A well-structured training plan is crucial to reaching your marathon goals. However, the road to your first marathon or your next marathon PR often comes with its fair share of challenges, including deviations from your training plan. This is where an online coach can be of great help. They can spot training errors, explain how those missteps can potentially put you on the sidelines, and put you back on the right track. With the advancements in technology, online coaches now utilize training platforms to prescribe workouts and analyze metrics such as heart rate and interval splits provided by GPS watches. This allows them to provide personalized and data-driven guidance, helping you optimize your training and achieve your goals. In this article, we will explore the common marathon training mistakes that most runners make throughout a training cycle. These mistakes can be costly and may derail your entire training plan. By understanding and avoiding these errors, you can ensure a successful and injury-free training experience.
1. Running Easy Runs Too Fast#
- According to Andrew Simmons, a USATF level 2 and Lydiard level 2 run coach at TrainingPeaks, this is one of the most common problems he sees new runners training for their first marathon make.
- The issue often stems from the fact that newer runners don’t grasp the concept of the pace that feels effortless for short runs won’t be sustainable for 26.2 miles.
- Cooks are typically able to identify this issue by noting spikes in a runner’s heart rate or a significant slow-down in their pace by the end of the run.
- “Runners often don’t understand the bigger-picture relationship with pace and heart rate,” Simmons tells Runner’s World. “I work on explaining to them that if their heart rate is creeping up but the pace is staying the same, this is not efficient training.”
- “Easy pace isn’t really a pace but more of a feeling,” adds Sara Manderscheid, an RRCA-certified run coach in Boulder, Colorado. “If I have a new runner who may not have a race result to go off of yet, I’ll tell them to try singing out loud when they’re running and if they can’t sing the song they’re listening to without taking deep breaths or are gasping for air, they’re running too fast and need to slow it down.”
2. Forgetting About Other Stress Factors#
- One thing that’s key for recreational marathoners to remember is that running is their hobby and not their job.
- “It’s essential to share details with your coach, like if you work a stressful job because that can absolutely have an impact on your workout if you go immediately into a hard workout right after a high-stress work day,” Simmons says.
- Work stress and sleep play a critical role in how you’re executing your training.
- “It’s crucial to communicate your life outside of running to your coach, including your job and household responsibilities,” Manderscheid says.
- “Some athletes will say that they want to do six days a week of running when it’s not actually realistic with their life in terms of maintaining balance,” she says.
3. Overdoing It in Workouts#
- Nikkia Young, an RRCA-certified run coach and president of the Richmond Road Runners Club, encourages her athletes to keep group and social runs as part of their schedule.
- However, she also emphasizes the importance of factoring the mileage from group runs into the training plan.
- Young suggests scheduling easy runs to correspond with group runs and avoiding basing pace goals for harder workouts on what you see others in your run group doing.
- “A lot of new runners might think a few extra miles here and there is harmless, but if you’re regularly tacking it onto what I’m assigning for a week’s worth of training, it can be too much, too soon,” Young says.
- She advises athletes to avoid going for back-to-back workouts.
- “Sometimes athletes do this because they didn’t feel yesterday was hard ‘enough’ or they feel good today so they do a second workout thinking that more workouts equals more fitness,” Simmons says.
- Instead, lighter sessions are almost always by design to help you recover and prepare for harder sessions.
- “Stacking too many hard sessions into a week can only derail your training,” Simmons says.
4. Trying to Make Up for Missed Training
- According to Young, the best thing to do if you miss a run is to get in touch with your coach.
- A good coach will understand that life happens, or if you skipped a run due to niggles that might eventually lead to a full-blown injury.
- “Trying to stack missed mileage at the end of the week can do more harm than good,” Young says.
- “If you missed miles because of scheduling issues, stress, or illness, you likely needed the rest, and trying to pile them all into an extra run is not the same as doing them as planned,” Simmons says.
- “Missing those miles and moving on and keeping with the rhythm of the schedule is ideal,” Simmons says.
- “This allows you to recover from whatever caused the miss and stay on track with your workouts while preserving vital energy (mental and physical resources),” Simmons says.
5. Falling Into a Comparison Trap#
- In the age of social media, it’s easy to get caught up in comparing yourself to others and feeling like you’re not doing enough or should be doing more.
- “I often have to remind athletes of their own goal and that where they’re at and are starting from is okay,” Young says.
- “It’s a common misconception that runners have to get to a certain level to ‘earn’ a coach or the ability to train for something, which just isn’t true,” Young says.
- “I constantly work to instill that they’re doing great work [by following their specific training plan],” Young says.
- “Some athletes will consume one to two gels for a three-and-a-half-hour race when they should actually be consuming five to six gels to fuel properly,” Simmons says.
- “This is why it’s so important to practice and figure out what works for you during training,” Simmons says.
6. Not Paying Attention to Fueling#
- According to Simmons, not fueling sufficiently during a marathon is another big mistake he sees.
- This is often paired with going out too fast.
- “This often causes athletes to explode near the three-hour mark because they’ve depleted their glycogen stores and did not fuel enough to keep up with the burn rate,” Simmons explains.
- “This overestimation in pace and ability can be one part of the blow-up, the second is the underfueling,” Simmons says.
- “Practicing pacing and fueling during long runs in training will help you nail down what to do on race day,” Simmons says.
- “The general recommendation for a nutrition strategy is 30 to 60 grams per hour of carbohydrates, though some runners need more than that to make it through the later miles of a marathon,” Simmons says.
- “Dietitians also recommend starting that fueling ‘early and often,’ which could mean having your first gel 30 to 45 minutes into your run,” Simmons says.
7. Keeping Progress and Setbacks to Yourself#
- If you do have a coach, make sure you actually turn to them when you need them—and even when you don’t.
- “Communication is often the biggest hurdle for new athletes to overcome, and having a regular back-and-forth dialogue is key because the data on my side can only show so much,” Manderscheid says.
- “I encourage my athletes to over-communicate versus under-communicate,” Manderscheid says.
- “It’s essential to ask for details if you don’t understand how to execute a run or workout,” Simmons adds.
- “You should communicate your feelings, lungs, legs, and head to your coach,” Manderscheid says.
- “If you don’t feel comfortable sharing your thoughts with your coach, you may not be getting the most out of your training,” Manderscheid says.
| Training Mistake | Description | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Running Easy Runs Too Fast | Not understanding the bigger-picture relationship between pace and heart rate. | “Runners often don’t grasp that the pace that feels effortless for short runs won’t be sustainable for 26.2 miles.” |
| 2. Forgetting About Other Stress Factors | Forgetting about other stress factors such as work stress and sleep. | “It’s essential to share details with your coach, like if you work a stressful job.” |
| 3. Overdoing It in Workouts | Doing too much, too soon, or going for back-to-back workouts. | “A lot of new runners might think a few extra miles here and there is harmless.” |
| 4. Trying to Make Up for Missed Training | Trying to stack missed mileage at the end of the week. | “Missing those miles and moving on and keeping with the rhythm of the schedule is ideal.” |
| 5. Falling Into a Comparison Trap | Comparing yourself to others and feeling like you’re not doing enough. | “It’s a common misconception that runners have to get to a certain level to ‘earn’ a coach or the ability to train for something.” |
| 6. Not Paying Attention to Fueling | Not fueling sufficiently during a marathon. | “Practicing pacing and fueling during long runs in training will help you nail down what to do on race day.” |
7.
 You Might Also Like
|