About marathon training in the time of Corona…

You’ve trained for a marathon, now what?

I think it’s safe to assume we can’t start making long-term plans. We have no idea when we will be able to race again or even if we’re going to be told not to go out running anymore like is happening in other countries. We also don’t know if this situation will last 2–4 weeks, 2–4 months or even longer. So it’s going to be difficult to train with a specific race in mind.

Bottom line I guess it’s not to feel really down about it. These things happen. There will always be another race and another marathon. Opportunities will inevitably present themselves and you will be able to train again and run your marathon. There’s no doubt about that. Part of training is learning to adapt and living with things not going your way. Finding a balance between enjoyment, ambition and common sense. Running has to be the solution, not part of the problem.

Those of you having prepared well for a race in the past, only to get injured the weeks or days before the race will know about the initial frustration of not being able to train and compete. We just have to get over it and start moving on as soon as possible.

So what should be marathoners be doing now all marathons have been postponed?

A week ago I would have probably suggested ways of maintaining fitness for a few months to then resume some of the more marathon-specific workouts with about 10 weeks to go.

I would have said it’s probably smart to continue with the plan you’ve been following but replace the long runs with either a day of cross training, a short easy run or even a rest day.

The issue, though, seems to be that we don’t know much about how long we would have to maintain fitness. It would also appear there’s a real risk of complete lock-down which might result in not being able to run at all, treadmill permitting.

Should the time arrive when we’re not allowed to run outside, my view would be to stop training altogether. Continue to exercise in the house in whichever way possible but reset objectives for 2020. Forget about training for anything specific and just look after your health, physical and mental, and your loved ones. Running can wait.

If we are allowed to continue running, however, we can get ourselves into a “steady state” level of fitness: where we only lose minimal fitness, which we would quickly pick up again. This would enable us to see some good progress after only 4–6 weeks when resuming training.

First we’d need to consider our current level of fitness. Some of us, having planned spring marathons, will be further ahead on the preparations than others.

It’s very possible you’re already pretty close to peaking and were looking to finalise the last 2–3 weeks before tapering. If that is the case, there’s no reason why you can’t continue with the plan for those weeks before taper. As I mentioned earlier, a good way forward would be to remove the weekly long run and use the time to do some home strength exercises, cross train or just get a Sunday lie in.

When you get to taper time get down to that 80% mileage you would for the first week of taper and just stay there. If you were on 50km per week that means going down to 40km per week without a long run (or a run around 65% of your average long run, 20km instead of 30km for instance).

Staying at around 75%-80% of your average mileage from the last 6 weeks will act as a long term taper and will enable you to focus on maybe one good quality session per week and remove the existing marathon fatigue.

That “steady state” I am referring to should help to prevent counterproductive weight gains and to retain your aerobic base. Any quality you do on top would help you keep some of the speed you might find enjoyable and will act as a much-needed break from the routine of all the easy running.

If you’re running London that means 6 months before taper. In those 6 months one of possible ways forward would be something like:

- Now until late April: Continue as planned but reduce mileage to 80% by swapping the long run for an easy run, cross training day or rest day altogether. If you were doing long runs of about 30km-32km you can now do one medium length run of about 20km-24km every 10–15 days. That will also keep the body closer to where it needs to be come the time you need to step it up again.

- May/June/July: Try to maintain the number of runs but don’t put any pressure on mileage or intensity. Have fun going outside (if possible) and going by feel. Hopefully by then we may be able to take part in some 5k or 10k races already and put some of the fitness gained throughout the winter to use. This is the best time to start focusing on slightly faster runs with as little pressure as possible. Also, towards mid July it might be worth starting to stretch some medium runs again so we can transition to longer runs in August with minimal risk of injury. This could mean back to 2–2.5 hour runs.

During this phase it’s also a great time to start introducing some of the threshold runs again or start getting familiar with marathon pace (2x20 minutes, etc)

- August/September: Transition to the final 8 weeks of your spring (now autumn) training program. This will mean having to pick up the proper longer runs again, possibly during summer holidays and/or in higher temperatures. I will inevitably write a post about training for a marathon in the summer as I’m aware this is something a lot of people do not enjoy doing (I definitely do!).

Let’s remember that running should be fun and is not always about PBs or racing, so whatever happens I would suggest to use running as a way of keeping a good balance in your life. Even if it gets to a point of no races at all in 2020 we will have to see it as a time to reset our competitive desires and find other ways to be fulfilled in our lives.

Happy running!