Don’t Be Afraid to Walk
Walking is not a bad thing. Many of the top running coaches, including Jeff Galloway and John Bingham, will tell you that walking while in a marathon training program is actually good. If you are out for a three-mile jaunt in the blazing hot Arizona sun and you feel a cramp coming on, slow it down to a walk. Listen to your body; it knows you best.
For me, rewards came in the form of some kind of food—ice cream, chocolate dipped cannoli, steak, or pizza.
Walking allows you to catch your breath and reset your bearings. It can be good to cycle walking into your training runs in the beginning. When you are further along in training and running 10-20 miles per week, you will want dial down your walking and increase running consistency. If it's a choice between not running at all and walking some during your run, then go ahead and walk. It beats not running at all. Ultimately, though, you are training to run a marathon, so your individual training should reflect that goal. I mentally willed myself to run the entire Kansas City Marathon. I didn't even walk through the aid stations. I did walk a little during my second race, the La Salle Bank Chicago Marathon.
Consider Partner or Group Training
If you are a social person, run with a group or a partner that you can talk to. This helps with overall morale and support. I trained for a few races with my sister. We'd talk while on our early morning marathon training runs, which seemed to pass the time quickly and kept my mind engaged. You'll find that running with someone tends to give you a little push, and in the beginning we need all the help we can get as we log our training miles. If you don't know anyone there are great running groups in every area of the country.
Ignore Your Time in the Beginning
Leave your watch at home. This is more figurative than literal. Obviously, you need to know what time it is if you've got a schedule to keep. This will be tough for really competitive people, but in the beginning of your marathon training, don’t time your runs. Just run to get the feel for it. Work on your stride and your form. Work on your breathing. Run without the pressure of having to beat the clock.
Set Milestones and Reward Yourself
The last thing that we want to do is make a marathon seem completely out of reach. So, as we get started running, we need to take baby steps toward the goal.
Going from the couch to running for 3-4 hours to complete a 26.2-mile marathon can be daunting. Milestones are a way to break up your marathon training into more manageable pieces. Because this is a life-changing commitment, one that requires sacrifice to complete, milestones are the bite-sized, measurable goals that help propel us forward. We need to reward our small individual milestones with small rewards. If I make it up this hill without walking I will ______ (fill in the blank.)
For me, rewards came in the form of some kind of food—ice cream, chocolate dipped cannoli, steak, or pizza. It can be food based for you, too, or maybe you treat yourself to some new clothes or a movie. It can be anything used as a carrot to motivate you. Over the course of your marathon training, these milestones become more running-based as you accomplish things like running five miles for the first time in your life, or 10 miles or 20 miles. If it takes a little longer to get to the end goal, so what? You are a marathon runner. You can accomplish anything. And you have The Chubby Runner on your side.
Sign up for a race.