I had completed a half marathon last year and was surprised how easy the actual race was because I felt full of energy at the end of the race. The race was the easy part; the training program was the hardest part. Just getting those miles under your belt to prepare yourself for the race put so much strain on the muscles and tendons of my legs and feet, not to mention the blisters.

 

The prospect of training for a marathon seemed quite daunting and a potentially painful experience and I think I am allergic to pain. When I seek advice on fitness I only ask people who are fitter than me so I asked my friend Marc Dragan. Marc, a former professional triathlete and three times runner-up in the grueling Hawaiian Ironman triathlon, is now in his early 50s. He is still in superb shape, runs two very successful businesses and maintains a close family unit with his wife.

 

Remembering so many patients exercise programs being derailed through aches and injuries, I asked Marc, “How on earth did you manage to do all this training without your legs screaming under the load?” 

“Throughout my career, the only time you saw me running on a road was during an actual race. I did all of my running training on sand, grass or on a proper athletics track.”

 

Now what kind of training should you do?

 

If you haven’t exercised much before, the important thing is to get into the habit of exercising and not so much what kind of exercise you should do.

 

The key to look for in a training program is variation. You need to train at different intensities, which means that you must puff to varying degrees when exercising. It’s a bit like training different gears in a car. When you use all different gears your body’s engine works a lot more efficiently. This differs from the all or nothing training approaches that are a sure-fire recipe for fatigue, injury and illness.

 

I checked out many websites offering fitness-training programs and in my opinion the training programs that encourage a great variation in intensity are at www.endurancetraining.com.au. Check it out and you can adapt it to suit whatever kind of exercise you like. You can even get personalized training programs supplied to you.