Starting your dreaded marathon training in the cold…..
The nights are still drawing in early and it’s dark before you get home from work and on your way to work. When are you going to get the training in? and how are you going to get yourself out of bed? Well I promise you, you will want to as the pain of running a marathon without training is NOT worth it… You’ll get injured, you won’t be able to run the race for your chosen charity and then the guilt will set in.
It is important to understand that the more anaerobically fit you are the more energy you can produce to offset the heat loss, so the more you do the easier it will get. Looking at it from the other point of view is that those love handles that have been gained over the Christmas months have now become your friend as a form of insulation from the horrible cold weather outside. Either way; look at it positively.
Not all the training needs to be done outside. It is important to be doing a minimum of 1 strength training sessions, ideally 2 a week to prevent those injuries. You can do this at home if you have the equipment and space or if not why not try out the boot camps with our PT Daniel Wellard. He will kick you into shape and they are all done inside in the comfort out of the cold weather and rain. Also make sure you do an active recovery day: e.g swimming or hot yoga, both of which are inside and hot yoga will give you your burst of heat for the week.
SO! 3 sessions outside a week braving the cold isn’t too bad. Be sure to:
- Layer up: make sure the base layer allows the sweat to escape and the top layer protects the wind from coming in.
- Prevent the draft with hats, headbands, gloves, scarfs
- Warm-up: increase the layers so you get warmer quicker before leaving the comfort of your heated house.
- Cool down and make sure you don’t get cold after your session.
- Another tip is to look at joining a running club: you’re not the only one out there putting in the early mornings and evenings to fit the training in.