By Mark Fulford

Stepping up from 10km to 21km (Half Marathon) or to 42km (Marathon) requires more than adding more training. There are a lot of pitfalls to be avoided.

In this article I will cover what you have to do to step up from a 10km event to a 21km event or from a 21km event to a 42km event. I will focus on the required changes in training and some major traps and pitfalls one can encounter along the way.

Firstly, the required changes in training. When training for 10kms it is possible to run 3-4 times a week for no more than 45 minutes and you will get you to the finish line usually fairly comfortably. A half or full marathon on the other hand requires a great deal more planning and structure to your training (you can read Coach Brendon's article and utilise free beginners training programs here).

The Long Run

The key ingredient to all endurance run training is the long run. This should be done at a slow pace. I cannot stress how important doing this run at an easy pace is. You should be able to have a conversation comfortably with anyone who wants to listen. For those with a Heart Rate Monitor, try and keep your heart rate below 70% of your maximum. It is easy to do this run too fast but more or less impossible to do it too slow.

The duration of this run should be increased by no more than 10% per week, as should the overall weekly volume. This allows the body to adapt to the increased workload and decreases the likelihood of injury. For the long run, a rough rule of thumb is an increase of 1-2 kms per week. For a 21 km event you need to aim to run 18 to 21 km for your longest training run, and for a 42 km event you need to aim to run 32 to 36 km in training. The reason you don't need to run the full 42km distance is basically that it takes too much out of you and you want to recover so you can train during the following week. Once you are fit enough to run 32 or 36 km you are fit enough to finish a marathon. Leave the last 6-10 km for your big day! You only have to run these maximum distances once or twice, usually between 2 and 4 weeks before the day of your event.

In terms of frequency, when training for 21or 42 kms. You need to build up to running 5 days a week. Having Mondays and Fridays off allows a good balance between training and recovery. Try and do your long run on a Sunday, this allows you a rest day the following day and usually your target event will be on a Sunday. The rest of your training runs should follow the hard/easy principle with your Tuesday and Thursday runs being about half as long as your Sunday run and your Wednesday and Saturday runs being a quarter to a third as long as your Sunday run.

After increasing your volume by 10% for 3 weeks it is a good idea to have an easy week where each run is about half of what it was the previous week. This is the time when your body recovers and most improvements are made. After your easy week start back at the volume of training you were doing 2 weeks before your easy week. This gives you a 4-week cycle, which will gradually take you up to the required volume or distance you need to run to "step up the distance".

Pitfalls and Traps

Now, for possible traps and pitfalls and how to prevent them. The first is injury. Injuries can result due to a number of different reasons: a poor training programme, poor equipment, and too much running on the wrong terrain to name a few.

Firstly, to eliminate a poor training programme, get advice or a programme from a reputable source (Like Us!). Increasing your training volume too quickly, training at too high an intensity or just doing too much are of major concern and will more often than not lead to poor performance or worse still, no performance.

Make sure your equipment, especially shoes, is suitable. What works for 45 minutes of running may not be so good for 3 hours or more of running. It is worthwhile getting the right equipment before, rather than after problems occur. This may involve video analysis at a running shoe store or consultation with a podiatrist or a doctor if need be, or just spending some of your hard earned dollars.

In terms of terrain, try and run on a variety of surfaces as well as plenty of hills. Soft surfaces such as running tracks, parks, school grounds and I dare say, golf courses, help prevent your legs taking as much of a pounding as running on roads or footpaths. Be careful though to do some running on the surface your event is on, which is usually the road, as your legs do have to be used to the surface they will encounter on race day. After a run on hard surfaces standing in cold water (swimming pool) or running your legs under a cold tap may help prevent some soreness, as does icing. Running on hilly terrain develops strength of course, as well as training your muscles to work through their full range of motion that will hopefully make them less susceptible to injury.

Make sure you watch out for signs of overtraining. If you feel unusually tired, your muscles are sore, you are moody (excessively), your morning heart rate is consistently higher than usual (4 beats or more), training is harder than usual, you are sick, not hungry and just want to throw the towel in, relax. Cut back your training to a few 20 minute jogs, take a bit of a break, do some other activity, or a mixture of the three until things return to normal. This could take a few days or a week or more. When you do feel like training again, the biggest mistake you can make is starting back at the same place you left off or worse still, trying to make up what you lost. Start back at a reduced volume and slowly return to where you were. Your body remembers endurance well. You can get away with doing a long run every 10 days to 2 weeks and still perform well, so missing a bit of training is not the end of the world.

Finally, a trap so many people fall into, make sure you rest up before your big event. You want to feel fresh and ready to go on the start line, so taper. Do your last long run no closer than 2 weeks before your event and reduce the duration of training by about half while keeping the frequency (how often you train), the same. This will allow you to enjoy completing and competing at your new distance.

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