Marathon Training Tips Tuesday, 15 April 2025

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Did you start with couch to 5k and now you’ve caught the running bug or you’ve always loved running but wondering what your next challenge could be? A half marathon or full marathon is an ideal goal to aim for. Running a marathon isn’t a decision you can make overnight, it takes a lot of preparation and training, find out our top ten tips to get you marathon ready!

How long is a marathon?

A full marathon is a hefty 26.2 miles and a half marathon is exactly half of that at 13.1 miles. If you prefer to measure your run distances in kilometres, you’re looking at 42.195km for a full marathon and 21.0975km for a half.

Making marathon running fun

We know the more serious side of marathon running, watching the pros pushing themselves to their limits to break records and personal bests but not everyone can be on that level. Let’s take a second to think about the people who don’t just run for themselves, they have others in mind too. A lot of people run marathons to fundraise for worthy causes which is an incredibly selfless thing to do.

Investing in high quality gymwear would be recommended for running long distances, check out our range HERE. However, when it comes to marathons no outfit is off limits, the more insane the better! Ever seen a running rubik’s cube or pineapple? Probably not day to day but in a marathon no one bats an eye lid! A crazy outfit will help to raise extra money too.

The marathon location

When you hear the word marathon everyone usually thinks of the London marathon straight away as this well-known across the globe, attracting runners worldwide to enter. The London marathon 2025 is set to be officially the world's most popular marathon, looking to gain a world record for the most participants in a marathon. The London marathon is taking place on Sunday 27 April this year (2025) and the entries are now closed. However, don’t wait around if you want to get involved next year, enter the ballot HERE for 2026.

Marathons take place in locations all over the world, from Paris to Tokyo! So, if you love to travel as well as run, why not combine the two! Enter yourself into a marathon in a city or country you’ve always wanted to travel to and take in the sights while running. It’s important to be prepared for the expected weather conditions so if you’re heading to a hotter country staying hydrating will be more important than ever.

Top Tips

Nutrition – Throughout training a varied, nutritious diet with a focus around carbohydrates and protein is best for optimising performance. In the two days prior to race day it’s advised to do something called ‘carb loading’, essentially eating as many carbohydrates as you can, which sounds pretty good to us! Who wouldn’t want an endless supply of bread, rice, pasta etc, it’s tasty and will fuel you for the race ahead.
Stay Hydrated – It can be easy to become dehydrated when running, it’s super important to prioritise hydration both before and during your training and on race day. You want to start your race hydrated however drinking loads of water isn’t the best way to achieve this as too much water can dilute the bodies sodium levels and will be sloshing around in your stomach, no one wants that! One electrolyte drink is ideal to have about 90 minutes before the race. Everyone’s body is different in terms of how much sodium you lose when you sweat so the same approach across the board doesn’t work, training is the best time to figure out the optimum mixture of water and electrolyte drinks to have during the race.
Tactfully plan your training routes – Running long distances is a real opportunity to explore new places, enjoy picturesque scenery and interesting architecture. For an extra touch of motivation make the finish line somewhere you really want to go. Been dying to try out a coffee shop that everyone’s been raving about? Gasping for a crisp G&T at the end of your run? Make a pub or café your finish line and reward yourself for what you’ve just achieved, long distance running is hard and you deserve a treat!
Recruit a training buddy – It can be hard to stay motivated when running alone, having a training buddy in the form of a friend or family member is great to hype each other up when motivation is low. This person doesn’t have to run the marathon with you on the day but keeping up the motivation building up to race day makes all the difference.
Vary your training – A common misconception is that marathon training only involves running, strength training is important as well to strengthen vital muscles. Exercises like calf raises, glute bridges, planks, squats and lunges are perfect to slot into marathon training.
Rest – Resting is very important during marathon training to allow your body and muscles to recover from the stress they are put under during long distance running. During marathon training one full rest day a week is the general recommendation however, if you feel you need more listen to your body and do what feels right for you.
Don’t forget active recovery – Rest and recovery doesn’t always mean doing nothing at all. Rest and recovery are different things. Exercises like walking, cycling, swimming, or yoga are perfect exercises to add into your regime to aid recovery as they help increase muscle blood flow and avoid additional strain.
Sleep - Getting enough sleep is often forgotten when thinking about rest and recovery but it's an important factor to improve performance. Ideally during training you should be aiming for 7 to 9 hours sleep per night. Getting the right amount of sleep helps reduce the risk of injury as well as increased concentration and reaction times.

Jamie Laing Ultra Marathon Man

If you thought running one marathon was bad, this year Jamie Laing challenged himself to run 5 ultra marathons over 5 days for Comic Relief starting in London and finishing in Manchester, earning the title of Ultra Marathon Man. As well as this being expectantly physically challenging, it was mentally challenging too and throughout the week Jamie put a real emphasis on talking about mental health. It was really important to Jamie to talk about his own mental health struggles and encourage others to do the same. During an interview he said the following:

"One of the big things for me was just talking about your mental health. And it sounds so cliche, but what is more important and more powerful is saying 'I have anxiety', 'I have OCD', 'I have depression', 'I have insomnia'. Whatever it is, labelling yourself is so much more. I've never really been honest about it. I have suffered, and I do suffer. And that's okay. It's way braver to talk about it than not talk about it, and this week has made me realise that talking about things is the coolest thing in the world."

Jamie raised over £2m for Comic Relief which is an unbelievable achievement in itself and the money will go far to help to many people, but what he did around encouraging more conversations around mental health goes further, hearing Jamie talk to openly about his own struggles will help to many people to talk about their own struggles too which is so important.