The Goals of Marathon Training

The single most obvious goal of marathon training is to prepare yourself to run 26.2 miles. If you break down marathon training into it’s simplest format - that would be it. But marathon training is a bit more complicated than that. Every runner has different levels of fitness, experience, motivation, dedication, physical and mental strength. Each athlete also has unique goals. Some just want to finish the marathon while others are trying to meet a specific finishing time or compete for the top positions. That creates a lot of different possible goals. This chapter is about how training helps you achieve your goals. It is about how and why you perform each type of marathon workout.

Every workout or training run you perform has at least one, and in most cases, several goals. Again, the simplest version of those goals is to prepare you to run 26.2 miles, but it goes farther than that. The real objective of every workout you do is to beat your real enemy - fatigue. Fatigue is the unavoidable adversary will always raise its ugly head and try to throw up obstacles in the path of your marathon goal. I know that sounds like a very negative statement and as you know - you should always stay positive as a runner. Fatigue feeds on negativity, so always stay positive. However, the fact remains that fatigue is an integral part of marathon running. If fatigue could always be avoided you would be able to run forever at your top speed. You would never get tired. While that may sound appealing it would really be a disaster for runners. One of the strongest reasons for running is overcoming the challenge of running further and faster. Without fatigue there would be no challenge. There would be no real purpose in running. So when you look at it in that way, fatigue is an important part of running.

Fatigue cannot be completely avoided, but what you can do is train your body to battle fatigue and deal with the sensations of fatigue long enough for you to meet your goal. That is the true goal of marathon training - to train your body and mind to meet the challenge of fatigue head on. When your body goes to battle against fatigue it becomes stronger and more efficient at producing energy. Your endurance improves, you become faster and your stamina increases. Your mind, muscles and central nervous system get more “in synch” and become more efficient. You become a better runner. You are able to fight off the effects of fatigue for a longer period of time and at a higher intensity level.

A good starting point is to gain an understanding of the purpose or “goals” of marathon training. Here are the “top ten” of marathon training goals. You may or may not need to meet all of these goals to succeed in your marathon. The training goals you need to meet depend upon your experience level and what you want to accomplish. We will deal with what goals you need to specifically accomplish later on. For now, here are the top ten goals of marathon training.

Continue to Goal 1 - Improve Your Endurance

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