Good luck in achieving your goals and enjoy getting fit.<\/li><\/ol>[learn_more caption=\"Phase 1 - Introduction to running\"] If you currently do none or very little running then you can\u2019t jump in at the deep end. Running is very strenuous on the muscles, bones and joints and doing too much too quickly during the initial 4 weeks will probably end your marathon campaign early through injury. You need to condition your body to withstand the stresses and strains it will be put under during training. Thankfully though, the human body is pretty resilient and very adaptable and by following these guidelines you should feel ready to progress on to the next phase comfortably.<\/p>
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[learn_more caption=\"Phase 2 - Building Aerobic Capacity\"] Aerobic Capacity put simply is the amount of oxygen the body can utilise per minute during exercise. The more oxygen your body can breathe in and send to the working muscles, the more efficient you will become allowing your muscles to work longer before fatiguing. This phase is fairly simple, you lengthen your runs and you work at your \u2018aerobic threshold\u2019 twice a week but the science behind it is not so simple. See below for more info.<\/p>
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What is aerobic threshold? I hear you ask. Well I\u2019ll tell you. Aerobic threshold (sometimes called lactic threshold or tempo running) is a given pace or effort that one can exercise at (in our case run) where the body is at its limit (or threshold) before the onset of lactic acid occurs. Typically this is around 80%-85% of your maximal heart rate and is completely individual as every ones physiology is different. There is a fine line between running at your aerobic threshold and being slightly over. If you\u2019re unsure it\u2019s always better to play it safe and run a bit slower than go too fast and blow up. It\u2019s actually very important that you don\u2019t go too fast as this is a very specific type of training with an outcome that will only work if its done correctly. The idea of it is to increase the bodies\u2019 capacity to working at this effort in order to run further distances, at faster speeds but still staying under that magic threshold effort where you don\u2019t build up the dreaded lactic acid. This will ultimately be just faster than the pace you should try to run your marathon at.[\/learn_more]<\/p>
[learn_more caption=\"Phase 3 - Half Marathon Training\"] Now that we have a pretty big aerobic base to work from we can now start to implement marathon specific training. This will be a mixture of steady running, sessions and long runs building up in either intensity or volume week on week to prepare your body to withstand 13.1\u00a0miles. It will be key to listen to your body during this phase as it\u2019s the hardest and longest phase of the program. If something starts hurting and you have to miss a day or change things round a bit then by all means do it. Remember that this is just a guide and is not gospel. Even missing a whole week won\u2019t make much difference over a 12 week period but don\u2019t make the mistake of trying to make the training back up if you do have to miss some training though.<\/p>
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[learn_more caption=\"Phase 4 - Taper\"] This is the best part of the schedule, this is where we start getting the body ready to race. In this phase the training will slowly start to trickle down and rest up so you're\u00a0ready to hit the race hard.<\/p>
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12 Week Half Marathon Training Plan - Run Heaton<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n