Thread: Ninja's Distance Training guide

I'm writing another guide to running, this one aimed at people who want to go long or run a marathon. Marathon season is late fall, but training should start in early spring.

There are four stages to my own training.

Stage 1
Walk a lot. Anywhere between 5 and 10 miles every day. You are not going for endurance or working on your muscles here, you are testing yourself and building supports. By walking long distances, you start to learn things about your body / equipment. If after a week or two you start to feel discomfort in your shins, knees, or ankles, try a different pair of shoes / insteps. Walk through the pain though. Walking doesn't put enough strain on the body to do any real damage. Shin splints and tendonitis will remain minor, although if you do have a bad flareup, wait a few days and then start again. Ibuprophen and ice after each long walk, it's a must for preventative medicine.

The walking does anything thing, it strengthens support muscles. Your knees, ankles, and hips have lots of support muscles that are small and easily damaged. Going right into a tough running regiment can cause strains and then cause really bad damage to your joints.

You should be losing a little bit of weight. A good marathoner is 20-40 pounds [i]under[i]weight (but not malnourished.) Take a diet pill if you want, but make sure it's a fat burning and metabolism booster, not a diarrhetic. Ripped Fuel is the one that I use. hydroxy*anything* makes you loose water, not fat.

After about 2 or 3 weeks of doing 5 - 10 miles every day, give yourself a day to rest, you are about to start running. If you have shin splints or tendonitis, rest longer, but keep active, do something with your upper body (kayaking is great.)

Stage 2
Now you start doing a little bit of distance running, but it's still short and slow. You are not training for your marathon yet, you are training for stage 3, building up the muscles and cardio system so that you can handle the next stage without injury.

The first couple of days you may feel like absolute shit. You capillaries are closed because the body only uses as much energy as it needs. This means that your muscles are not getting enough oxygen and have to create energy anaerobically, which creates lactic acid crystals. Lactic acid burns your muscles and the crystals cut then, so it's painful, but not dangerous. Push through it. It will only take 2 or 3 days for all of your capillaries to open up so that your muscles get the o2 that they need and you will feel so much better.

Make sure you keep your electrolytes in balance with Gatorade and a multivitamin. I also recommend a joint lubricator. When running make sure that you stay hydrated. Weigh yourself before you go running, then weigh yourself after. Then drink almost what you lost, most of it was water and needs to be put back into your system.

Keep your skin healthy too, you are in the sun and a moisturizer will help keep your healthy. Put vaseline on your underarms, nipples, and groin to avoid chafing. Chafing isn't going to hurt you, but it's annoying as hell.

You should run between 3 and 6 miles every day, make sure that you walk before and after and stretch after you've cooled down. I cannot overemphasize the important of keeping your muscles loose.

Stay in this stage for about 4 weeks.

[u]Stage 3[u]
This is where you build power. Find a hilly road or trail and run that. Really push the up hills and relax or walk coming down them. Once a week do a sprint workout on a grassy field. Maybe 12 fullspeed sprints and then a hard cooldown. This is a short stage and should be continued for about 2 weeks.

After you are finished with this stage, rest for a few days, it will have put a hell of a strain on your muscles and cardio system.

Stage 4
Now start adding distance and speed. Start about about 5 miles every day, then slowly go up to ten. Then jump that up to 15 miles every other day, resting on your off days. Run small races on weekends (5Ks 10Ks). For fun, throw some 20 milers in there, but rest for two or even three days after that. These can be split up into multiple 5 miles runs if you wish, but it's not as good as doing it all at once.

If you're not already doing so, shave your legs and arms. On long runs you WILL overheat. Even olympians overheat, the object is to be able to push through it, and hold it off as long as possible. The hair on your arms and legs hold more heat than most people realize.

Comments
Stay hydrated. You loose water through sweat, your breathe and every other way possible.

don't use deodorant/antiperspirant (during your runs of course ) You're supposed to sweat and smell like crap, it's a run. Antiperspirant holds off your sweat, and sweat keeps you from overheating.

Keep going. Once you've stopped to walk, it's very hard to start up again, just push through it.

Ask me or someone who knows what they're doing if you have questions. Personal trainers don't count, they aren't rained for this, only people who really know about this stuff can help you. If you ask me something that I don't know, I have friends who were olympians, professional NCAA coaches, and national champions who I can ask. It takes a very knowledgeable person to distinguish a lactic acid burn (which isn't dangerous) and a muscle strain (which is)

Aim for the runners high. It is awesome, but it will only happen if you keep running. If you stop to walk, your brain knows that it's not imperative that you keep going and won't deliver the adrenaline boost. This is a dream forum, we love then things get surreal, and other than a lucid dream, I can't think of anything cooler than a runner high trip. I've seen houses and trees appear to breathe, cool swirling colours. The most extreme case of runners high that I've ever had was about two years ago. I saw a tiger in front of me as clear as day running in front of me. I was so high I didn't question where it came from or why it was there, but I chased after it. I was so hellbent on catching it that I didn't realize that I ran three miles at sub-6 minute mile pace. that' not all that fast for a short run, but this was 15 miles into a long run.

Feel free to ask question if you want