I often see athletes who run their easy runs too hard, and can’t push themselves hard enough on their ‘harder’ sessions.

It took me a long time to realise how easy my long aerobic runs should feel to be truly Zone 2.

Before this, I’d been running these long steady efforts way too fast. After 16 miles at what I bought was an easy pace on a Sunday, I’d be in a position where I’d need until Wednesday or Thursday to recover properly… This would wreck the quality of other important run sessions I had planned for the week!

As soon as I learned what running at my aerobic Zone 2 heart rate felt like (it felt so slow!), I discovered the complete revelation of running 16 miles on a Sunday and feeling great on a Monday morning!

Personally, this is one of the biggest positive learning experiences I’ve had in my running in the last few years.

8: Picking Your Running Shoes

I’m not going to make generic suggestions about which models of shoe are best for marathon training and racing. We’re all so different as runners, with wildly differing needs in terms of foot biomechanics, foot strike pattern, body weight, and running pace.

There is NO one size fits all answer. Find a running store you trust, better still a Sports Injury professional and get some specific advice in person.

Here’s great video to help you select the right pair of running shoes for your marathon training:

However, once you find a model of running shoes you have success with, buy a couple of pairs! I find a great footwear related tip for marathon training is to alternate your footwear. Not only will this extend the functional life of your shoes, by sharing the mileage between two pairs, it will also enable the shoes to ‘recover’ between runs.

Do shoes really need to ‘recover’? If like me you’re a larger runner, your shoes will be taking a pounding during your longer runs.

As an ex-pro rugby player, I’m 6’6″ (199cm) and 16+ stone (100+ kg). I can definitely feel that the midsole of my Asics Hyperspeeds feel noticeably compressed the day after a long run. Sometimes they need time to decompress, returning the midsole composite to the original state. Of course, this may be less of a factor for lighter-weight runners.

My advice is to rotate two pairs of shoes throughout your marathon training, reducing the fatigue of the shoes themselves throughout this high running volume period.

I acknowledge that there is little evidence to support my last statement, but it seems to work well…

9: Practice Your Target Marathon Pace

Your target pace for marathon day is simply the average pace required to hit your target time over the 26.2 miles. So, if your goal is to run a 3hr 30min marathon, your target marathon pace will need to be 8 minutes per mile.

While your long training runs will be completed slower than this, try to incorporate regular efforts at this pace into your weekly training plan. If you can get comfortable at reproducing this pace intuitively, running a steady pace on race day will become far easier. Pacing is a very difficult discipline to master, but with practice you can run an even paced race.

10: Practice Your Nutrition Strategy

I’m not a Sports Nutrition specialist, but I can share some simple advice I learned the hard way!

In 2011 I travelled to Helsinki in August for the City Marathon – excellent race by the way! My stomach is delicate at the best of times when it comes to taking on nutrition during races. It’s taken a lot of trial and error to come up with a successful strategy and list of tried and successfully tested products for use on the course.

However, in my own disorganised way, I managed to fly to Finland without my trusted gels for the race. I had to search around the race expo and local shops for ‘my‘ gels… with no luck. I had to take a risk and settle for an untested option.

I’ll spare you the full details, but this approach ended badly for me! Acute GI issues ended up costing me about 25mins on the course. I have ever since been painfully organised with planning race nutrition!

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Last updated on March 2nd, 2021.

21 Comments

  1. Thanks for the great article! I am training for my first full Marathon. I have attempted this several times over the last 2 years and everytime my weekly mileage reaches 50’s+, I have gotten injured. I am hoping to run smarter this time and actually get to complete my marathon! I am going to re-read this article a few times and really try to live by it. 🙂
    Thanks again!

  2. Bonjour, Je partage pleinement les différents aspects de cet article. Débutants 1°Apprendre à courir à son rythme. Débutants 2°Apprendre à manger du kilomètre . 3°Apprendre à manger du kilomètre avec quelques accélérations sur la distance…Moyens 3° Alterner avec des séances de fractionné court 100, 200, 400m et une séance de fractionné long 500, 600, 800, 1000 m par semaine,,, 4° Augmenter distances et fréquences… 5° Alterner Sorties longues et sorties courtes… alterner ses rythmes ..5° Apprendre à maîtriser sa récupération….
    Courir avec des chaussures adaptées à sa morphologie et ses objectifs. Vérifier si supinateur ou pronateur…. Chaussures mangée sur l’extérieur… chaussures mangées sur l’intérieur… Entraînements réguliers, Hygiène alimentaire et hygiène de vie… Indsipensables pour des entraînements sans casse !!!
    Merci de votre intérêt et attention… Bravo pour l’article.

  3. Excellent tips and I can honestly say it all works. James and his team got me to my first sub 3 hour marathon in strong form and completely injury free.

    Jean, if you and others are not even toeing the start line because of injuries then you should defenitley live by these rules. Run form and strength sessions with James are the best investment I’ve ever made in my running!

    Matt.

