Tips for Women Training for a Marathon

Your mind must tell your body what to do. Your body will want to give up. Your body will get tired. Your body will throw in the towel if your mind will let it. U.S. General George S. Patton went to the Olympics in 1912; he carried that experience with him throughout his entire career. If the mind controls what the body does, then a body will be successful. For women training for a marathon, it begins and ends with the mind.

How to Train for a Marathon

Three key steps needed to begin training for a marathon include building determination, building endurance and building success. Women training for a marathon build determination by setting goals. How long is the marathon course? How far into the pack does she want to be? For a beginner in a marathon, finishing the course is a highly achievable goal that's worth lauding. So if this is the first marathon she is running, build determination around completing the course. Visualize it, imagine it and believe it. Remember, what the mind believes, the body will accomplish.

Building endurance is the second major step towards training for a marathon. The average person cannot complete a ten mile walk, much less a run. Endurance requires not only the ability to run that far, but to maintain speed, regulated breathing and control. For first time marathon attempts, endurance can take ten to twelve weeks to build up.

Endurance Building Steps

Step one to build endurance begins with a regular program of walking, running, walking. WRW is a formula that allows an individual to begin building up their muscle endurance along with their heart and lung capacity. For true first timers, the first week should begin with standard walking (2.5 to 2.8 on a treadmill) for ten minutes; run (4.0 on a treadmill) for five, walk (3.0 to 3.5 on the treadmill) for ten minutes and run (4.5 on the treadmill) for five and cool down (2.5 to 3.0 on the treadmill) for ten minutes. This 40 minute WRW routine requires sudden bursts of speed and effort, increasing energy output, oxygen consumption and effort. By varying walking with running, it forces the muscles to keep shifting.

This program should be repeated two days on, two days off for six weeks. Adjust WRW each week as it becomes easier by extending the running periods. Increments of two minutes are good. By the end of six weeks, the WRW should be five minutes of walking, ten minutes of running, five minutes of walking ten minutes running, etc.

Build Muscle on Off Days

The two days off from the WRW should include at least one day of weight training. Work to fatigue on the upper body and core muscles. Leg muscles are getting a strong workout in the WRW, so focus on upper body and core. Working to fatigue means instead of working ten to twenty reps on a muscle machine, increasing the weight on it until it can barely be performed, then stepping the weight back by five pounds.

For example, when training for a marathon and performing triceps presses, the maximum press for the individual becomes impossible at fifty pounds; step it down to forty pounds, perform five presses and step it up to forty-five pounds and try to complete three to five presses. When muscles are exhausted and trembling violently, stop and move on to the next exercise. Note, regularly completing one to two sets of full training this way will leave the body sore, but performed every three days as described above will build muscle strength and endurance.

Building Success

The final step in any training for a marathon program is to build on success. The steps described above begin simply and require success before changing it up. By building on success, the marathoner builds their belief in themselves and remembers its mind over matter in the case of the successful marathoner. Each successful run, each successful weight training sessions leads into another. Success builds success.

Remember to Take Care You

Women training for a marathon should remember to eat healthy, hydrate well and take a vitamin supplement. Always consult a physician with any concerns about physical health and well-being. Consider setting up a training session with a personal trainer to design a more individualized program. Consider a sports massage every two to four weeks while training to help protect and soothe tired muscles.