Marathon Training:  Building Stamina

by Jason Lawrence

What is marathon stamina?
Most trained runners have the ability and energy to run approximately 30km at a consistently hard effort. However, it is generally said that real marathon racing starts at the 30km mark. The reason for trying to improve our stamina is to hold our speed from the 30km mark or even pick the pace up. We want to avoid hitting the infamous “wall.” Furthermore, in recent years world records in distance running have been broken by running “negative splits,” that is, running the second half of the race faster than the first. This requires both great stamina and pace judgement.

Speed vs. Stamina
Athletes and coaches are always looking for new techniques and workouts to improve both. However, getting the right balance is a difficult task. You can only improve both for so long; then you come to a point where increasing one decreases the other.

Our natural speed is limited somewhat by what we have inherited from our parents. Speed is in our genes. No matter how much training I do, I may never break 11 secconds for 100m or 50 seconds for 400m. But by improving our stamina we are able to run faster by being able to hold our speed for a longer period of time. This was the fundamental idea of Lydiard’s training principles.

How to increase stamina
In distance running the phrase “money in the bank” is used by many coaches. In preseason training we do a lot of LSD training and long tempo runs. This kind of training increases our stamina and puts “money in the bank.” When we get closer to our target race we start to withdraw our marathon “money” by doing speed work and sharpening our marathon condition. If we do too much speed work and racing our marathon bank account becomes bankrupt. Our condition deteriorates and it’s time to take a break and rebuild.

Spring-Summer training
The two keywords for this period would be SPECIFICITY and VARIETY.
At this time marathon runners are recovering from their winter/spring marathon and starting to prepare for their next marathon in the fall. It’s important to understand why we do certain workouts. This is why specificity is important. We want to do sessions that are going to help us improve our marathon times. Running 400m meter repetitions at maximum speed is not going to help us during the marathon.

SPECIFICITY is crucial in building a training schedule. Stamina training for a 5000m runner is different from what a marathon runner would do. For example, escalating pace runs from anywhere between 10 and 20 miles are great for marathon stamina building, but not for a middle distance runner. A 5000m runner would be better off doing 20-30minutes at half marathon pace or 10-15 x 400m at 5000m pace with short recoveries.

VARIETY is important because most running injuries are overuse injuries which are predominantly due to doing the same kind of training all the time. Creating variety in a training plan keeps us motivated and helps us work on weaknesses and find strengths. It’s not always important to compare training times from week to week.  I understand I am a weak hill runner and I often get injured when I start speed training, so using hills weekly is very important for me. Hill training and fartlek are great ways to create variety in your training schedule. Hill training is a great training tool that acts as a bridge between LSD training and speed training. Many people get injuries when beginning speed work, because their muscles are not ready for it. Hill training is the most specific kind of strength training a marathon runner can do. Fartlek is a Swedish term that means “speed play” which in turn means alternating bursts of speed and jogging. It can be controlled by the watch, for example: (1min fast + 1min slow) x10 or controlled by landmarks, for example: “marathon pace up the hill, jog to the corner, sprint to the tree, jog down the stairs and repeat the circuit”.  A sausage run is another fun fartlek tool: a group of runners take turns running at the front and controlling the pace and direction, and everyone else must follow. I think these two training tools, hill training and fartlek, are great for this time of year because times become less important. Just run how you feel and become a good judge of pace.

Stamina training for beginner and advanced runners
The most important part of any marathon training plan is the weekly long run. The difference between a beginning runner and an experienced one is the 90-120 minute LSD run. This is a great stamina builder for a beginner, but for an advanced runner it’s just a recovery run. What seasoned runners can do is add new flavours to their long run every week. For example, after 60 or 90 minutes of running, they can throw in 30minutes of fartlek, or run 20-30k on a measured 5 or 10km course, start at an easy pace and increase their pace every lap. This is a great way to work on negative split running. Stamina training is not only about specificity and variety but also progression. Ideally, you would want to have your training progress for three weeks then have an easier week before increasing your training the next month. As an example a one-month training programme has been included below.

Between marathon seasons, the key is including a wide variety of stamina workouts. With the hill training, focus on good running form and use your arms to help pump your legs, don’t lean into the hill. Get in at least one long run a week and follow that run with some “strides” the next day. These strides are important to refresh the legs from the LSD the day before. 5-10 stride-outs over 50-100 metres are a great way of maintaining speed without feeling tired the next day. Another key point is that the fartlek and hill training become longer during the month, while the Saturday pace runs become shorter and faster.  The end of the month 5k time trial is a test of your progress. All days are flexible and can be changed, however, always follow a workout with a day of easy jogging.

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???????????????????????“Negative?Splits”?????????????????????????????????????????Pace?Judgement??????????????

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????????????????????Natural?Speed?????????????????????????????????????????Lydiard??????????????????????

?????????“Money In The Bank”???????????????????????????????????LSD?Long Tempo Runs ???????????????????????????????????“Money In The Bank”?????????????????????????????????Money (????)?????????????????????????????????????
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????????????????????????????????????Overuse Injury??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????LSD??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Fartlek????????????????LSD?????????????????????????????????????????????LSD?????????????????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????Fartlek??????????Speedplay???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Sausage Run?Fartlek??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????Fartlek?????????????????????????????????

?????????????????“Weekly Long Run”???????????????????????????LSD????????????????????????????????????????Recovery?????????????????????????????????Long Run????????????????
??????????????????Fartlek?????????km.??????????????????????????????????????????????Negative Splits?????????????

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????????????????????????Fartlek?????????????????????????????????????????????????km.????????????????????
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