Listen to your body

This is probably one of the most important things you can do during your training to ensure you don’t pick up an injury, and that is listening to your body. Remember, you know your own body better than anybody else, and only you know if you are really pushing yourself too hard. It is true that during marathon training you may have a few aches & pains, and that is normal. You’re working hard and putting your body through a lot. But what’s not normal is having pain that stops you from being able to run, is painful when resting or if you notice something just really isn’t right.

Sometimes it is really easy to ignore those early signs, but that is only going to make things worse in the long run (no pun intended!). If you are worried about something, it’s always best to be over cautious and take an extra rest day, and seek professional help, and hopefully if you get the problem sorted early on it won’t put you out of action for a long time.

Cross Training

Sure, when you are training for a marathon, running is obviously an important part of your training. But what about everything else? Cross training is a great thing to include in your marathon training and it can be a really good way to build fitness, reduce the risk of injury and help to keep your training fun!

Here are some things you can do alongside your training to help benefit your running;

• Cycling
• Swimming
• Yoga/Pilates
• Strength Training
• Walking

We have a whole series of blogs & videos around Strength Training, so if you are not sure where to start, click here for everything you need!

Rest & Recovery

One of the most underrated things you can do to avoid injury - prioritise your rest and recovery!

This includes full rest days, making sure you get plenty of sleep and ensuring you have lots of easy training days.

We know its easy to think that if you want to make progress, get faster or stronger that you need to train hard every single day, but the truth is that our bodies can only really adapt & make progress when we allow our body to repair and recover.

Ideally we would advise to have at least one full rest day per week - so that means no running and no cross training. Instead, use those days to do as little as possible physically, and perhaps just go for a short walk or use the time you normally spend training to finally use that foam roller that has been collecting dust in the corner 😉