Ross Marathon Training

Our bodies get energy from proteins, carbohydrates and fats. The fuel source used during exercise will depend on how slow or fast you are going, and for how long you are exercising. Slow walking will rely mainly on your fat stores for energy but to ensure adequate fuel to enable to you to maintain quality jogging/running training for the half or full marathon the majority of your diet should be made up of carbohydrates (around 65% of your dietary intake).

Carbohydrates that release energy slowly are ideal to ensure that blood sugar levels are kept constant and examples of these foods are bananas, dried apricots, yogurt, wholegrain bread, milk, non-instant porridge, long grain white rice and sushi.

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There is no exact way to train for a half or full marathon but one thing is for sure – if you are going to be putting in a lot of effort it is worthwhile investing in a good pair of running shoes to reduce the risk of injury and make sure you get to the start line. Training quality always wins out over the quantity of training but for the half and marathon distance some quantity is necessary to get you through the 21.1 or 42.2km. Remember though, you don’t need to do 42.2km training runs to make it through the marathon!

It is important to make sure that you don’t overload your body with too many training runs in one week. A training week should incorporate at least an easy jog, a medium distance faster paced run and a longer distance jog/run.