Putting a Spring in your Step

Spring is a wonderful time to train. The days are longer, you start to feel the sun on your face on those long runs and evening sessions and many runners find it just brings a bit more positivity into their training.

The simple joy of running, time spent connecting with your body and time spent outside. The fitness you are building won’t go anywhere, it is an investment you have put into yourself. For me the spring is a great time to start to planning out your summer and autumn of training. Here’s my top tips for getting it right:

Give yourself time: Training for a long race like a marathon takes time and patience. In our busy lives we tend to want to take the shortest route possible to our end goal but rushing marathon training will increase your injury risk and make it harder to arrive at the start line well prepared.

Try this: Aiming to build up to a long run of around 10 miles 16 weeks before the race will provide an excellent foundation to build your key longer sessions.

Build the foundations: Building a solid foundation of regular easy and steady running is something many runners try to short cut by jumping straight into harder interval sessions too soon.

Try this: If you are quite new to regular running aim to build the frequency of your runs first. Five 30 minute runs can often work better than 2-3 x 50-60 minute runs. Give yourself a period of 6-8 weeks of gradually building first the frequency and then a bit of volume before then focusing on upping the intensity.

Inverse pyramid: As you plan your training you should consider the demands of the event you are training for and work backwards. The final 6-8 weeks before the race is your period of specific training and the sessions in those weeks should reflect that.

Try this: It is wise to practise some of your target marathon pace in the final weeks before race day, building up to sessions like 2 hours 45 minutes – 3 hours with the final 60-75 minutes at goal race pace. For a 10km, sessions of 20-30 minutes running at 5-10km pace as intervals is a good way to go, for example 10 x 3 minutes with odd numbers at 10km pace, evens at 5km pace and 80sec rest between each.

Release the pressure: Life will always get in the way of training. Work, family and social life pressures can’t always be avoided but elevated stress levels during busy periods can increase your injury risk.

Try this: If you know you have a work deadline or family occasion which is going to create pressure, factor this in as a lighter week in your training plan.

Race smart: It’s sensible to build some races into your plan. They can break up the monotony of weeks of training and also give you the chance to practice psychological techniques and routines you’ll use on the big day.

Try this: A half marathon race 6-8 weeks out from marathon day or a 5km race or parkrun 3-4 weeks out from your 10k is a good starting point. Take care with longer 20-mile type events, racing these hard can leave you very tired.

Take a break: Your body gets fitter when you rest and recover from your training. Just building in a linear way between now and the Autumn won’t work, factor recovery into your planning.

Try this: A lighter week every 3-4 weeks is a great option, perhaps reducing your volume by a third and going for some easier sessions to help freshen up mentally and physically.

Tom Craggs is England Event Lead for Long Distance Running and Runners World UK Head Coach. He is one of the UK’s most in demand coaches, coaching runners from beginners right through to GB elite athletes including some of the UK’s most well-known runners.