  4. Hello, this is a really interesting article, thank you! I managed to run a half marathon pb of just under 90 mins by running my long runs at what I thought was really slowly..and then doing some faster sessions! I think getting the long run pace right can be really tricky…

  5. Great article; sensible and practical advice throughout.

    One thing that continues to puzzle me however is this notion of doing your long runs slowly i.e. not at marathon pace. Maybe I’m missing the point but if you don’t practice doing long distances at your race pace, how is your body expected to respond during the race if it’s not used to going at that pace? I realise running a full marathon at race pace in training could be counter-productive but it feels odd to assume that short, speedy(ish) sessions can hope to translate into a higher paced full distance run.

    Am I doing it wrong or has anyone else also found this?

    1. Hi Justin.

      Sure, this whole concept used to blow my mind too! Of course, it’s really important to get your body used to marathon pace during your training block, with the addition of regular sessions much more intense – your interval sessions for example.

      Marathon training has to be all about developing the various different energy systems (particularly your aerobic base, threshold work is more of a ‘cherry on top’) and physiological adaptations to make us more effective at running long distance. These adaptations such as increased glycogen storage and fat oxidisation are stimulated by time spent training long and slow.

      Neil Scholes has written a great article on training pace here: http://www.kinetic-revolution.com/the-long-run-avoiding-mid-pace-mediocrity/

  6. Thanks for this, it’s very useful and interesting. My query is about the point on junk miles. How are they different to recovery runs, which most experts agree are important? If I’m doing 5/6 sessions a week in marathon prep, they can’t all be tough speed sessions, right?

    1. Hi Tom,

      Great question. My definition of ‘junk miles’ would be any run where you don’t have a specific objective and plan for the run. A planned easy recovery run certainly has a clear objective. If you’re an athlete who responds well to a high milage marathon program, then the runs required to achieve the weekly milage also have a clear objective – to run miles into the legs at a given intensity.

      My point about junk miles is more about getting athletes to identify whether they are ‘training’ with each run, or running aimlessly – stressing the body without a particular objective.

      You’re dead right, your runs certainly can’t all be tough speed sessions! Long steady runs are arguably much more important than the speed work, which constitutes the ‘cherry on top’ of your marathon training. Make sure every time you head out of the door, you know what you want from the run, why, and how this fits into your overall program.

  7. Great tips. You give very detailed support for your points. I have one more to add consistency. Improving speed and endurance takes consistent effort and progress over a period of time. With my athletes I have them run more often in the build phase. If they are running three days, we transition them to five days. With this approach we see less injuries, and steady improvement.

  8. Thanks James, great article and will read over it a few times as well 🙂 I would love to do your marathon workshop but unless you come to South Australia that won’t happen, so this article was great! In training for Paris Marathon! 🙂

  9. Great article,
    On the subject of nutrition I too have tried and failed miserably in the past, my first marathon attempt I tried my first gel on the day in question and that had bad results. I was wondering whats the best way to go about it? Should I just try different gels on my long run or should I use them in the week as well to get my body used to them??

  10. I love the article it’s very straight forward and easy to understand. I have been training for my first marathon in April and was really excited and eager, I decided the last week of December to up my mileage and after running 10 miles I have ended up with serious hip pain I can’t even walk at times, I’m so upset – your article is really useful regarding the core training etc. do you think if I get to physio I still have chance to fulfil my dream of running a marathon ? I am running in April

  11. Hi James, I’m looking to shave a few minutes off my marathon time this spring and open to new ideas so thanks for this post. Re your comment number 2, I would be willing to do this but I have no idea what a “high intensity circuit session” means — could you please elaborate? Thanks, Allan.

  12. Brilliant article and I loved the audio option, please add this to every article (time allowing) it makes great sense hearing it rather than reading it! 🙂

  13. Hi James. Thanks for the great article. I am currently in training for a half next month with a sub-2hr goal and am considering a full in February (though this would simply be with the goal of getting round with maximum enjoyment!). I have recently discovered the whole notion of taking it easy on the long runs (which has fair blown my little mind) but can definitely see the benefit in terms of time taken to recover as you mention. I will just have to see how it all ties together on race day and have faith that it works. Love the audio version – as a busy mum it means I can listen while cooking tea and other necessary evils.

  14. Hi James. I recently discovered all your YouTube stuff & the advice is sound. I am using the strength routines you suggest. The hip hitch is great. After 18mths of various soft tissue injuries & various treatments, the cause has finally been diagnosed…sacro iliac dysfunction. Currently I struggle to run due to glute pain, hip pain, rec fem pain etc. I got GFA (I’m 53) for VLM 2016. Because of the pain my training for the VLM involves just the long run (trail) per week….currently up to 24k & masses of cross training – cycling, rowing, P90X. I know I will need to lose my time expectations for the VLM but my anxiety is whether I will be able to complete the VLM with just the long run per week & cross training. I am a seasoned trail runner & did my last marathon in October 2015 (Kielder). Do you think it possible to do the VLM with minimal running & have you any suggestions about how I can improve my VLM training. Thanx. Annie

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