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How far and how often should I train?

 Unless you have a reasonable background in running, a good rule of thumb is to run one day and rest the next, sometimes taking two days off. So typically during a week: 3 days running and 4 days rest. A popular maxim is that fitness comes from exercise and improvement comes from the recovery. To put it another way, over training just makes you tired with a greater risk of injury that will further delay your improvement in fitness.

 There are two ways of measuring the amount of training undertaken, the most common is distance: e.g. 30 miles a week. An alternative is to measure time: e.g. 4 hours a week. Training will commence at the point you feel comfortable with depending on your personal level of fitness. The intensity and duration of training will increase to take account of the ultimate objective. The one known factor being the distance of 26.2 miles (or 42.2km) – the unknown being how long it will take you to accomplish this.

 Consequently, a detailed training schedule should not be tied into until some measurement of your current ability, amount of time available for training (including any associated travel time), any specific objectives and the amount of time available between the starting point and the date that the marathon will be run.

Improving Runners