On Sunday, January 18th, 2022, the City of Houston is expecting to host their annual marathon. While it’s months away, we are all starting to hear about it now! Why on Earth would the organizers begin their advertising in September, almost 120+ days before the actual event?
Because for most people who compete in the Houston Marathon, it is either their first time or the only event they run in all year.
So, now we get to you! The reader. What kind of runner are you? Chances are if you’re checking out our page, CrossFit is more your speed. Which means that any idea of running a marathon would be to apply fitness and see what you are capable of! After all, isn’t completing a marathon a bucket list item for most of us?
Well being a novice at marathon running is okay! We just need to remember one thing, the first guy who did this race died. He screamed Nike a bunch of times after running 26.2 miles and died. Why? Most likely because he was running from a battlefield and didn’t really think to train for this exact event. He overtrained and died from trauma. This most likely wouldn’t be you, but we should absolutely train ourselves to make sure that our bodies are ready!
Why now? Why almost 20 weeks out from the event?
Chances are the longest run you have had in recent history as a CrossFitter or non-runner is about 2 miles. That WOD was probably Murph for you CrossFitters and boy were you sore for DAYS.
A marathon, or even a half marathon, is a LONG run. 13 or 6.5 times that respectively. You bones, joints, tendons, muscles, and even your skin haven’t experienced that much volume of running.
So what do we do to prepare? We start running just beyond where we are comfortable and begin pushing the envelope weekly. There is more nuance to it than that, but it is the gist!
We can accomplish having a great training plan by: finding a coach, finding online resources such as the nike running app, or finding a running group that is committed to helping you get to your goals!
Next we have to find a place (or places) to run so that we can do our training while not on a treadmill (they are bad for your knees, give you an incorrect idea of your running pace, and are boring). We will be making our next post about the running trails we recommend in Houston!
Lastly, we need to learn about fueling our bodies correctly so we cannot only perform, but recover from our workouts efficiently. After all, nutrition is 80%+ of anyone’s fitness goals!
For members of our gym, we will be starting a marathon training group on September 20th and will have two athlete camps that are 3 weeks each! We will be teaching athletes all about the steps to get through their training and providing guided assistance through everything listed above! The first one starts next Monday and has our first class @ 5:30pm on Tuesday!
Email us today @ vegvisircrossfit@gmail.com or schedule your No Sweat Intro via the button at the top right of your screen!
Keep following along with our blog as we give marathon tips throughout the training season to help improve your running game and get you prepared for the big day!