You may be thinking what to do between marathons at the end of a marathon. We have information below that will help you better prepare for your upcoming marathon. Let's examine together how to prepare for a marathon.

How to Prepare for a Marathon

Here, we have gathered what you can do before and after a marathon. With these simple steps, you can make sure that you are ready for what is coming next.

Recover

Give yourself three weeks for your recovery period because you have the time. (Full marathoners should take four.) The focus of the first week of preparing for a marathon is on increasing circulation and relaxing the muscles after the strains of the marathon. For the first few days of your first week, concentrate on 20 to 30 minutes of low-intensity, easy-effort exercise, along with foam rolling or massage to relieve muscle tension. If there are no aches or problems later that week, try running for 30 minutes at a light effort to see how you feel.

Take Your Time

Over the course of the following two weeks, progressively increase your running time to 45 to 60 minutes per session at your usual frequency while maintaining a conversational and easy pace. On days when you don't run, to prepare for a marathon, incorporate cross-training (such as yoga, strength training, and low-impact cardio) while keeping the intensity low. Even while it may seem like you're losing fitness, you're actually mending, which will make it easier for you to resume exercising and enhance performance in the future. You have seven weeks to play and keep up your base after spending three weeks in your recovery phase. The goal when preparing for a marathon is to maintain fitness while giving yourself time off the push-recover training cycle by keeping your running and fitness routines generally stable in nature rather than progressing like your training schedule.

Cross-Train

The transitional period is also the ideal time to concentrate more on increasing your overall body strength and flexibility. With three sessions of 20 to 30 minutes of strength and flexibility training per week, you'll notice a noticeable improvement in your muscle and joint strength and mobility. This is a good approach to get ready for a marathon, and once the season starts, you can keep up this routine by cutting back to twice a week.

It's also the ideal time to switch up your routine and engage in activities that you couldn't when training for a marathon. You can spend more time participating in low-impact sports like ElliptiGo, road bike, and mountain biking. You can use road cycles for cross-training during the spring. Or, even better, ride your mountain bike on the trails in the fall. By varying your seasons, you keep your show interesting and lower the risk of burnout when preparing for a marathon.

These were our tips for what you can do between marathons to keep yourself in shape! You can check out our other blog posts for more information about this topic and more.