12 Weeks to Spring Marathon Success: Your Training Guide

You've done the hard work of signing up. Now it's time to do the hard work of getting ready. If you're coming up to a big marathon and you've got about 12 weeks to go, here's our guide to help you spring into your training and make the most of the next few weeks.

12 Weeks Is Less Than You Think

12 weeks is a really good amount of training time. However, we do need to remember that there's a taper to come, where there aren't any fitness gains to be made — it's all about locking in what you've done. There's perhaps a half marathon race on the horizon too. These are both things that are going to eat into the training opportunities, and then we've got potential illnesses, holidays. That suddenly means 12 looks a lot more like eight.

And that might be a little bit scary as a prospect. However, as I said, it's not all lost, and there is lots of opportunity to train as long as you make the right decisions.

To Hill or Not to Hill, That Is the Question

Hill training is fantastic at building leg strength and endurance. However, hills do sap your leg speed and make it just that little bit harder to run quickly. Now, depending on the marathon you're doing, it will depend on how much weight and priority you're going to give to hills over the next few weeks and months.

Our thought is that any hill sessions are probably going to end around four weeks into your training block. I'm talking here about specific hill interval sessions, or undulating runs. Your long runs could continue to have some rolling hills as part of them, even into March. However, you are going to want to flatten out those runs to allow for a little bit more leg speed and to mimic your marathon conditions.

If you've got a marathon with a couple of hills in it, then it absolutely makes sense for your long run to contain similar terrain. If you look at the course profiles for London and Manchester Marathon, they are pretty damn flat. However, Brighton does have a couple of hills in it — make note of this. People running Brighton might want to consider that within their training.

The key here, though, is that with around eight weeks to go, we're likely moving onto the flats.

Transitions in Training

That brings us to the next point: your training is going to transition from a base block to something that we would consider a pre-competition phase, where you're just starting to focus more around the marathon. For us, that's threshold running and easy running, working at intervals that are either side of marathon pace, and really prioritising that work. Threshold pace is where conversation becomes difficult — you can speak in short sentences but not hold a chat. It's hard, but sustainable.

Training's going to be getting a little bit longer. The sessions are going to increase, and so is the long run. You should start to notice a difference in weekly volume of running, but also fatigue levels. Training does not want to be static. It wants to evolve. Make sure that this is happening within your plan.

Avoiding Injuries

The key to getting fit is consistent training, week on week, and injuries are a surefire way to stop that. This is where training plans that are too aggressive, training plans that push too much, cause injuries — because as training ramps up, you're being asked to do more running, faster running, harder running, and injuries occur.

I can't stress this enough: we need consistency week on week to enable us to run well and to improve fitness levels. Be really careful with what you're doing with your running. Be really mindful of listening to your body, and if in doubt, use cross training. And if in doubt, use a run-walk method as part of your approach.

Cross training for runners is all about getting the heart and lungs working without the impact of running. We can very successfully take a training plan and do a few weeks with cross training in order to recover from an injury. Equally, we could use a cross training session as a way of getting your intervals in without the impact from running, if that is proving to be challenging.

If we want to get really creative, we can start doing blended long runs, where you do half the long run as a run and half the long run as a cross training session to finish it off. There are so many possibilities with this, but it does require some focus from the athlete's point of view and some support from a coach to help think it through and give you the right training.

Getting a Coach in Your Corner

You absolutely deserve to have somebody on your team who is looking out for you over these next 12 weeks, getting you to that marathon start line and supporting you all the way. Your friends and family can certainly play that role, but you might find they're a little bit exhausted about you talking about running all the time. This is where having a dedicated support team can really help.

We support a number of charity runners here at Full Potential and we continue to encourage them to get in touch. Make sure you've got somebody who's thinking about you, fighting for you, and helping you make decisions.

It's very likely that if you're here as a runner, you are very good at pushing yourself, and perhaps not that great at listening to your own body. Having somebody telling you no, having somebody telling you to stop, can be really, really powerful. And it's something I'm still learning and still need support with.

The Value of a Half Marathon Race

Getting a half marathon in during the next 12 weeks can be really vital for marathon prep. Not only will it really help us work out what shape you're in for the marathon, but it's a chance to practice everything before the big day.

By practising in a slightly lower-stakes environment, we can work out the cobwebs of your race day routine. We can make sure the packing is sorted. We can make sure that you're used to running in a group, used to experiencing what it's like to wait around at a start line, to queue for toilets. And it means that on marathon day, you don't feel quite like a deer in the headlights, and you've got a routine that you know works.

But also don't expect perfection. It took me years to really work on my race day routine. And by the end, I knew what music I was playing at what points, where I wanted to be in my warm-up, where I wanted to be in relation to the course, and where I needed to be in terms of being fed. But that also spoke to the fact that I found race days very nerve-wracking and needed to have a lot of control to help manage those emotions.

Everyone's different — that's what makes running such a wonderful sport, because it's not only accessible, but we all get to do it in our own way to some degree.

Use the Long Runs as Practice Sessions, But Don't Extrapolate Out to Race Day

The long run takes such an important part of marathon training, and I really understand that, because it's often run on the same day of the week as the marathon and it's the run where you go a long way — and that's essentially what the marathon is, a run where you go a really long way. However, it can take on oversized importance within training.

Firstly, make sure you're using it as a practice environment. This is a chance for you to test out your gels that you're going to need for race day and get your gut used to taking them, along with your mind and body around it. This is the chance to test out flavour combinations, to test out caffeine intake, to see if you want to add some electrolytes to your gel. All of that can be tested.

As it starts to get a bit warmer, you can test out the clothes you'll wear for race day. If you're running for a charity or a cause, you definitely want to make sure you've worn that t-shirt a few times so that you feel what it's like before wearing it on race day. Remember the golden rule on race day: nothing new. And long runs are the chance to practice that.

Make sure you check out our blog on managing your running shoes during marathon season to help you think about that process.

Don't Overdo It

One of the great pieces of advice I heard about marathon training is that if you're bragging about a marathon training workout, then you've gone too hard. This isn't to say you shouldn't feel pride in the work that you're doing — you should be really proud of yourself when you've run further than you've ever run before. But if you're breaking half marathon PBs in a long run, or seeing paces you've never hit before, it's very likely you're working too hard and not doing the work we want. And whilst that will feel amazing, it's not going to help you on race day.

This brings me to the biggest myth I keep hearing: "I need to run 20 miles before my marathon." Why 20? I'm still waiting for a solid justification, because the reality is there isn't a magic number that you need to do in training to make the marathon possible. In our experience, running for three hours to three hours fifteen minutes is the sweet spot for a long run. Training is about consistency, week on week — it's not about one really big long run.

I'm not against people covering 20 miles, 21, 22 in training, but it has to be appropriate for them and where they're at. Too often, I see people run their marathon before their marathon. And it's such a shame, because they end up not saving it for race day.

As those long runs progress, you'll absolutely want to be adding some marathon pace practice in there — running at or around the pace you're going to run on race day. So a three-hour long run might be 90 minutes easy, 90 minutes at marathon pace. And if you're doing that sort of session at the end of a big training week, with lots of fatigue in the legs, my goodness, you're going to see some great fitness gains. Far more than you would from going out to run hard for four hours and then taking the next week off to recover.

Our Takeaway

Stay consistent. Don't do too much. Keep practising and get some support on your side. You absolutely deserve it.

Want a coach in your corner for these crucial months? We support runners of all abilites — and we'd love to help you get to that start line ready to run your best. Get in touch with us at Full Potential.

Good luck with all of your training.