 Hey guys! So, in the last Q&A video, Josefine asked a good question that I thought I'd answer in this video. She asks, Do you have any advice for when you're starting to train for longer races like hat marathons and marathons? Something maybe that you have to do and something that you should definitely not do and that's a really cool way to approach the question. So, I'm gonna answer that. So, training for, I'm just gonna call it marathoning. Anything with the word marathon in it, half marathon, marathon, perhaps even ultramarathon, although that's kind of a different bag, especially for halves and full marathons. It's very similar, the training that you'll be doing. So, I would say that across the board, whether you're training for short, like, you know, 3,000 meter, 5k, up to marathons distances, it's still the training, most of the training is very similar. However, the thing that makes marathon training different, I think, is that there's more of a focus on longer runs and more volume. It's just, it makes sense. If you're training for a marathon, you have to be used to running for a long time. So, something you must do in order to be a good marathoner or half marathoner, in my opinion, is long runs. Now, long runs are always good, even if you're a middle-distance runner, like 1500 meters, you still do long runs. But as a marathoner, you have to do longer long runs. You have to be used to being on your feet for a long time. So, if you're aiming for running, let's say you're trying to get to do a sub-4-hour marathon, do you have to do training runs that lasts 4 hours? Probably not, but you should probably be comfortable with a 3-hour run and throw that in there. Say, 3 or 4 times over the course of a couple of months, those last 2 months leading into your marathon race. And so, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to make a little bit of a modification on that. I'm going to say that something you must do for half-marathons or marathons are fast-paced long runs. Okay, so what I mean by that is most of your long runs in general should be easy, intensity. Just going easy for a long time. 90 minutes, 2 hours, 2.5 hours, that's solid training. As you get closer to your race, you might even throw in, as I said, a 3-hour long run. But faster-paced long runs are very important. Essentially, what we're talking about here is approaching marathon pace in your long run. Or approaching half-marathon pace in your long run. So, that basically means you'll be starting out at an easy intensity and probably doing it as a progressive effort. That's one way to do it. Where you increase the intensity over the course of the run and towards the latter part of the run, you might even hit say half-marathon pace. So you get used to running for a long time and practicing your race pace. If it's marathon race pace, that's a moderate type of intensity. Whereas if it's half-marathon pace, that's closer to your lactate threshold. So that's pretty intense. So you have to be careful how you do it. You have to build up, do it over time. You have to be sensible and you can't do those runs too often. I would say as a beginner, every three or four weeks, you could throw in a run like that over the course of a 12 to 16 week race build-up. And of course, as a coach, I do offer customized training plans. And if you're interested in me creating a training plan for you, feel free to contact me. There's a link in the description and up here. So that's something you must do, fast-paced long runs. And then the other question was something you should definitely not do. I would actually say that the best answer to that question is a very general recommendation that goes true for all of the different distances and all the races. It's just a general running recommendation and that is don't ramp things up too quickly. Be careful, systematic, conservative and consistent. You've got to build up slowly over time. Otherwise injury is going to happen. It's just I think 80% of runners get injured every single year. That's insane. And that's because it's a taxing sport. You're out there running and you're landing with two or three times that your body weight on each stride. It's really tough. And Josefina, your question during the Q&A video that I made. And if you guys haven't watched the Q&A video, I'll put a link to that here. But in that video, Josefina asked another question actually, which you can hear in that video, where she talks about some pains in the ankles, etc. shin splints, that sort of thing. And those sort of concerns are very common. Most runners, as I said, they do have issues with pains here and there. It's part of the sport and the way to avoid it and the way to stay safe and healthy during a marathon build-up, because think about it, if you're not staying injury-free, during the build-up, you won't be able to train. And even worse yet, you might not be able to actually start the race. So getting to a starting line, that's number one, right? Finishing it in a good time. That's that's second priority. So first thing first, injury prevention. So what you definitely do not want to do is to suddenly race your mileage and also at the same time throw in a lot of intense runs, throw in the fast-paced long runs, suddenly go from running one-hour runs to running three-hour runs, that sort of thing. So if you want to build up the thing slowly, you have to take time. It takes six months. Like if you're a beginner and you want to run a marathon, I recommend spending a good solid year, building a base, getting your volume up to where you want it, then adding in some intensity, then adding in some workouts, then adding in some of those longer runs, progressively building it over the weeks and months. It's really, you need a lot of patience to be a good runner. Again, I think the training plan is really key if you're trying to be healthy and trying to be successful in running. So sit down and create a training plan or contact a coach like myself and get it customized for a year. So that's it. That's the answer to the question. Fast-paced long runs, definitely do those and build up slowly. Those are my two recommendations and yeah, thanks for your question, Josefina. And thanks for all you other guys watching. Please subscribe, of course. Check out the links in the description and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.