A 16 week training plan to prepare you for a marathon 42.2km aiming at a 3:30hr target.
Each week has a particular focus and the overall plan is split into four x 4 week blocks.
This plan assumes a basic level of fitness and a minimum level of running specific training, if not then a bespoke targeted plan may be more suitable.
One of the prime foundations is the principle of consistency each day, each week and each month. This can include daily checks on your health and wellness, introducing active recovery sessions, establishing a strength & conditioning routine that can be completed week in week out.
Every week will include a variety of training sessions with the objective to help your body adapt in order to prepare for the event, some weeks will include a higher number of runs, others higher intensity. Every variation is designed to help stimulate and improve your endurance habit so you are ready for race day.
Sme sessions are heart rate based and others are pace based, bith use your threshold pace. Think the maximum pace and heart rate you can sustain for 60minutes. For simplicity you can do a hard 10km run and use that as a benchmark.
The Endurance Habit - We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Doing the right things on a regular basis, without a pause for thought, so they become a way of life.
One of the key components for endurance training is building consistency, regular sessions repetaed over a period of time help develop the building blocks for physical and mental health that enable you to execute your event/race plans.