Jason Karp

To be the best you can at running a marathon, you need to start by making sure you’re running with proper form. When you have your technique down, you can start thinking about training for the marathon, including the important concept of alternating your pace during workouts. As race day draws near, you’ll want to practice tapering — a reduction in your training to help you recover and stay fresh.

When you train for a marathon, every workout you do has a specific pace associated with it so you gain the most value from it. Use these pacing guidelines for your workouts. Recreational runners should follow these guidelines for tempo runs and intervals: Tempo runs (runs at your tempo pace, which corresponds to your fastest sustainable aerobic pace) About 10 to 15 seconds per mile slower than the pace you run for a 5K race Equal or very close to the pace you run for a 10K race (if you’re slower than about 53:00 for 10K, your tempo pace will be slightly faster than 10K race pace) 80 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate.

Tapering, which is a reduction in your marathon training, enables you to recover from the training you’ve completed so that you’re fresh and ready to go on race day. Follow these tapering guidelines before your marathon: Reduce your running volume but maintain the intensity with tempo runs and interval workouts.

Having a good form is critical if you run marathons, or you risk injury. Whether you run marathons or just run for fun or fitness, these tips can improve your running form. Land with your feet directly under your hips. Don’t overstride by landing sharply with your heel and your leg out in front of your body.

As one coach used to say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Plan for running a successful marathon with this checklist of things you don’t want to forget on marathon race day: Eat a small breakfast containing 300 to 400 calories of carbohydrate and protein 1.5 to 2 hours before the start. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

With marathons all over the world, running a marathon has become a popular vacation activity. What better way to explore new places than to run through them, right? Why run through the streets of your hometown when you can run through stunning scenery in an exotic, faraway place, and then hang out and take in the sights?

To guide you in your endeavor to run a successful marathon, here are ten of the most common training errors that runners make. Avoid all these errors and not only will you drastically reduce your chance of getting an injury but you also may cross the finish line of the marathon feeling like you want to do it all over again (no, that never happens).

Beginning with what time you get up to ensuring that you finish the race, there are many things you should definitely do on marathon race day. Following are just ten of the most important. Give yourself plenty of time before the marathon Even if you hate getting out of bed before the crack of dawn, you don’t want to wake up too close to the start time of a marathon.

You’d be surprised how often the same questions about running marathons come up (that must be why they’re referred to as “frequently asked”). Here are eleven of those FAQs along with some answers. Should I join a training group? Many runners like training by themselves, especially if they’re introverts or if they have busy jobs with constraints on their time.