22 Week ADVANCED MARATHON TRAINING PLAN

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Verity Theresa Morgan
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1 RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 1 22 Week ADVANCED MARATHON TRAINING PLAN [Type here]

2 Introduction Below is a 22 week advanced marathon training plan to help you prepare for your event. This 22-week training plan is intended for the advanced marathoner who wants to train with a bit more focus. Each workout in this training plan has a purpose. There are no junk miles! The intensity of the training in this programme is to be executed using the RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) scale, this allows the athlete to work to their limits with specific barriers. We would advise that if this kind of training is new to you that you are cautious to begin with until you can understand how your body reacts to the training. See the Key Notes tion for the full RPE scale used throughout the programme. If you use a Heart Rate Monitor and/or GPS tracking, we recommend you use this in conjunction with RPE to monitor pace and effort. Key Notes This plan includes weekly strength & conditioning sessions. We ve broken these sessions into three phases to allow adaptations to your strength through the program that meet the demands of your training. See appendix at back of this document for sessions. Base Phase This is intended to prepare the joints and soft-tissue for the upcoming load of the Max Strength Phase. Key elements include mobility, flexibility and balance work, core work with some easier compound movements to increase strength endurance. Core Phase - This phase builds on the work you ve done, adding in more demanding movements which challenge single legs strength and control of more complex movements. This added skill is essential to good running performance and injury prevention. Performance Phase Building on the complexity of the existing program, this phase also includes the addition of explosive movements that build your power, completed as a circuit that will increase anaerobic fitness too. Exercises in this phase are targeted at improving your ability to maintain a strong run form, and increase speed. RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 2 Run Session explanation Fartlek sessions are unstructured interval training sessions. The aim is to vary the intensity of your run at irregular or made up intervals, which can be based on anything you see on your route. For example, you can alternate your efforts between lamp posts along a road, or up a short hill etc. Hill and hilly runs. Hill running is good for building leg strength as you drive up a gradient, and improve control and foot strike as you run downhill. When it comes to hill training you have two main options; Firstly, structured repetitions of a single hill that takes between 3-5 min to ascend which you can then perform as many repetitions as is required to reach the target distance. Secondly if you happen to have access to somewhere hilly to run, you can just plan a route that takes in plenty of up and down over the course of your run. These runs are also good ones to do off-road, since rough terrain will make you work harder, build stability and add variety. Track sessions are designed for the track but can be done anywhere you have access to a flat measured distance. The purpose of track sessions in this program are for pacing and building a little speed work into the sessions. As such, none of the sessions require maximal efforts, but rather consistency at small increments above race pace. Learning to pace your efforts will be key in sticking to a race pace strategy. See appendix at back of this document for sessions. Missed a session? From time to time your busy lives may get in the way of the training schedule, sometimes this is unavoidable, don t feel guilty! In this situation, don t try and make up the session you ve missed, simply pick up your schedule as normal the following day. Also, don t train on your rest days! These are in there for a reason to allow your muscles to recover and repair themselves ready for the next training sessions in your plan.

3 RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 3 Rate of Perceived Exertion RPE DESCRIPTION We will use the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale illustrated below to determine the intensity of your sessions. These will be highlighted in each session text to make it clear as to what is expected. This table helps you understand exactly how you should feel when executing the training session. Due to the nature of the scale, it is subjective and requires you to feel how your body is responding to the exercise, when doing this consider how your heart is pumping, how quickly you are breathing, how much you are sweating and how much discomfort you are experiencing in your legs. Please remember that everybody s RPE figure could be different to yours when exercising at the same speed because we all respond differently to exercise. 0 Complete rest 1 Very Weak: I am just about moving 2 Weak: I am walking at a faster pace and can hold a conversation easily 3 Light: I am beginning to sweat a little, but can hold conversation throughout 4 Moderate: I am very happy at this effort 5 Somewhat Strong: I am sweating more heavily and starting to feel my breathing is becoming more stressed 6 Strong: I am beginning to feel more out of breath but could maintain this pace for a few hours 7 Very Strong: My breathing is very laboured, but I can still maintain pace for an hour without slowing 8 Hard: I am starting to struggle to hold this pace and my heart is racing and am sweating heavily 9 Very Hard: This is hurting and I can only hold this effort for up to 5mins 10 Extremely Hard: I am absolutely flat out and this is sprinting. I will need to stop after 30s

4 RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 4 Week Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ONE : 5 km TWO : 5 km 9 km 6 km THREE : 5 km 7 km FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN 1 EIGHT Session km 20 km NINE TEN 20 km ELEVEN 22 km

5 RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 5 Week Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday TWELVE Session km 24 km THIRTEEN ½ Marathon Time Trial 21.1 km FOURTEEN 7 km 26 km FIFTEEN 1 2 SIXTEEN Session km 30 km SEVENTEEN 20 km 32 km EIGHTEEN 1 30 km NINETEEN 6 km 34 km TWENTY Session 3 36 km TWENTYONE 20 km / Flexibility TWENTYTWO 5 km / Flexibility Run 3 4/5 RACE DAY 42.2 km

