Fitness: Be careful when choosing a marathon training program

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If a marathon is on your bucket list for 2024, you're probably considering some training programs to help you reach your goal. Many differ in their running experience, meaning that first-time marathoners train differently than runners with one or two marathons under their belts.

Most beginners' goal is to finish, while veteran marathoners aim for time, so focus on pace-based training miles versus the slow and gradual increases in mileage that beginners like.

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Training programs also differ in the duration of training and the number of exercises per week. Some schedule three runs per week over a 20-week period, while others are as short as 12 weeks, but call for five or six workouts in a seven-day cycle. Regardless of a runner's goal or experience, all marathon runners have one goal in common, and that is to make it to the starting line. But with research showing that 30-45 percent of marathon runners are injured before a race, there's more to choosing a successful training program than a race-day goal.

Recognizing the high rate of injury among marathoners and hoping to gather more information about where most runners experience their first aches and pains during the training period, a team of researchers studied the injury patterns of 1,049 runners during a 16-week training program. to the New York City Marathon.

Runners were asked to report injury status every four weeks, including describing the location and type of injury and whether it was acute (sudden) or overuse (gradual onset) as any illness that “limited exercise frequency, distance, or pace.” .

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“There is little data available for marathoners during training and competition to determine when runners are most likely to be injured, what those injuries are (eg, anatomical location and tissue type), the effect of age on injury type, and the effect of runner health. -use of care for these injuries,” the researchers reported in a recent issue of BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine.

During the marathon, 38.4 percent reported that they were injured during training. Another 14 percent were injured during the competition. Overuse injuries were the most common types of leg, knee, and hip injuries. As the training program progressed, the likelihood of injury increased, with runner's age having little effect on injury rates.

Reid Ferber, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Calgary and director of the Running Injury Clinic, was not surprised by the results.

“Most training programs are too aggressive,” said Ferber, who takes 20 or more weeks to train for a marathon.

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He cites a sudden 25-30 percent increase in exercise volume as a common flaw in many training programs and recommends no more than a 10 percent increase. He's also surprised that no one has compared injury patterns between popular marathon training programs, including how they affect novice and experienced marathoners. With approximately 1.3 million people running marathons each year, it's surprising that little is known about which training program gets the greatest number of runners to the starting line injury-free.

It's true that most injuries aren't due to a single training error, but training volume is associated with running injuries over a long period of time. Reid says something as simple as switching out some of your weekly running routine for other types of exercise will increase your chances of making it to the starting line without affecting your performance goals. He also stresses the importance of strength training, an often overlooked element of most marathon training. Shoes can also make a difference, with studies showing that runners who wear the same shoes during exercise are more likely to get injured than those who change shoes frequently.

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“Most shoes wear out after 400 miles of training, so it's a good idea to buy three pairs of shoes and rotate between them during each marathon training cycle,” Ferber said.

A history of injuries increases your chances of re-injury, so if your knees, hips or feet don't mind hitting the pavement, make sure you take Ferber's advice and budget at least 20 weeks to get ready for the marathon. your running experience. Better yet, add an extra two weeks if you have a flare-up and need to get your training volume back up to 100 percent.

When it comes to avoiding injury during a marathon, Ferber recommends learning as much about the route as possible in advance and making sure your training takes you through similar terrain. You don't want to tackle the inclines and declines of all five bridges featured in the New York City Marathon, Heartbreak Hill in Boston, or the San Francisco Marathon without properly preparing your body for the added stress of a hilly course.

But the challenge of this marathon makes it a popular bucket list item, so don't hesitate to test your running chops based on the likelihood of experiencing a few aches and pains along the way. But be careful when choosing an exercise program and give yourself plenty of time to build up the endurance you need to achieve your goals. Training for a marathon is designed to test your willpower, not your ability to run in pain.

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