Marathon Training

Marathon Training:

The first thing you should know about marathon training is that it is probably harder than the actual marathon. In a marathon, you run and you finish and you’re done for the year or six months, or whatever, until memories of the agony fade and you decide to go for it again. No, marathon training is much worse. It is a daily torture that you push yourself through, running the allotted miles each day, trying to increase them every week, pushing your body to the limit.

If you really want to be serious about preparing yourself for a marathon, you will be up early in the morning and out running before you even down a cup of coffee, oh, but wait, while you are in marathon training, there is no longer a cup of coffee on your morning menu! Nope, it’s orange juice, water or milk. As if jogging around the track for two hours in the wee hours of the morning, you also have to change your entire diet.

No more sugar for you while you are preparing for the big race. No more sodas, candies and basically everything that made living worth while, you are in marathon training. Suddenly you find yourself looking for proteins and counting the grams of fat that you consume, refusing that latte at Starbucks, going for a wheat grass shake instead. Marathon training changes your outlook on the world, let me tell you!

Not that it’s all bad, I mean, you do get into excellent shape, provided you are really serious and don’t cheat with a box of chocolates under your bed. And who can say that they don’t want more energy? All that running around increases your lung capacity (did I mention you also have to give up smoking?) and gives you lots more energy, which is especially great if you have kids.

To get started you can hire a pro to help you or do it yourself. A trainer is generally an expensive way to go, but if you want to do more than just finish the marathon, you might consider one. Basically a professional marathon training course will get you into the best shape you can be in before the big day and having someone there to push you and hold you accountable is awfully useful sometimes. It’s more likely that you’ll get out of bed if you know that someone is waiting for you at the track.

On the other hand, you can save yourself a lot of cash by doing it yourself. Enlisting a friend is a good way to hold yourself accountable, but it only works if you aren’t both really lazy! If neither of you shows up at the track, what good is that? On the other hand if you both need motivation you can push your friend during marathon training while they do the same for you.