Marathon Training Tips for First Timers abstained from alcohol days before the race, logged 50 to 60 miles a week, and never skipped a long run, even if it meant running through an ice storm.
A Part of Hearst Digital Media Boston Marathon, my birthday (rather unfortunately) fell on the day before my scheduled long run. This is a run I long regarded as the pièce de résistance of marathon training, the dress rehearsal before the 26.2-mile party from Hopkinton to Boston. When the late-night celebration derailed my plans for an early alarm, I just decided to skip the 21-miler.
Fast-forward to race day, and I ended up earning a three-minute PR. I haven’t run a 20-mile premarathon long run ever since.
In fact, over the next few marathon training cycles, I quit long runs all together: the 10, the 12, the 14, 16, 18—see ya. After a slew of minor injuries and taking into consideration that I was still training hard by racing 5Ks, 10Ks, and halfs between marathons, I didn’t want to put extra stress on my body.
Then, at this year’s Boston, I crossed the finish line, looked up my time on the app, and was stunned. Despite parting with all long runs, I had shaved off more than seven minutes from my previous marathon PR, coming in at 3:06:20.
Had I cracked some kind of code? Should I abolish long runs from my training plans forever? I contacted Runner’s World+ coach Jess Movold How to Run Twice a Day Without Injury.
Her first reaction regarding my no-long-run strategy was that it was...well…“unique,” she said. “I think it’s, um, definitely efficient in terms of time.”
But…
“It worries me a little because I feel like it’s runner-specific to that person’s ability to be resilient to race-day conditions in terms of time on their legs,” she added.
She has a point. My method likely worked because I’m no novice to our sport; I’ve been a runner since I was 14, with 13 marathons and counting under my belt since 2010. So maybe I’m not some kind of marathon training savant, but with the help of Movold and John Honerkamp, RRCA and USATF certified run coach and former run coach for New York Road Runners, I learned a few key takeaways from my method that could help you find your own success.
I Wasn’t Running 10s and 20s—But I Wasn’t Slacking Either
Allow me to clarify: I may have omitted long runs from my training plan, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t training. I ran 6 miles, five days a week, did strength training three days a week, kneaded my muscles like pastry dough with a foam roller after almost every single workout, fit in a few 10K races to test my speed, raced a half marathon in January as an early tune-up, and had that mindset that I’d already run a marathon before.
My point is: I knew what I was capable of and knew to what extent I had to train my body to run 26.2 miles. Plus, my body was already very familiar with the stress of 26.2.
“It helps that you’ve had miles on your feet before,” Movold says. “You’re conditioned to run. You know what it’s been like mentally more than anything. You know what a three-hour run is going to feel like.”
As for others who might be interested in cracking the science of my success or mimicking this method, Movold suggests looking inward at where you might be wasting energy. She suggests asking yourself, “Are my runs purposeful? Am I going into it rested and ready?”
Which segues into my next piece of advice:
More Doesn’t Always Guarantee Success
I reduced my training to focus on quality over quantity. “There’s a big misconception about putting in time and just doing the miles to build up your weekly mileage,” Movold says. “And then, you’re burned out, and the usefulness of those miles starts to depreciate.”
I’ve known first-time marathoners who get early onset training fatigue or minor muscle soreness that becomes a horrendous injury because they didn’t rest. There’s this fear of losing your marathon fitness if you take a few days off.
My mileage load leading up to Boston via Strava could lead to an entire plan falling apart, but charging through long runs in spite of a niggling pain or full-blown exhaustion is likely to cause injury if you don’t make the right call.
“You want to be as healthy as possible,” says Honerkamp. “If you overtrain, you get mentally burnt out; you get injured. You’ll have a hate relationship with marathoning and training because it’s taken over your life.”
Both coaches recommend asking yourself if your training is really helping you prepare for the race or if it’s harming you along the way.
[Training for anything requires self-discipline. One rest day Runner’s World Training Plan, designed for any speed and any distance.]
Follow the Rules—and Then Break Them
It’s important to remember that training plans are more like a recipe than a prescription. Sure, they are mapped out by an expert based on exercise science and experience. But they are not necessarily one-size-fits-all.
“I would call them guides,” says Honerkamp. “A friend of mine always writes in pencil, never in pen. She’s always erasing and changing and altering.”
The key here is not to overdo it—no matter what the training plan says. The rule of thumb when adding on mileage is to increase your load by no more than 10 percent each week. “The last thing people should do is go from not running much to pumping up their mileage,” says Movold. “That type of stress takes its toll on the body.”
“It’s really just about getting into the rhythm of three runs a week and rolling that long run from 10 minutes, to 20 minutes, and so on,” Honerkamp adds.
Honerkamp coached for the NYRR for about six years. Some of the runners he trained got to the starting line with only a 14-miler under their belt because, life—and they were first-timers. While this approach for beginners is not ideal nor recommended, the point, he says, is that these runners still finished in the upright position.
“I think it’s often mental for folks,” says Honerkamp. “If it’s a confidence thing, I definitely think doing 20 is super helpful, because if they feel like they’re more likely to complete the marathon, then they need that 20-miler.”
Skipping the 20 is okay if this is your first rodeo, so long as you get enough endurance training. If you’re still unsure about scaling back, Both Honerkamp and Movold recommend that beginners should strive to run at least one 18-miler premarathon.
You Do You
“The funny thing is that your training style could have been you sprinkling glitter in your hair and tapping your shoulder three times,” says Movold. “It’s the mindset that you walked to the starting line with that plays a huge role.”
A couple friends really think I should take my training “more seriously” by running long runs again before my next marathon. I’m still on the fence about revisiting the 20. Mostly because running that long on what could be a free Saturday or Sunday is just, well, boring. And so, come fall marathon training, I’m sticking to my method, sprinkling my own glitter along the way, because I know what works for me.
The same goes for every runner. Do what you can to give yourself that confidence to toe that starting line.
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Amanda is a test editor at Runner’s World who has run the Boston Marathon every year since 2013; she's a former professional baker with a master’s in gastronomy and she carb-loads on snickerdoodles.
