Yesterday on my Facebook page we shared a BUPA post about marathon training and we indicated that there wasn’t enough about strength and conditioning which we as a clinic feel is important to help develop the strength and stamina needed to run a marathon.

My colleague Danny Clayton from DC Injury Clinic in Swindon is a runner and is quite heavily involved in the organisation of the Swindon Half Marathon and he came up with this timetable which we then talked about in our talk – “Common Running Injuries and how to reduce the risk”.

• Sunday:  Long Run
• Monday: Strength and Conditioning
• Tuesday: Tempo Run
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Speed/Hill Work
• Friday: Strength and Conditioning
• Saturday:  Rest

You will notice in here that there is only 3 days of actual running however this is enough along with the strength and conditioning. One of the strength and coniditioning days could be used a cross training day – maybe some cycling, rowing, cross trainer combined with some strength training.

Also, remember the rest – rest is as important in your training regime as anything else. You need time to recover and also you do need time to do other things as marathon training can become all consuming.

So what do we mea by strength and conditioning for a marthon. It is about strengthening those muscles that will help with your running so the muscles we’re talking about at a high level are:-

• Glutes
• Hip Flexors
• Calf Muscles
• and others

A good regime will also include other muscles as part of the S&C for the above muscles.

What exercises?

Crab Walks, The Jane Fondas, Heel raises, one legged squats etc.

Myself and Danny Clayton will be doing talks about Common Running Injuries so come along to learn more or get in touch with the clinic and make an appointment and we can discuss things in more detail.