How Do I Train For My First Ever Marathon?

I'm an idiot. It's 10 times 1.

Hi, I'm Sarah. And welcome back to my journey to my first marathon.

If you missed episode one in this series,

then I'm currently training to run my first ever marathon in Amsterdam in

October. Now, as each day goes by, race day is creeping closer and closer.

And to be honest, I'm terrified. I am trying as hard as I can though,

to just take each day as it comes and to have faith in my training plan to get

me to that start line. It's no lie though,

that marathon training has most definitely turned my life upside down.

So I thought I would take you along for a very warm week of marathon

training. So you can see the highs, the lows, me getting it all wrong, probably,

and hopefully we can support each other down in the comments.

And thank you so much for your support, advice and tips

on the first episode of this video,

it means so much to read all of your lovely comments,

so please do keep them coming. For today though,

I've got 30 minutes easy on the plan.

So hit subscribe if you haven't already and let's get to it.

So it is currently Tuesday and I am on week four of The Running Channel's

marathon training plan, which you can download for free from our website.

Go check it out. Are you on marathon training?

Do you let me know how it's getting on in the comments down below.

So I think of the start of the week as Monday. So Monday,

yesterday was a rest day for me.

And then today I've got 30 minutes easy. Over the weekend though,

I did do an 80 minute long run on Sunday and lots of walking.

So yesterday was a very well-deserved rest.

And I tried to optimise my recovery by getting my foam roller out,

eating all the food and trying to recover in the best way possible.

So that I'm ready for all of the training this week.

It's been really hot in the UK at the moment.

And so I've been trying to run either really early in the morning or really late

in the evening, mainly to just avoid the heat of the day.

And if you are running in the heat,

then it's a good idea to lower your expectations of pace and timings,

because it is so much harder to hit those paces. So for this run,

I'm purely running at a pace that feels really easy, not looking at my watch.

I'm still able to talk and have a conversation,

and that's so much better than over exerting myself to try and hit my usual

recovery pace.

And if you do want any more tips on running in the heat then go and check out our video.

And... Done. Oh, that was lovely. Nice little recovery run

all ticked off and tomorrow is a rest day. Although just because I'm not running,

doesn't mean I'm not going to do anything.

I am going to put in a strength session to get some strength work in.

Now I am so guilty of missing strength sessions.

And I know that if I'm doing a training plan,

that is usually the first thing to get dropped,

but I'm going to try and be really vigilant with it, stick to it, plan them in.

Um, so hold me accountable if I don't do it tomorrow. So,

it's now Wednesday and time for a bit of strength and conditioning. Now compared

to running where, you know, I've got a fairly good base level,

my strength and conditioning is at an all time low.

So I've built up from nothing, um,

I've actually bought a kettlebell so that I can transition from just using body

weight to using that.

But I am taking that really gradually and just slowly increasing sets and reps

and the actual weight. Um, with strength and conditioning,

the main thing that I'm focusing on is unilateral movement.

So because you only use one leg at a time in running, stuff like split squats

and lunges is great for building up the power individually in each leg.

But, uh, I still hate strength and conditioning,

but I think we should get stuck in. Let's go.

So I might not be doing any running today,

but I'm already thinking about the running that I've got to do tomorrow,

because one, because it's so hot at the moment. And two,

because the session that I've got tomorrow is intervals with some really hard

efforts. So I'm making sure today that I am drinking lots, fuelling properly,

and also I've picked out a very pretty outfit,

but I've picked out light colors so that they don't absorb the heat too much.

So hopefully that will help me to stay a little bit cooler as well.

I can see what you're thinking. "Sarah,

this has been a really easy week running so far." Yep, you'd be correct, but

there are some horrible sessions coming up later this week. I've got an

intervals session today. Tomorrow is then a rest day.

Then I've got a 5K time trial,

which is actually 9K in total and then rounding off the week

with a 60 minute long run.

So I'm sure it won't be this upbeat by the end. Get ready for Heartbreak Hill.

That doesn't sound fun.

So today's intervals session is 10 times one minute at

10 K pace with one minute recovery jog in between.

Shorter intervals,

I'm not so great at mainly because I either spend the entire

minute looking at my watch and it goes by really slowly or I don't look at my

watch at all, um, and before I know it two minutes have gone by,

so let's see how this one goes.

Two intervals down. I'm feeling alright so far,

but I know it's going to start hurting soon.

The one thing that I am still nervous about though is losing count.

