Marathon and Half-Marathon (20 page)
Read Marathon and Half-Marathon Online
Authors: Marnie Caron,Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia
Tags: #SPO035000, #book
Why the marathon?
It’s important to share with your family some of your reasons for wanting to take on such a colossal endeavor as the marathon. It is especially important if you weren’t a regular runner in the past. Don’t expect your spouse and others to be immediately supportive. Sometimes it takes time for others to fully understand our marathon aspirations.
Make sure it’s the right time
Ask yourself if it is the best time for you to pursue your marathon goal. If your wife is about to have a baby, or you’re tutoring your daughter for 3 hours every night to prepare her for her SATS, it may not be the best time to spend several extra hours a week away from your home and family. Waiting for the right time for those close to you increases the likelihood of gaining your family’s support and, in turn, meeting your marathon goal. You want to do everything you can to enjoy the experience and not view it as simply another source of stress.
Getting organized
Organization is key when it comes to marathon training. Running four times a week takes a significant amount of time. In order to stick to your training program, you need to organize all of the important areas of your life. Take the time to sit down with your spouse and discuss any upcoming events such as birthdays and weddings, as well as potential concerns. Using a calendar and your training program, begin making a household plan that looks after the needs of your home and family and still allows you to fulfill the demands of your marathon program. Here are some things to consider when making your plan:
• Establish the days and times when you can fit in each of your week’s runs. Pencil these runs into a family calendar, and post it in a central location so that everyone can support mom and/or dad’s next training run.
• Decide who is responsible for each of the household chores, such as laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, paying bills, carpooling, and child care. Once you’ve delegated each task, decide when it will be done. This may sound overly organized, but creating a detailed plan at the onset of one’s training program will reduce stress, confusion, and conflict during the months of marathon preparation.
• Plan your weekly menu and grocery list. This is not the time to be making extravagant dinners, but that doesn’t mean meals cannot be healthy and tasty.
• Be sure to build in some extra rest after each long run. Your long runs will take a lot out of you. You may want to schedule an afternoon nap or some easy chores. You don’t want to be cutting the grass or teaching your daughter how to ride a bike after your 3-hour run. Fatigue not only limits energy—it can also decrease your patience.
RUNNER
PROFILE
Steven
Steven is a 42-year-old business lawyer and a single father who runs four times a week. A rugby player in college, he ran to stay fit. It wasn’t until he was practicing law that he began to run for pleasure and as a means of de-stressing. After meeting his wife and having two children, Steven began running with the baby jogger. “Using the stroller, having to plan the timing of runs, and having the opportunity to get the babies out of the house and quiet for a few hours actually helped me get some focus. It definitely was not a detriment.”
Over the years, Steven has run seven marathons, and much of his training was done with the jogging stroller. Today, he runs on his own after work and on weekends when he has the kids. With a little cajoling, the children often agree to accompany him on their bikes. “Having the kids cycle alongside isn’t always easy; they often want to stop, and the pace can be a problem. But if we visit new parks and neighborhoods it seems they have more fun, are more focused on riding, and less concerned about the upcoming hill. Regardless, training with my kids is a great motivator and a wonderful way to spend and afternoon.” These days, Steven is training for the Paris Marathon. His kids won’t travel to France, but they will definitely be supporting him during some of his long training runs.
• Encourage family members to join you for the odd run. If they aren’t runners, suggest they roller-blade or bike alongside you. Or they can meet you at the end of a long run; go out for ice cream as a celebration. By including family and friends in your training, you will make them feel part of the team.
• If you have a running partner or a running group, plan a post-run dinner or breakfast that involves your family. It’s good to be excited about new friends and shared goals, but your family also wants to be part of the excitement. Sharing the ups and downs of your training with loved ones helps you to remain connected throughout the marathon experience.
Children in the Training Equation
Children learn about exercise from their parents, and pediatrician Dr. Trent Smith encourages parents to include children in their training equation. Kids are like sponges. By running with a jogging stroller, having your daughter join you on a bike, or meeting your teenage son for a lemonade after a long run, you’re modeling good behavior for your child. Studies show that families who play together and make exercise a regular part of their lives are more likely to have children who view exercise as an everyday activity.
Marathon training with a jogging stroller
The jogging stroller can be an essential item for marathoning moms and dads, but pushing a jogging stroller for an hour-long run is more difficult than it looks. Even for the extremely fit, it takes time to build the strength, comfort, and coordination required to run with a stroller. You might want to start with a gradual walk/run and gradually build up your comfort level before attempting a short or medium-length run.
Once you’re comfortable running with a jogging stroller, it’s a great way to have time with your baby and get out for your midweek runs. But having your baby with you for your long runs might be too much for both of you. Dr. Liz Joy recommends that parents trust their instincts when it comes to the acceptable amount of time a baby can sit comfortably in the jogging stroller. Some parents find that taking a rest break halfway through a run is a great way to keep both parent and child happy. Consider stopping at a park and allowing your baby to enjoy the new surroundings while you refuel and catch your breath.
Be realistic about your children. Having your child with you on a bike or in a jogger can be very rewarding, but for a marathon and half-marathon program it is unlikely they will be great companions for the longer runs. Make sure you can count on some child care during that time.
