There are two camps when training for your 1st half or full marathon – Racers and Runners.
Racers are people who are concerned about things like time, speed, pace, personal bests, trying harder.
Runners are people who are concerned about things like experience, fun, enjoyment, exhilaration, trying easier.
As you can see there is a fundamental difference in these two approaches. And the different philosophies result in fundamental differences in the approach to running .
Most running programs are actually racing programs designed by racers. You will often find that top athletes have designed them, and what is the common factor of top athletes? Time. They are top because they were the best. They ran the fastest, they had the best time. And so this philosophy pervades all of their advice, all of their training programs. The training program will have sections dealing with “pace”, “improving your speed”, “achieving your personal best”, “racing faster”, “speed work”, “fartleks” (yeah we know that sounds bad but it is a real running term that means speed play).
But there is another way and another philosophy and its called running easy. This is different to racers and it is also different to jogging, which if you training for a half or full marathon you move beyond. Jogging is what you see people doing at the park with the dog. Joggers are those people who casually toy with running. They run a few kilometers every now and then, but nothing more than that. Often they know very little about running, and in fact often spend most of their life struggling to develop the core cardio fitness and never moving beyond that zone. However once you start training for your 1st half or full marathon you are no longer a jogger – you are now a runner.
Racers are people who are concerned about things like time, speed, pace, personal bests, trying harder.
Runners are people who are concerned about things like experience, fun, enjoyment, exhilaration, trying easier.
As you can see there is a fundamental difference in these two approaches. And the different philosophies result in fundamental differences in the approach to running .
Most running programs are actually racing programs designed by racers. You will often find that top athletes have designed them, and what is the common factor of top athletes? Time. They are top because they were the best. They ran the fastest, they had the best time. And so this philosophy pervades all of their advice, all of their training programs. The training program will have sections dealing with “pace”, “improving your speed”, “achieving your personal best”, “racing faster”, “speed work”, “fartleks” (yeah we know that sounds bad but it is a real running term that means speed play).
But there is another way and another philosophy and its called running easy. This is different to racers and it is also different to jogging, which if you training for a half or full marathon you move beyond. Jogging is what you see people doing at the park with the dog. Joggers are those people who casually toy with running. They run a few kilometers every now and then, but nothing more than that. Often they know very little about running, and in fact often spend most of their life struggling to develop the core cardio fitness and never moving beyond that zone. However once you start training for your 1st half or full marathon you are no longer a jogger – you are now a runner.
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