After the Marathon or Half Marathon How Should I Train All Winter?

Question: After the Marathon or Half Marathon How Should I Train All Winter?

My friends and I will walk our first half-marathon in two weeks. What kind of training should we do afterwards to keep in the shape we have achieved? We live in an area with cold, icy winters where walking outside will be difficult.

Answer: Following a half-marathon or marathon, you should have 2-5 weeks of "active rest." Don't push speed at all. You should continue to walk for health, but keep the mileage lower.

For myself, I generally walk 10K walks (6 miles) every weekend, including after the marathon. I use volkssport walking events for my 10K walks - they are non-competitive and in a variety of terrain. Within the week I walk for 30 minutes to an hour most days, but at a low speed during recovery.

Build Your Fitness Base in Winter

Use the winter to work on flexibility and core strengthening. This will help your walking enormously in the spring, allowing you to have good posture and walking form. Great walking posture is the key to speed, endurance, and getting the most from your walking.

• Pilates: Build your core strength with Pilates.
• Yoga: Improve your flexibility with yoga.
• Circuit Training: Work on both strength and cardio with indoors circuit training workouts.

Indoors Walking in Winter

Heading into winter, your best option in your area is to find a treadmill you can use or a gym with an indoors walking/running track.

Mall Walking: My walking gang uses indoors malls early in the morning in bad weather to get in 6 miles or more before the crowds arrive. Most malls open early for this purpose, and you are welcome to go as fast or as slow as you desire.

Treadmill to Practice Walking Form: Using a treadmill, you can get good benefit from it by practicing your walking form in a mirror, or even filming yourself on the treadmill. Work on your posture and foot strike, rolling through a step. This will also help you greatly once the thaw comes and you can walk outside again.
Practice Your Walking Form

Treadmill Intervals: Treadmills can also be of use for doing interval training - walking and/or jogging at different paces to help build speed and aerobic capacity. Most treadmills have programmed workouts you can use.
High Intensity Intervals on the Treadmill

Set Your Next Walking Goal

Find a spring half-marathon to register for so you will have a definite date in mind to aim for getting back up to higher mileage. If you can keep up with walking 6 mile walks once a week throughout the winter - whether indoors or on treadmill - you should only need a few weeks to build back up your mileage for the half-marathon.

Taking it Back Outside

Give yourself at least a month of outside walking before you enter an outdoors event, even if you have been using the treadmill all winter. Outside is different - curbs, uneven footing, crowned roads, different stride. Your body needs to get used to outdoors walking again to get the best performance.

Source: Wendy Bumgardner is a certified marathon coach, RRCA.