Marathon Beginner Tips from a Beginner with Ambitions! Not Today Blog 42

I completed one marathon. What an experience! I was in a lot of pain that day, but I am committed to completing all six major marathons and then try my luck at an ultramarathon. But I’m still a marathon beginner after all. So, I decided to give you tips that I wish I had known earlier. Tips from one marathon beginner to another.

What I Learned In 16 Weeks Of Marathon Prep

The below tips focus on marathon preparation. For race day tips read my last post here.

1. Vaseline

You can have a t-shirt made of the best fabric. But 2-hour training runs are 2-hour training runs. Protect your nipples! And while you’re at it, just slather all the parts of your body where something might rub with some Vaseline. That shit helps.

2. Try out energy gels and electrolyte drinks, but not during every long run.

It’s useful knowledge to find out what types of energy boosters your stomach can tolerate during exercise. Long runs are a good way to test different brands and flavours.

But don’t forget that long runs are also important to train your body’s energy supply. Try running without taking in additional calories to optimise your body’s energy supply from carbohydrates and fat reserves.

3. Have a race day fuel plan.

I don’t think it’s the number of calories you eat during the race. In my experience, it’s about giving your stomach the feeling that it’s not empty. I had 4 energy gels with me, which I took from KM 20 whenever I felt that my stomach was starting to cramp up because of hunger. This was about every 5 kilometres. Towards the end of the race, I also accepted fruit and other sweets from spectators (I knew prior to the race that my stomach could handle it).

4. Follow a heart rate-based training plan if you can.

I got a Garmin Fenix 5 Plus watch and it has upgraded my training and everyday life. Garmin offers heart rate-based training plans for 5k, 10k, half-marathons and marathons. You select them online in your Garmin Connect account and once your watch is paired with your phone, the plan is loaded onto the watch.

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There are also cheaper watches with heart rate monitors. The Mi Band 6 from Xiaomi comes to mind. I used to have the 3rd generation and it was great. The only thing that annoyed me was that I had to also have my phone with me to be able to listen to podcasts. Today I just save them to my Garmin watch.

If you don’t have access to any sports watch, you don’t need to worry. People have been preparing for marathons for years without any heart rate tracking.

I’d probably go for a 16-week plan with 4 runs a week (plus a few strength- and yoga sessions).

One week could consist of 1x recovery run of 30-60 minutes (slow pace, you can easily keep a conversation going), 1x 40- to 60-minute threshold run (faster/more difficult than your normal easy run, but slower than your 5K- or 10K race pace; challenging but not so hard that you can’t sustain it for a half-hour), 1x interval run (get creative, e.g. 10 minutes warm-up followed by an interval of 3 to 5 minutes fast pace and 2 minutes easy pace, repeat the interval a few times) and 1x long run.

For the long run, you could start with 18 km at an easy pace and increase by 1 km each week, or start with 1 hour at a steady slow pace and increase by 10 minutes each week until you reach about 3 hours and 30 minutes. It does make sense to do a half marathon after 8-10 weeks to see where you’re at.

5. Zone 2 may feel fucking slow now, but you’ll improve quickly.

If you have chosen a heart rate-based training plan, you will learn about the different heart rate zones your watch tells you to exercise in.

Zone	Intensity	Percentage of HRmax
1	Very light	50-60%
2	Light	60-70%
3	Moderate	70-80%
4	Hard	80-90%
5	Maximum	90-100%

The first few weeks of easy runs in Zone 2 can feel daunting. It’s a strange feeling to know that a pedestrian could overtake you at any moment. How can this be beneficial? You’ll find that over the next weeks, you get much faster while maintaining the same low heart rate. I remember improving my Zone 2 training from a 12-minute pace (12 minutes per kilometre) to a sub-8-minute pace.

Training in Zone 3 is useless. I ran last year without checking my heart rate. I knew it was never too intense, but never really slow either. My 5K and 10K pace didn’t improve one bit, if anything it has gotten worse.

Most of your training should be in Zone 2 and 4. Zone 2 training builds aerobic capacity and endurance which improves your ability to maintain faster paces for longer periods. Zone 4 training increases your speed endurance by optimising your body’s utilization of carbohydrates for energy and improving your lactic acid tolerance.

Or in my words, zone 2 teaches you that you must first learn to walk before you can run. Your mind learns to cope with boredom. Zone 4 teaches you that your body can keep going if you tell it to – it’s your mind that wants to quit first. It increases your pain tolerance. Both are great skills for life.

6. Smile, especially when it gets hard.

You might feel like a lunatic but trust me here. Force a smile on your face and feel the pain diminish.

7. Breakfast, the big mystery.

I have tried everything. No food feels great in your stomach after a 30 km run.

While I’m still experimenting with eggs, oats and fruits to discover the one food that enjoys residing in my body after a two-hour-plus run, here’s a list of things that my body doesn’t approve of: Pancakes, instant noodles, fried rice, sour fruits, doughnuts and tiramisu.

Let me know when you’ve got it figured out.

8. Rice instead of noodles.

I found that rice, especially whole grain rice the night before, fuels my body better for race day than wheat noodles. Personal preference but give it a try!

9. Have a variety of shoes.

Alternating between training shoes helps to prevent injuries. I have a friend who keeps a pair of trainers in his car to have handy when a running opportunity arises.

My rotation consists of a cheaper daily trainer for shorter runs and workouts to simply get the miles in, and a shoe for long runs or race days. A good everyday trainer is the Nike Pegasus, I personally loved the Pegasus 36. Pegasus are very durable, fast and many even run marathons in them. As a race day shoe, I have enjoyed the Nike Zoom Fly 3.

10. If you’re not a runner be a spectator.

I love the people who watch and motivate the participants on race day. People standing there in the cold when they could be doing so many other things. Legends. It’s incredibly motivating for the runner, even if they have no idea who you are.

Smile at them, cheer at them, give out chocolates or fruit. They’ll love you for it!

Bonus Tips

Haven’t had enough marathon beginner tips yet? Here are four bonus tips!

11. Try a midfoot or forefoot strike to prevent knee and hip injury.

Once I stopped landing on my heels and shifted to the midfoot my knee problems disappeared. You’ll have to sacrifice a good month of sore calves though. It takes a while to find a strike that feels natural and for your calves to adapt.

12. Keep your head in front of your feet.

Use gravity by leaning your upper body slightly forward and keeping it that way. It keeps your stride length short which helps to maintain momentum and save energy. Physics really.

13. Pace yourself.

Whatever you do during the race, make sure you don’t start too quickly.

As for the rest of the race: I see that a negative split can make sense however in my next race I am going to try and maintain one consistent pace. To calculate my desired pace, I use this page.

A negative split means running the first half of your marathon a bit slower than your desired pace and the second half a bit faster. A positive split is the other way around.

14. “Never trust a fart after mile 23”

I heard Jack Jarvis from United We Conquer say this in an Instagram story once. Not really sure yet what to do with this advice haha but happy to pass it on!

Why Not Today?

Let’s be honest. You wouldn’t have read until the end of this blog post if you weren’t interested in running a marathon. Well, I guess it’s time to commit.

How would you ever know if you really like pushing your body over 42.195 kilometres, if you didn’t try?

Why not today? Why not sign up?

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Sorry for bothering you guys with so much marathon content lately. The next one’s going to be a self-development one again! Sign up for my newsletter if you want me to keep you in the loop about my adventures, business endeavours and more.