Making your child’s health a priority
If your children are beyond the jogging stroller phase, there are a lot of great ways for them to share your marathon experience. If your child expresses an interest in joining you on a run, encourage him or her to accompany you on a bike. After watching you run, your child may become interested in joining you on foot. If this is the case, make sure the focus is on having fun. Try exploring your local park, and incorporate a walk/run game. Dr. Smith says, “By making exercise play-driven, kids are more likely to be inspired to exercise regularly. If children see running as something that is only hard work, it is unlikely that they will want to make it a regular habit that will last into their teen and adult years.”
RUNNER
PROFILE
Paige
Paige is a 13-year-old who has always preferred reading and drawing to any kind of sport. She’s a shy girl and usually spends most of her free time working on her next art creation; for the past couple of years, she has had a huge fascination with unicorns and has won several prizes in youth drawing contests across the U.S. It’s not that she dislikes exercise—in fact, she often goes for evening walks with her mother. But at school Paige feels intimidated by team sports. She doesn’t know many of the other kids, and when she’s in gym class she’s usually sitting on the sidelines or is one of the last to be picked for teams.
Now that Paige is becoming a teenager and interested in boys, she’s increasingly aware of her growing body. She is determined to lose the extra weight she seems to have gained in the past year. Her increasing waistline can, at least in part, be attributed to hormones and the normal changes most adolescents face, but she cannot ignore her poor diet and minimal exercise. At a recent checkup, Paige asked her family physician to suggest a good diet that would promote weight loss. She was surprised to hear that diet alone would not help her lose pounds, nor maintain a healthy weight. The doctor also told her that if she were to continue down her current path of minimal exercise and excessive fast food, she would likely become obese before the age of 20. This really scared Paige and made her even more resolved to lose the extra weight. She decided to take her doctor’s advice to try a walk/run program.
Paige is now 3 months into that program and very pleased with her commitment to exercise. She hasn’t lost quite as much weight as she would like, but it’s slowly coming off and staying off. She recently completed her first 5-kilometer race and is now training for a 10-kilometer event. She feels healthier and happier with her decreased cravings for fast food, and she has made friends who join her for most of her walk/run sessions. What started out as a weight-loss program has turned into a life-altering experience. Paige still enjoys her artwork, but she doesn’t miss her sedentary lifestyle.
Kids who want to train for a half or full marathon
As your children watch you train for your marathon, there is a chance they will catch the running bug. You don’t want to quash their enthusiasm and passion for running, but sport physicians and pediatricians agree that training for and completing a marathon is too demanding for anyone under 18 years of age. When helping your pre-adolescent child with his or her running goals, it’s best to use common sense. The Canadian Pediatrics Association says there are no clear guidelines for this group of runners. Dr. Smith suggests that running a 10-kilometer race might be too much for a child, but a grade 5 or 6 student who has run a couple of 5-kilometer races probably could, with some training, run a 10-kilometer race.
Your keen, active child can be safely encouraged to accompany you on the two shorter workout days in our program, under which you will both be gradually progressing to a 10-, 12-, and 20-minute jog over a 20-week period.
Helping your sedentary child to safely become
more active
Whether your child is 10 or 15 years of age, there is little scientific literature on which to base recommendations for adolescent running programs. To minimize the risk of injury and future concerns, strength and conditioning experts recommend sequential training programs for adolescents. If it’s running that interests your child, start him or her with a gradual walk/run program. Using blocks of 3 to 4 weeks, your child can gradually increase the running time. Before that happens, it’s a good idea to evaluate how he or she is responding to the program. You can do this by timing him or her over a measured distance. If running times are increasing rather than decreasing, the young runner is likely fatigued and possibly needs an extra rest day to recover. In the beginning, running times should stay the same or gradually decrease. Remember, every person progresses at distinct rates. It’s also a good idea to monitor children for potential signs of injury by asking them a series of questions every week or so. The questions should include the following:
• How do you feel?
• Are you tired?
• How do your legs feel?
• How do your feet feel?
• How does your back feel?
If they are experiencing some pain, ask them to localize it. These questions might seem straightforward to most adults, but you have to remember that struc- tured exercising—and the discomfort that can be associated with such exercise—is completely new for your child. Articulating how he or she is feeling can be difficult, which is why you need to probe for feedback on training progress. If the youngster is experiencing pain, set up a rest day or two. If the soreness doesn’t dissipate within a couple of days, make an appointment for the young runner to see your sport medicine physician.
Including the Household
Congratulations, you’ve taken the first step and made a personal commitment to train for the half or full marathon. Now comes the task of figuring out the best times to train, given the demands of the household. Within a typical busy family, your running will require the support of that helpful spouse, partner, or close friend, or it may require spending a little money on child care. The key is to develop a pattern for your workouts. Write down your options in your daytimer, in a diary, or on a wall calendar. Organize child care, and stick to it. Your workouts must be structured, or they will not happen!
Overcome your child care anxieties by searching out a local gym or community center where child care is provided for a reasonable price. It takes time and patience to organize what your pre-schooler needs at day care. Accept that there will be a few “unhappy” sessions before your child gets used to the new environment.
Child care at your local gym won’t work as your longer workouts become too long, but it’s a terrific option for your two shorter sessions. If your children don’t do well in child care or if cost is an issue, you may need to search out a partner, friend, or neighbor with whom you can switch child care responsibilities. You can watch their child or do their shopping in return for their watching your children while you run.
Tips for organizing work, kids, and distance running
