Winter base training
How to maintain fitness between training for races. This post includes two free downloadable base training plans.
Until recently the London Marathon ballot results used to be announced at the end of October. This would mean thousands of runners (and many non-runners) who had entered in April full of motivation after watching the race on TV, found out they had a place with six months to train. But it was October, the nights were drawing in and Christmas was coming, so many put off doing any training at all until January. After all, a marathon training plan is 16-20 weeks long, so that’s all the time you need right?
I know this because many would email me in January for help getting them race ready.
Thankfully, London Marathon has changed its ballot schedule and runners get their places confirmed a lot earlier, and I’ve noticed more runners building their mileage or maintaining it over a longer period in the lead up to the race.
However, this is an error I still see a lot of runners making: to think that a 16-week training plan in the lead up to a marathon or half-marathon will take care of everything. It will bring back their motivation, build their endurance, increase their speed and make them love running again.
Maintaining winter mileage
You may be planning to run a spring marathon or half marathon and might even have found a training plan you wish to follow. But this training plan probably doesn’t start for a month or two. What do you do until then?
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