INFORMATION FOR 'PREPPERS'

EPCOT World Showcase at Disney World; walkway near the England and France buildings.

on ARE YOU CONSIDERING RUNNING A MARATHON this winter or spring?  Time to start thinking and planning your training schedule based on your goal race distance and date. To help you with PREPARING and avoiding injury from overtraining, Jason Fitzgerald offers advice for marathon hopefuls in an article, “Are You Making these Marathon Training Mistakes?” for Competitor.com.  The mistakes Fitzgerald cites involve issues with, what he reports is the most basic training tool of a marathon preparation program, the weekly long run. He discusses 1) not respecting the long run, 2) rushing training, and 3) not learning to fuel properly/not fueling during the marathon.
 
Fitzgerald quotes Coach Jay Johnson in explaining the importance of the long run.  He also lays out a LONG RUN mileage minimum capability for starting training (10-12 miles) and a timeline for increasing it, over a 16-20 weeks duration program. If you start October 1, 2016, a full 16 weeks of training takes you to January 21, 2017, 18 weeks is completed on February 4, 2017, and 20 weeks has you finishing on February 18, 2017.  You can back up the start date to be prepared for a race earlier in 2017 or push it forward for a later race.

WALKERS would you consider training for a marathon? The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) offers an 18-week plan from champion walker Mark Fenton that can be altered to one with a goal of finishing in 6 hours (your pace would need to be a little over 13 minutes/mile) that is 22 weeks in duration.   Starting to train on October 1, 2016 would prepare you for an event on or around March 4, 2017; with a bit of a fudge-factor a St. Patrick's Day-themed race could be the target. 
It is said that many races identify a qualifying pace of 16 minutse/mile; runDisney has this pace requirement does but suggest a 15 minute/mile training pace to accommodate bathroom breaks. Jennifer Leigh,on Healthyliving.azcentral.com, has an article about how to reach this goal pace.

Keep in mind that your longest mile runs or walks on these plans may be in the worst weather months for darkness, cold, and precipitation. Remember also that this is FLU SEASON. Padding the schedule with one or two extra weeks may prevent panic if you’ve got to take time off for weather events or illness. What do you have going on that time of year which would be more fun than completing grueling distance runs/walks on weekend mornings?
 
RUN HAPPY!
 
http://running.competitor.com/2016/03/training/are-you-making-these-marathon-training-mistakes_147455

http://www.pbs.org/americaswalking/health/health18week.html
 
http://www.pbs.org/americaswalking/health/health22week.html

http://www.rundisney.com/disneyworld-marathon/

http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/walk-16-minute-mile-6955.html