Marathon training: How many days should I run a week?

Running marathons takes a lot of preparation, both physically and mentally! Whatever your reasoning for wanting to run a marathon,  we are here to help!

The first question we get asked from beginners through to experts is ‘How many days a week should I run for a marathon’.  The true answer to this is ‘how long is a piece of string?’  Last I checked, B&Q had the longest piece.

But in seriousness, this depends on you, your goal and your other personal commitments.  One of the issues with many training plans especially the classic 16 week marathon training plan is that they aren’t adaptable, they are static and you risk injury or losing love with running.  We don’t want that! However, you do need a training plan.

Marathon training is no small feat, and we applaud your efforts! If you have been running for a while now, you probably don’t want a 16 week marathon training plan or if have just started, using a beginner marathon training plan is probably not what you expect. 

The first step is to really decide your why!  This could be:

• Want to do one marathon, I don’t care about time, I just want that medal
• I want to raise money for charity
• I want a PB
• I love running
• There are hundreds of other reasons too

How should I structure my training week?

For many, marathon running is a commitment, you will need to say no to friends and family and expect to wake up early or run a few long runs at the weekend.  When it comes to training, we believe the more is better however you can complete a marathon with just three days of training IF you follow the three core sessions each week:

1. Interval – learn more about intervals
2. Tempo Runs
3. Long Run

On top of this, the rest of your running should be easy runs.  The Coopah app helps you designed your plans and allows you to adapt your training days making it a fully personalised marathon training plan, for you and only you.

So in short, you need to train at least three days a week but ideally, 5/6 days a week with 2 to 3 days of easy running is the ideal type of training.  Oh, don’t forget to add one or two sessions of strength training in too.  For that, we provide you with videos on the app to support and put them into your plan so you do your strength training on the right days!

Below is a short explanation of the three key sessions and why they are so important!

Interval Training

Intervals, how wonderful they are!!!  For anyone using our running training plans, you will see that we love to chuck in a speed session each week.  Hate us for it?  Love us for it?  Whatever your view is on intervals, we need to do them and here are 5 reasons why!

 

1. Burns calories 

2. Enhance your endurance!

3. Improve your VO2 Max

4. Get faster!

5. SMILE AND BOAST AFTER!

Read our full blog on the benefits of intervals?

Tempo Training

Tempo are an essential type of run and should form part of any good training plan. Active.com describes the run as follows:

“The concept of tempo/threshold running is pretty simple. It’s simply running at a pace where lactate does not accumulate significantly in the blood during the workout, but rather stays at a constant level.”

Tempo runs are so important because by improving your lactate threshold you help train your body to run at a sustained pace for longer.  Whereas threshold runs are run just below your lactate threshold level, tempo runs are faster and help you to develop that lactate threshold level further. They are not easy but they are really rewarding. Head over to Active’s fantastic blog to learn more about the difference between threshold and tempo runs.

The Coopah app is the perfect place to start when trying to identify the right pace and distance for your tempo runs. Coopah plans are tailored to you and take the guesswork out of your training. So if you are trying to build up to a marathon, download the Coopah app and get your Tempo Run delivered directly to your mobile phone.

Learn more about the Tempo run

The power of the Long Run

Yes, yes you really do need to do long runs every week and slowly build the distance up, you might even be lucky enough to do three 20 mile runs.  Lucky you!  Want to double confirm you need to do a long run each week, check out Actives blog on the power of the long run.

However in short, the long run is super important because:

You gain mental benefits

The marathon distance is a challenge and you get all the kudos because it’s what 99% of people really don’t ever want to do.  During training, no matter how experienced you are, you will also go ‘can I really run 26.2 miles’?

By slowly building up your long run each week, you build confidence in your ability and mentally you become stronger and stronger each week. 

Physical Benefits

One of the huge benefits here is improved muscle strength.  By running longer, your body will use slow-twitch muscles but eventually these will become tired so the body will be dependent on your fast-twitch muscles.  If you haven’t trained the body well enough in training, you are going to hurt come race day!