Whether you’re in your marathon specific block of training or you’re focused on increasing speed for longer term marathon success, good route planning can be a useful tool in reaching PBs.
Route planning tools
Google maps is of course a popular option for route planning and does what we need it to do, although it can be a little glitchy at times with shortcuts not being recognised, or the route encouraging you to go to the next roundabout to cross a road even when set on walking mode. I prefer to use www.plotaroute.com which has all the features of Google Maps, but usually recognises trails and smaller cut-throughs, and has the added bonus of letting you download the route and send to compatible watches with a course feature (Garmin Forerunner 245 and above).
Prior to your marathon block
If you’re chasing down a new PB, my hope is that you’re doing faster work over shorter distances in order to increase your aerobic fitness and lactate threshold/lactate turn point. To do that you’ll need fast work over anything from 400m to 1 mile depending on how much time you have before your marathon and how far off your target time you likely are (the further from target you are, the more likely it is you’ll need to go back to 5k-10k pace for a period then build distance at those paces).
Plan for uninterrupted routes which will allow you to hit the 400m to 1 mile without stopping. These routes may be a little boring depending on your location, but can be the key for you to improve.
When you’re in your marathon block
During the final 12-16 week marathon training block, you’ll really need to consider the route of your marathon. Loch Ness and New York City marathons are both extremely hilly, meaning you’ll need to work a lot of inclines and declines into training during both interval training and your long runs. If you focus on running faster training times for Strava and therefore stick to flatter routes, your marathon time will suffer.
Additional considerations
Considering most long run miles are a lot slower than marathon pace anyway, stopping for a couple of minutes at traffic lights really isn’t going to help your training quality to be high.
Not stopping may be easy if you’re training on country roads or are in a group where you can look for gaps in traffic to safely cross busier roads, but if you live nearer the city centre and have a lot of junctions to negotiate, planning to avoid these or make as few stops as possible will help on race day.
I tend to plan for 1-2 miles of running close to home on my long runs and interval sessions. This means that instead of stopping, I can turn at the junction, cross when safe, then continue in the planned direction, all without finishing my mileage when I’m not close to home.
These small logistical habits may seem insignificant, but there’s no downside to planning your routes this way. You won’t need to do it many times, as you’ll be able to use the same routes or sections of your local area for all sorts of sessions. It’s a small time investment with the potential to make a big marathon day time saving.
Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach in Norwich, Norfolk