How many marathons can i run per year

In my opinion, amateur or novice athletes, and even older runners, should race at most one marathon per year and should have a period of at least 8 months between the marathons. H igh level athletes should do no more than two marathons per year and have a period of at least 6 months between the marathons.

I suggest to our readers to try to distinguish between the expressions "race a marathon" and "run a marathon". T he physical effort in any sport must be well planned by the coach and countersigned by a sports medicine doctor. A ny marathon, or other kind of hard physical effort, is an advanced investment in your health condition, and, in consequence, it is critical. Good races with good training.

Carlos Gomes Ventura e-mail: cgventura uol. The preparation time should be about 4 months, since amateurs need more time to adapt to high volumes of training, in particular the long runs that are important to increase the muscle glycogen stores, essential after the 30 km during the marathon.

These recommendations consider that you want to do a marathon aiming for performance. Stay patient, and keep a sane race schedule. Athlete Search. Go to Mobile App. Show Blog Categories. Hide Blog Categories. Written by Dena Evans. Published in Blog. This guideline assumes that each marathon is a major goal race, and that you want to be in the best possible condition for it. For many runners, a marathon is the culmination of a long season of training and race build-up.

One study found that levels in the blood stream connected to tissue damage remain for over a week after a marathon. You should give yourself two to three weeks off with nothing but easy running.

Remember that you really need at least two weeks to recover and two weeks to taper before another race. Trying to squeeze too many marathons into a year means you might be limiting your progress. Skipping these hard workouts for more long slow distance will certainly build endurance. Not everyone follows this conventional wisdom. If you are someone who is running marathons at a conversational pace, as opposed to at or near your threshold, then your body is more likely to be able to handle the load.

If on the hand you push the pace hard and gun for PRs each and every time, even three marathons can be too much. Br J Gen Pract. Hagerman FC, et al. Smith LL. Overtraining, Excessive Exercise, and Altered Immunity.

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I Accept Show Purposes. Include interval sessions in your schedule. November Participate in a full November to December Rest and ease back with very easy, light runs for about two weeks. December to January Begin recovery training. Be sure to include strength training and stride work.

January Spend the next four weeks working on speed by concentrating on drills and interval training. February to May Fall back into week 10 to 12 of your original marathon training schedule.

Mid-May Participate in second full End of May Rest and ease back with very easy, light runs for about two weeks. June to July Begin recovery training. July to August Spend the next four weeks working on speed by concentrating on drills and interval training. August to September Participate in a 5K or 10K race. September to October 2 weeks of recovery and light runs.

October to December Change things up. Jump into half-marathon training. This is a good way to maximize your anaerobic threshold before reverse tapering and going back to training for another Was this page helpful?