So currently until this gets boring,

cause I haven't brought music or a podcast out with me today,

I'm literally singing, um,

what number I need to stop that in my head to the sound of,

I think it's called '16 Minutes' from High School Musical.

You know the one that goes like "16, 16, 16 minutes..."

Whatever it is. And now,

I need to stop at 17, 17, 17, more minutes 'til

I stop the watch. 17, 17, 17.

23, 23, 23. [inaudible]

Am I mad? Probably. But hey, makes it more fun.

I'm an idiot. It's 10 times one. That's 10.

So I'm doing my intervals on all the even numbers. So

12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30.

One thing I haven't even mentioned all week is the shoes that I've been wearing for

all of these sessions.

So I have got on my trusty Waverider 25's

and I don't have a bad word to say about them.

It's so nice to have one pair of shoes that are perfect for long runs

and really cushioned, pretty bouncy.

Don't feel like you're running on the ground after 60 minutes,

but equally on an interval session like that,

they feel fast as well. So really,

really happy with them. Before I get more comments of people being like

"buy another pair before they run out,"

I've got more than one pair and I will be rotating them.

But if I was going to be stupid and whip out a new pair on race day,

I haven't had any blisters in these, which is the first running shoes to

never give me any blisters. So I'm not going to do it,

but just saying I could. All finished.

And my goodness that was hard. But on the plus side, tomorrow is a rest day,

which I think made me work a lot harder in that workout. So top tip,

if you want to motivate yourself through an interval session, pop a rest day on

the day after. So no

running for me today,

but I'm going to do a little bit of strength and conditioning and to mix it up

rather than doing the same workout as a few days ago,

I'm going to do The Running Channel's home workout. Now,

if you've done it before, let me know in the comments, it is disgusting.

So many reps. It's a mixture of strength and cardio and it's really intense,

but it's a great workout. So I think I'm ready.

Let's get into it.

That was disgusting, such a good workout, but it's so hard.

Have you tried any of our home workouts?

Let me know in the comments down below, I'm going to go eat some food and have a lie down.

So I'm in my kit ready to go out on a run and I'm scared.

Um, so on today on the plan is a 5K time trial.

And as if by magic,

it has perfectly collided with the return of parkrun in England.

So I've arrived at parkrun. I've got a 2K warmup, two times

100 metres strides, then the parkrun itself,

which will be a 5K time trial for me followed by a 2K

cool-down. Now I recently did a time trial, um,

so I've got a rough idea in my head of what I should be aiming for.

However, let's get the excuses in now.

It is disgusting outside.

It's been boiling all week and now it's really heavy rain, thunder,

and lightning. Um, the course, I have not done before, uh,

because I moved during lockdown. It's a massive big country park.

So I don't think it's going to be flat or fast,

but I will give it my best shot. Um, and yeah,

I guess there's nothing left for me to do now apart from head out and warm up

and stop procrastinating. So let's go do it.

So I'm just jogging along the course. I don't know if you can see that,

but this little sign here says get ready for heartbreak

hill.

That doesn't sound fun.

Well, I'm very glad that that is over.

That was a brutal course,

but it was so fun to be back at parkrun and running with other people again,

which was lovely.

So the purpose of that session was just to help me gauge what my 5K pace is and

what kind of paces I can be hitting in my training sessions.

And whilst that was a very hard course with lots of elevation,

it did show me what I'm capable of, both on the flat and on hills.

So it was very useful if brutal. Um,

I was wearing my trusty Mizuno Waverider 25s,

which were great on the kind of really unstable grassy gravelly

surfaces. Um, and personally for me,

having confidence in my kit is so important because for more than half of that

run, my brain was telling me "there's no way that you can finish this,"

but just by having confidence in my shoes and my kit to get me there,

it really gives me that extra little boost of confidence, um,

to get me over to that finish line and up what they call heartbreak

hill, which is accurately named. So speaking of kit,

if this video gets to 3000 likes,

then we will be giving away a bundle of Mizuno running kit to help

you hit the ground running - pun intended - with your training.

So if you want to enter, hit like, drop a comment down below.

If you're not sure what to comment,

then just tell me what your favourite bit of running kit you've ever owned is.

And then you can be in a chance of winning and getting some free stuff.

What's not to like? Now I'm going to go lie down and plan my long run route for tomorrow.

So it's now Sunday and I'm just getting ready to go out on my long run,

which is only 60 minutes easy today.