Coaching: Is A Marathon A Good Idea?
You’re wondering whether including a marathon as part of your build towards an Ironman or Ironman 70.3 is something you should do. You’re wondering if it is a good idea. Or perhaps you’ve already entered one, and are now questioning it.
Let’s have a look at some of the reasons athletes might want to do this as, as well as some of the pros and cons of scheduling this into the early part of their season.
Why Would An Athlete Want To Include A Marathon?
Confidence
A lot of Ironman athletes have never run a standalone marathon. There is a nagging doubt, wondering if they can run that far. So, scheduling a marathon en route to Ironman is largely about building confidence that they can run a marathon.
Because They Can
Sounds obvious, but Ironman & Ironman 70.3 athletes are fit. They are endurance athletes. They can keep going for many hours. So, why not use that “Iron fitness” to achieve new goals, tick off bucket lists events, to run it “because they can”?
Peer Pressure
Athletes mix with a lot of other athletes, at run club, at swim squad and often succumb to a bit of peer pressure! “We’re all doing the Manchester Marathon, fancy it?”. Before you know it, so are you!
How Hard Can It Be?
Again, we mix with a wide range of athletes. Sometimes our inner voice thinks “if they can do it, so can I!”. Without any more thought than that, we have another race in our calendar.
FOMO
Similar to the previous couple of points, but the fear of missing out is strong. We see a lot of others doing a particular race, and don’t want to miss the marathon party (despite the fact you won’t see many of them during the race!)
Gives A Focus To Early Season Training
Most of the early season marathons are in April or early May. This means that serious training for this type of race starts many months earlier. This focus keeps athletes engaged – even when triathlon goals are so far away.
Lots of different reasons there. OK, whatever your reasons, you want to do this early season marathon. What are some of the pros and cons?
Pros
Run Fitness
Obviously, training for a marathon develops great run fitness. Long runs, running at pace for prolonged durations, great run efficiency and (hopefully) durability are all developed.
Using Time Wisely
Long rides aren’t very long at this point in the year, so you can use time wisely to develop run volume. If you had no early season marathon planned, your long runs would probably start later in the season, coinciding with increases in bike volume.
Build & Maintain
The plan of building the run volume early, then maintaining it whilst developing the bike and swim during spring and summer is a solid strategy.
Motivation
Motivation and enthusiasm for training in those dark and cold winter months is strong. The fear of the race helps push the athlete out of the door when perhaps they wouldn’t otherwise.
Cons
Recovery Between Sessions
Long runs – with marathon pace work – require recovery. It’s not easy to run for two hours thirty minutes on Sunday – with a lot of work at marathon race pace – and then bounce out of bed on a Monday morning ready to go again. It is a longer recovery than a typical Ironman zone 2 endurance-paced long run. This needs to be managed.
Taper & Recovery Time
The weeks taken to taper for the marathon – and then recover after the race – can compromise triathlon training. Two weeks of taper and (at least) one week recovery can impact. Again, good planning and management are required for this.
Injury Risk
Running generally carries a higher injury risk than swimming or cycling. Managing the marathon build up, not overdoing it, is a key consideration.
OK, you know why you want to run the marathon and you understand some of the pros and cons, and still want to go ahead.
Would I Do It?
I did this exact thing on the road to my first Ironman, Switzerland. I ran the London Marathon in April and then raced Ironman Switzerland in Zurich in July. As above, I remember training time was impacted by the taper / recovery process. I also picked up a few niggles in the run sessions shortly after the marathon (probably due to my naive approach to training at the time?).
That said, I don’t think the marathon impacted my Ironman performance significantly.
I have also coached athletes who have the done the marathon-Ironman double, performing well in both.
So, would I do a marathon – Ironman season again?
Yes, I probably would.
The Marathon & The Ironman Marathon
In my experience, the Ironman marathon is NOTHING like a standalone marathon. The Ironman marathon is an exercise in energy management, of positive self-talk, of putting one foot in front of the other, of standing upright at some points! A standalone marathon is about running a strong pace, racing almost, having an effective pacing strategy … and avoiding slowing down.
I mention this just to reassure those athletes who haven’t entered a marathon, who prior to this post had no intention of doing so, that you really don’t need to run a marathon prior to Ironman race day.
Only run a marathon because you want to.
Has this helped? Hopefully, your reasons for wanting to do a marathon are clear and you understand the benefits and the possible pitfalls. If you want to chat any of this through with me, just get in touch.
Coaching: Is A Marathon A Good Idea?
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