6 RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 6 EXAMPLE TRACK SESSIONS APPENDIX SESSION 1 SESSION 2 SESSION 3 Warm Up Warm Up Warm Up 400m at RPE m at RPE m at RPE 4-5 Main Set* Main Set* Main Set* 1 x 1600m 3 x 1600m 1 x 1200m 2 x 800m 3 x 800m 3 x 400m 4 x 400m 1 x 1200m 3 x 400m 1 x 1200m 3 x 400m Total 5200m Total 7600m Total 7600m *You should aim to run your main set as fast as you can, however the pace you set should be consistent for all of your 400m efforts for example in Session 1 the 400m pace during your 1600m effort should be the same as your final 400m effort. If you start out to fast your 400m times will start slipping. Find a pace you can maintain then gradually chip away at your 400m time gradually.

7 PHASE STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 7 PHASE - MOBILITY WORK PHASE - MAIN SET Flexibility/Movement Duration Notes Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest Weight Foam roller; Back Foam roller; ITB Roll over back, especially lower, to ease off connective tissue & increase mobility Roll ITBs to release tension in connective tissue that may inhibit knee/hip movement Side plank; from knees 2-3es* 45 Static 20 BW Front plank on knees Static 20 BW Tube walking (band around ankles) 2 10es Slow 20 RB Foam roller; Calf s Rolling calf s, especially Achilles, can aid ankle flexibility and recovery from training Dead bug Slow 30 BW 2 leg glute press w/foot on step Slow 20 BW Foam roll; feet Using a lacrosse/hockey ball or rolling pin, roller your feet paying attention to arches Stability ball wall squat Slow 30 BW Hamstring curl on stability ball Slow 30 BW Kneeling hip flexor stretch Gently driving hips into stretch, with arms overhead to feel stretch in hips & torso Lateral lunge, alternating sides Slow 30 BW Hamstring 'track stretch' 8-10 From "start" position to semi-standing while holding foot, until stretch it felt, in hamstring Laying over stability ball, arm raise Slow 30 BW Kneeling press up 2-3 Max Slow 30 BW *Each side

8 PHASE STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 8 PHASE - MOBILITY WORK PHASE - MAIN SET Flexibility/Movement Duration Notes Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest Weight Foam roller; Back Roll over back, especially lower, to ease off connective tissue & increase mobility Side plank; from knees 2-3es 45 static 20 BW Foam roller; ITB Roll ITBs to release tension in connective tissue that may inhibit knee/hip movement Front plank on stability ball (knees or toes) 2-3 >45 static 20 BW Foam roller; Calf s Foam roll; feet Rolling calf s, especially Achilles, can aid ankle flexibility and recovery from training Using a lacrosse/hockey ball or rolling pin, roller your feet paying attention to arches Laying on side leg raise 2 20 Slow 20 RB Laying on back, alt. leg lowering Slow 30 BW 1 leg glute press w/foot on step Slow 30 BW Kneeling hip flexor stretch Gently driving hips into stretch, with arms overhead to feel stretch in hips & torso Calf raises on step Slow 30 BW Hamstring curl on stability ball Slow 30 BW Hamstring 'track stretch' Side bends w/arms overhead From "start" position to semi-standing while holding foot, until stretch it felt, in hamstring Bend from side to side pushing hips one way & arms the other overhead. Forward lunges, alternating sides 2-3es 20 Active 30 BW Bodyweight squat w/band around knees (add weights optional) Slow 20 BW Skipping w/rope 2 60 active 20 N/A

9 PHASE STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING RG Active 22 Week Advanced Marathon Training Plan Page 9 PHASE - MOBILITY WORK PHASE - MAIN SET Flexibility/Movement Duration Notes Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest Weight Foam roller; Back Foam roller; ITB Roll over back, especially lower, to ease off connective tissue & increase mobility Roll ITBs to release tension in connective tissue that may inhibit knee/hip movement Side plank from toes 2-3es 60 static 20 BW Stability ball roll outs from knees Slow 20 BW Lateral lunge to balance Slow 20 RB Foam roller; Calf s Rolling calf s, especially Achilles, can aid ankle flexibility and recovery from training Split squat (with weights if too easy) Slow 30 BW Foam roll; feet Kneeling hip flexor stretch Using a lacrosse/hockey ball or rolling pin, roller your feet paying attention to arches Gently driving hips into stretch, with arms overhead to feel stretch in hips & torso Hamstring curl (1 leg) Slow 30 BW (Complete the following as a circuit) Walking lunges Active 15 BW Hamstring 'track stretch' Side bends w/arms overhead From "start" position to semi-standing while holding foot, until stretch it felt, in hamstring Bend from side to side pushing hips one way & arms the other overhead. Skipping w/rope Active 15 N/A Burpees Active 15 BW Box jumps (max knee height) Active 15 BW

22 Week BEGINNER MARATHON TRAINING PLAN. RG Active 22 Week Beginner Marathon Training Plan Page 1

22 Week BEGINNER MARATHON TRAINING PLAN RG Active 22 Week Beginner Marathon Training Plan Page 1 Key Notes The NSPCC has teamed up with RG Active to be the charity s official training partner for running