Sometimes it can be difficult to determine what fitness goals are right for you. Some people want to lose a certain amount of weight while others want to run a marathon. Recently, running a marathon has become popular as people watch competitors on their TV compete for that first place medal. However, running a marathon is not an easy task. In fact, many people quit after three weeks of training due to lack of training time or a diminished set of knowledge about the course and the materials needed to run a marathon. But what does it take to run a marathon?

Here are some tips and tricks to how you can win your first marathon in just weeks of training:

Getting Prepared

1. Understand you’re restricts

It’s important to understand how taxing not only running a marathon will be, but also the training is as well. During the race, you’ll be running 26.2 miles in total, but to work up to that high amount you’ll be slowly increasing your mileage as you train. The high mileage not only increases your chances of exhaustion but also causes the body to be prone to fitness-related injuries. If you fear your body cannot handle such mileage, it’s best to not compete in a marathon, so you aren’t harmed or injured in the process of trying to complete the marathon.

2. Start a year before

Many people don’t understand the time and dedication it takes to run a marathon. Nearly all people who complete a marathon have spent up to a year or more building on their mileage and training their bodies to handle the harsh reality of a marathon. Some people follow a strict diet schedule and even maintain constant body weight through their training process. Starting a year before allows individuals to have adequate time and preparation for a marathon race.

3. Don’t jump into the deep end first

People who swim understand that you need to know the basics of swimming before you dive. Well, the similar can be said about running. If your first race is the marathon, your likely going to fail because your body is not used to such intense running activities, however, if you start training and compete in races like the 5k and 10k then your body will be used to the intensity of competing in races. Therefore, you’ll have a more natural time training for a marathon after other races have been completed.

Selecting your first marathon  

Some people only know marathons to be a city affair that is televised and watched by viewers nationwide. However, marathons are diverse in their locations, courses, and the number of competitors. If you are trying to choose your first marathon location, it’s advised that you choose a location that is close to your home. While highly public and known marathons may be exciting to enter in, there are a lot of disadvantages. For example, many marathons that exhibit highly public attention receive a high volume of competitors, and thus it can be hard to maneuver around the course and even around the area. For your first marathon selecting a marathon close to your home will ease your travel anxiety and possibly give you an advantage. By being close to the marathon you can run it as part of your training, isn’t that amazing?

The foundation for any marathon competitor  

1. Building mileage

It’s important to build mileage during your training in order to meet the 26.2-mile criteria. In fact, most competitors build mileage over a span of 12 to 20 weeks, depending on the how fast a person wants to increase his or her distance. However, it’s crucial that when a person is building mileage that he or she doesn’t overextend themselves. A person should only run three to five times a week, although these runs should be at a calm and steady pace. People tend to run fast when they’re training believing they will need this speed on race day. While speed is necessary, there are other ways of achieving it than pushing your body and your limits. If you do push your body to increase your speed, you’re more than likely going to end up with a fitness-related injury.

2.  The extended run  

It’s essential to run an extended run every 7 to 12 days in order to get your body acclimated to running long distances. These runs should only be extended by one or two miles and should be at a calm and steady pace. Since extended runs are longer in mileage, you’ll be at increased risk for injuries, and therefore you might want to take the pace even slower than usual. However, it’s important that your run satisfies you, so if you’re going to increase your speed just realize there are harms in doing so.

3. Accelerating your speed

Some people choose to do speed workouts while others who train for the marathon don’t. Speed workouts are not something that is needed in marathon training, but it’s certainly a part that everyone asks about at one point or another. If you want to increase your speed, there are two ways to do that either with tempo runs or interval runs. Tempo runs are long distance runs that challenge body to keep a reasonable pace throughout the run. However, interval runs are short distance runs that allow you to achieve a quicker pace. There is no correct or incorrect answer to which you should choose to accelerate your speed if you want to increase your speed merely choose the type of run that you feel you would enjoy.

4. Resting

When a person tells you they’re training for a marathon they’re likely to describe their workout routines, and any diet restricts they may have. However, people hardly describe the amount of time they dedicate to resting. Rest days are simply days committed to relaxing and calming activities like sleeping, watching TV, and listing to music. Due to high-intensity workouts, a person puts their body through resting is an integral part of recovering from a workout. It’s no fun to succumb to fitness-related injury because you didn’t rest enough. Therefore, ample time for rest is needed after a workout.