This may be your first marathon or perhaps you are returning to Chicago with hopes of running a faster race, overcoming challenges you faced during previous marathons, or just want to test the body and see what it is truly capable of.

Big goals don’t have to be intimidating. Here are some simple tips that can help set all of our marathon runners up to have the best possible race they can have this coming October when we all meet to cover 26.2 miles around the streets of Chicago.

1. Be consistent! This is your number 1 focus when training for a goal race like the Chicago marathon. Repetitive impact while running puts forces and stress on lower limbs and joints, requiring muscles, tendons, and ligaments to absorb the forces. Following a training plan that slowly builds your weekly mileage, speed, and strength in a safe, systematic, and progressive way decreases the propensity of chronic stress and impact-related injuries. While most marathon training plans are typically 18-20 weeks long, it is important to begin running now (if you are not already) and gradually add duration to your runs so you can run at least 8 miles when the structured marathon training plan starts.
2. The long run: Speaking of consistency, the long run is the key workout of the week as runners train for a marathon. Long runs are vital to building cardiovascular and muscular endurance. Plus, the mental side of long-run training helps the brain stay engaged and encourages the fatigued body. This will mentally help push a marathoner through those final, tough miles of the race.
3. Follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of run training should be at an easy, comfortable pace. Most injuries and burnout occur from running too many runs at a harder effort. The body needs easy runs to adapt to training stresses and recover from harder sessions. 20% of runs are focused quality sessions. These runs, performed 1-2 times/week, are higher intensity workouts (at 5K or 10K pace). They are important to improve leg turnover, increase aerobic capacity (VO2 max), and make the marathon pace feel easier. They should be gradually introduced into marathon training over the weeks as one builds his or her fitness. A great way to start safely incorporating speed into early season training is adding 20-30-second strides after the finish of a run. Strides are run at a pace faster than 5K pace (about as fast as you could run a hard mile). Do 4-6 strides post run, one to two times/week. Strides can help improve form, leg turnover, or cadence, and teach the body to run more efficiently which will allow it to use less oxygen to run at a given speed. Stride work is also beneficial in helping the body recover by increasing blood circulation and breaking up lactic acid buildup.
4. Nutrition and hydration: Don’t save practicing with nutrition during runs until the final weeks of training. Start early in the season so the stomach learns to process ingested nutrients and turn them into usable energy. Also, training with different types of nutritional products- gels, blocks, solid food, liquid hydration, and sampling a variety of brands will help you find what works best for you.
5. Rest, recovery, and sleep: This is one of the easiest ways to improve performance in theory, but often the most challenging to incorporate into daily life. Getting adequate rest- taking a recovery day from training and not overloading the body with tackling all the piled-up items on the to-do list on a rest day- or aiming for a solid night of sleep, especially as the weekly running mileage builds, is so important. Rest improves the rate of recovery after hard exercise bouts, decreases injury chances, increases adaptation to training, as well as increases cognitive processing. As Angelman caregivers, sometimes a night of uninterrupted sleep seems like a pipe dream, but there are some simple tips we can incorporate that can help us get more restful recovery and sleep. For example: if you subtract 10 min of scrolling on your phone each day and instead focus on breath work or meditation, those 10 min equal 16 hours over 14 weeks of training. Another principle, the 3-2-1 rule, is a method that helps prepare the body for a more restful sleep. 3 hours before bed: stop eating and drinking any alcoholic beverages. 2 hours before bed: stop doing work and engaging in stressful activities. 1 hour before bed: turn off screens (computers, phone scrolling social media, television).
6. Connect with your community: when you are struggling with motivation or need a boost to push a little harder during a workout, your community, both virtual and in person, can help you get over those physical and mental hurdles. Be active in our Windy City Angels Facebook group – post successes, ask questions, and reach out for motivation from others. Connect with our Strava group and record your workouts so other runners can give you “kudos” for your hard work. If you have a running club or group that meets for weekly runs and you can get away, join the group. Running with people who run faster than you or have similar goals- time, race, or distance goals, will help keep you engaged and moving forward in your training.
7. Remember your “why:” We all have our personal reasons as to why we want to run the Chicago marathon. Write down your reason. Display a photo of the Angel you run for, a photo of a previous version of yourself that you draw on for inspiration, or write down your why in a place you will see daily. Add a special saying or mantra that you can repeat during a hard run or when you struggle to get out the door. My favorite mantra is: “I don’t have to do this, I get to do this.” I remind myself of this during an especially challenging interval or dreary day when I would rather snuggle on the couch than head out the door. During the marathon when the miles begin to feel long and labored, I repeat what I have told myself over and over in practice and it fuels me to keep putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward toward the finish line.