Part of the ideal marathon preparation is to train with others. For many other reasons than pace and company.
If you want to be in good shape for the Copenhagen Marathon in May, you’ll be smart to start you training in the Fall.
Even if there’s still 7 months until race day, it takes time to get in a physical shape to run a marathon. Your body needs to adjust slowly to the increased mileage and work load.
To make your long runs much easier and more fun, Sparta Athletics & Running is organizing joint running sessions out of Copenhagen every Sunday morning as of November 13.
However, lots of miles is not the only advantage you’ll get by training together with others.
Running a marathon requires many different kinds of preparations than getting in the right physical shape, and there may be surprisingly many advantages to gain by running and training with others.
3 phases of marathon preparations
October – November – December – January
The first basic phase in your preparations is about stability, routines and mileage, and the aim is to achieve a basic level of fitness, running about 25 – 30 km per week.
– January – February – March – April
From January / February a phase of specific training kicks in with increased mileage and varied training with more intervals and speed runs.
– April – May
Approximately 3 weeks before of race day, your training volume peaks, and you’ll need to start tapering to recover properly and be fit for race day.
Why train with others?
The advantages of training in a group together with other runners extend further than getting in shape.
Why? Because a running community is one of the best places to get inspiration, knowledge and tons of good advice from experienced runners about all sorts of things that are vital for your marathon performance. Some of the questions you’ll have to find your own answers and solutions to are:
- How can you fit training into your every day life?
- Which running shoe will fit you and your specific running style?
- What kind of fuel works for your long runs?
- What are good ways for you to recover?
- Do you need supplementary training?
- How do you stay hydrated?
- Do you like running with an hydration belt or not?
- Do energy gels work for you, and how do you carry them on you during the race?
- How do you best time your breakfast, toilet visit, and warm up for the long runs?
- What important things do you need to remember for race day?
We know, it’s a lot to sort out. But don’t get stressed out about it.
Because this is exactly why you should just start running and use the next 6-7 months to seek advice and inspiration from other runners, Test and try out different things, gear, strategies, foods and energy products to see what works for YOU. Pick and choose from all the input given to you by your training peers and find your way – your own marathon journey.
Group training – a hot spot for marathon advice
Sparta’s joint Sunday running sessions brings runners with experience from more than 50-100 marathons together with runners that are about to run their very first marathon.
Doing your long Sunday runs with Sparta – or with your local running community – you really have a great chance to gain knowledge and advice from experienced runners.
Exchanging advice and experiences is a major bonus from joining the Sparta Sunday runs.
“During the runs you get to talk about all kinds of things, such as good post-training snacks, the best tasting energy drinks, how to avoid injuries, improve your running economy or design a good race day strategy.”
If there is something you want to know more about – and there definitely will be – you can be sure that there will be somebody there at the training who wants to share their experiences and advice with you.
