Training for a Marathon?

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tbr-marathon-2013

Are you training for a marathon? I just conquered my first marathon at the recently concluded TBR Dream Marathon 2013, happily clocked in at 4:54, it was painful but a happy experience knowing that all the hours spent in training paid off in the end, just to be able to hear the words “You are now a Marathoner” makes the journey all worth it.

Here, I just want to share some of the things I learned during the course of my training.

Training for a marathon is no joke, it’s insane for someone just to wake up one day and decide to run a 42.195KM, its crazy! You need to prepare for it, train for it and be disciplined enough to stick to a training plan.

YES, a training plan, meaning stick-to-one, get a good coach, adviser or friend, who has the experience to guide you and create a concrete training plan then stick with it, don’t change in the middle, if you do, in the end changing the plan might lead to wasted training efforts.

Get enough sleep! 8 hours if you can, specially 2 days before the race.

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Vitamins, are essential to help our body recover after a long training day, what I learned is to select with a good set of vitamins, I chose a good Multivitamin, Vitamin C and Omega-3 combo it can be any brand as long as you feel it’s working for you, then just I stick with it, if it works why change right?

Even if you’re training for your first 5KM or for your first 160KM it’s still recommended to have a solid training plan, sleep, vitamins and nutrition. Once you get the perfect formula, stick to it na.

13 COMMENTS

    • Let’s be clear about this.

      I am delighted that someone who has done so much for the sporting/athletic community is finally getting some financial support. I however think a line has to be drawn between clever advertorials and plain false and dangerous advice. Canned salty food is never a good advice as part of a healthy diet for long distance running. It is in fact what you exactly must not eat! It might just be a “writing” problem, (just in the diabetes-to-toothpaste article), and in that case a proper writer can do the job.

      By the way, congratulations on your first marathon!

  1. I do not recommend process food like tuna in can. This food are high in salt or sodium and may rise more your blood pressure during and after training. Eat fresh fish or sea foods from wet market or supermarket.

    • Here here! on top of that, sodium will retain too much water in your system, bogging you down during runs. Understandable that this is a ‘sponsored’ post, but giving wrong advice just compromises your good name, pinoyfitness :)

      Century Tuna, along with all other canned Tuna brands are either high in fat and or sodium (oil or brine). – unless you drain the brine/oil and rinse the tuna in water. In that case, it’d be cheaper, tastier, and healthier to buy fresh fish.

      For canned tuna, I can see some benefit for bodybuilding, but come on! Not for a marathon. Its just bad advice

  2. I agree with #1 & #4, century tuna is a salty food!!! no like.. hehe.. buy fresh fish from the market instead of eating those can goods!

  3. mas maigi naman ang century tuna compare sa mga junk foods… kelangan din natin ng medyo salty kaya sakto lang… :-)

  4. among canned products, tuna is NOT that bad. Please stop spreading FUD. Look at the ingredients, it is tuna, oil, spices and salt. They do have less salty versions, as well as those in olive oil (oh the goodness!).

    Learn to read labels, the nutrition facts AND the ingredients.

    One needs sodium. Endurance runners need high amounts of sodium, with potassium etc. Though, it might not help much those running shorter distances (21k and below).

    What to avoid are processed canned meat, beef pork chicken, consumer hotdogs / sausages, tocino ….

    BTW, canned sardines/mackerel is also quite good. Some, but not all, check the label.

    Skip also flavored tuna variants (especially the notorious corned tuna – check the ingredients, should be labelled as corned soy tuna.).

    If you have healthy doses of sodium and other essential minerals on your diet, you can cut back on gatorade / powerade.

    Now compare canned tuna with tofu .. which one is more processed ? What has less salt, drained canned tuna or daing na bangus marinated in vinegar, garlic and salt, then dipped in soy sauce ?

    I would still prefer fresh fish, unfortunately living in Manila denies me access to.

    Sodium is not that bad. In my opinion, uncontrolled consumption of sodium during the run itself is more dangerous. Sodium may come in many sources: gels, sports drinks, salt / salt tablets.

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