As with any form of physical activity (and running a marathon is a very physical activity), before you begin it's important to do a quick inventory of your current physical state of affairs.
Generally speaking, if you are apparently healthy and if you are a male under the age of forty or a female under the age of 50, and you don't have any known health risks or conditions, you should be able to begin a moderate level of physical activity 3 to 4 days a week, without too much concern.
If you have any question or apprehension in this regard, make sure you see your physician before you attempt any type of fitness program. It is better to be safe than sorry. Invariably, at every marathon you will see someone who failed to take the necessary precautions and ends up leaving the course in an ambulance. Not only do we not want that on race day, but we also don't want this to happen over the course of the weeks you will spend preparing for the race either.
Being pre-disposed to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) or perhaps Diabetes does not mean you won't be able to train for and complete a marathon. It does mean that you should consult with your physician before and during your training. The odds are very strong that your doctor will encourage the aerobic activity and probably has been already. Your doctor should be the one to recommend the precautions for you to take as you prepare, not a coach.
As training for a marathon is a long building process, the low foundation creating work and relatively low incremental workload increases should match your physicians recommendations quite naturally.
Because everyone does not have access to a heart rate monitor, we use a more basic method for evaluating your effort level while training. It is simply know as the "Talk Test". The talk test simply requires that while you are training you should be able to maintain a conversation without sounding like you are completely winded. If you can't do this you are probably pushing above your optimal training zone.
Why is this important? In order to improve your running, you have to improve your aerobic capacity (the ability for your cardiovascular system to provide oxygen to your working muscles). Train too lightly and you may see some fat loss, but will not see aerobic improvement. Train above this zone and you reach a point where you stop improving aerobically, a point of diminishing returns, so to speak.
Aside from using a heart rate monitor to target the optimal heart rate zone, the "Talk Test" has been shown to be the easiest way to make certain you stay in the zone of exercise effort that provides the best opportunity for aerobic improvement.
Bottom line; your body needs oxygen to create energy to keep you moving. Running a marathon will likely require more oxygen than anything you've ever done in your entire life. In order to meet that demand you are going to need to improve your body's oxygen delivery system. To improve that system you need to stay in the zone and to stay in the zone you need to be able to hold a conversation while exercising.
Follow these guidelines and I'm pretty sure you will make your doctor a very happy camper!
Generally speaking, if you are apparently healthy and if you are a male under the age of forty or a female under the age of 50, and you don't have any known health risks or conditions, you should be able to begin a moderate level of physical activity 3 to 4 days a week, without too much concern.
If you have any question or apprehension in this regard, make sure you see your physician before you attempt any type of fitness program. It is better to be safe than sorry. Invariably, at every marathon you will see someone who failed to take the necessary precautions and ends up leaving the course in an ambulance. Not only do we not want that on race day, but we also don't want this to happen over the course of the weeks you will spend preparing for the race either.
Being pre-disposed to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) or perhaps Diabetes does not mean you won't be able to train for and complete a marathon. It does mean that you should consult with your physician before and during your training. The odds are very strong that your doctor will encourage the aerobic activity and probably has been already. Your doctor should be the one to recommend the precautions for you to take as you prepare, not a coach.As training for a marathon is a long building process, the low foundation creating work and relatively low incremental workload increases should match your physicians recommendations quite naturally.
Because everyone does not have access to a heart rate monitor, we use a more basic method for evaluating your effort level while training. It is simply know as the "Talk Test". The talk test simply requires that while you are training you should be able to maintain a conversation without sounding like you are completely winded. If you can't do this you are probably pushing above your optimal training zone.
Why is this important? In order to improve your running, you have to improve your aerobic capacity (the ability for your cardiovascular system to provide oxygen to your working muscles). Train too lightly and you may see some fat loss, but will not see aerobic improvement. Train above this zone and you reach a point where you stop improving aerobically, a point of diminishing returns, so to speak.
Aside from using a heart rate monitor to target the optimal heart rate zone, the "Talk Test" has been shown to be the easiest way to make certain you stay in the zone of exercise effort that provides the best opportunity for aerobic improvement.
Bottom line; your body needs oxygen to create energy to keep you moving. Running a marathon will likely require more oxygen than anything you've ever done in your entire life. In order to meet that demand you are going to need to improve your body's oxygen delivery system. To improve that system you need to stay in the zone and to stay in the zone you need to be able to hold a conversation while exercising.
Follow these guidelines and I'm pretty sure you will make your doctor a very happy camper!
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