How to Train for First Marathon After 9 Years

After almost 9 years–I am running a marathon!! I am so so excited to start the training and run my first marathon post children.

Training for a marathon is an event and takes a lot of time and dedication. Having children and babies means there is not as much time as before to train. Running is “me time” and admittedly, I struggle with taking that much time away from my family or doing things for our family to train for a marathon. However, I am thrilled with the opportunity to tag along with one of my good friends and train for a marathon again. It is time that I take time for myself and show the boys that with a lot of hardwork and dedication you can achieve your goals.

I use Hal Higdon’s training programs to train for marathons. My dad introduced me to Higdon’s methods and they have served me well throughout the years. He has them for free on his website and you simply choose which level you would like to train at. My friend, Annie, is following his novice 1 method which I will do as well. It is a more relaxed training schedule which will have us ready for the race on the big day!

After picking the training method that works best for your schedule, I then put pencil to paper and write out my training runs on a calendar. When I was in college, training for my first half marathon, we had a big poster board with the running schedule in our sorority hallway. After you complete a run, I mark out what mileage I did as a little incentive. It is an easy way to get my kids involved in my running too!

I found a pretty and free printable calendar and first wrote out the long runs. I picked Thursday as my long run day, as both of the boys are in school on Thursday and our weekends tend to be a little hectic with sports. Traditionally, the long runs on schedules are on the weekends, but weekdays work best for me (and our family) so that’s when I know I can get them done. After putting the long runs on the schedule, I look at the shorter runs for the week. The big difference between Hal Higdon’s novice 1 and 2 is the weekly mileage, with novice 1 being more conservative. Again, I make the runs work for MY schedule and decided my best days for shorter runs are Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays with rest/cross train days on Sunday, Wednesday and Fridays.

I counted up the miles for the week and placed the longer short run on Monday with two shorter runs on Tuesday and Saturday, as they sandwich the very long run on Thursday with rest days around the long run. During my rest days, I am planning on incorporating barre, yoga and (the dreaded) strength training. It is important to stretch, strength train and do abdominal work while training for a marathon to ensure my body is healing and staying strong. While I could run for hours without complaints, the other workouts are more taxing for me. In order to incentivize them, I placed them on the calendar to mark off when I complete a workout and to keep myself accountable. Additionally, I am trying out new workouts with friends to help make them more fun. Little tricks to incentivize myself, just like I do for my kids!

My training calendar is very flexible, but with the basic structure, I know what I need to do for the week. If something comes up and life happens, I will adjust accordingly but it is helpful to have a training map in place. Additionally, to build my confidence for the race, I may add an extra 20 mile run, running 20 miles prior to a marathon really helps my mental state as I know I can do 26 if I have done 20 a couple of times.

Do you have any tricks for training for a marathon? What is your favorite day of the week to run?

Happy running, friends!