Do You Gain Fitness in a Marathon

Audio Transcript

Michael: Hey Runners Connect fans. Today, we have a question about how much fitness you gain in a marathon.

Question: How much fitness, if any, is actually gained by racing a marathon and how much, if any, of the fitness gains are still present three to four weeks after the marathon, when I’m fully recovered and ready to begin another training cycle?

Similarly, how much fitness, if any, is gained by racing a 5k? Are race efforts too stressful to actually gain fitness?

Coach: That’s a very interesting question and one that I’ve not heard before.

I’ve heard it in terms of the 5k, the 10k shorter races, but never heard in terms of the marathon.

It’s an easy answer.

Fitness is gained to some degree. If you remove the race component, any race is just a run.

A 5k race, a 10k race, it’s just a 5k run, and a 10k run. Just because it’s a race, doesn’t necessarily make it 100% different on your body. You’re still going to gain fitness, but of course, it’s not that simple.

First thing to get across is that, marathons definitely shouldn’t be used as a training tool.

This might be different if you’re an ultra-runner, somebody training for 50 milers, 100 milers, but marathons are incredibly tough on your body, that’s why they take so long.

Anything requiring three to four weeks of recovery, that’s not a training tool.

I know this wasn’t the question but it’s still important to get this across, that a marathon is incredibly hard on your body, and shouldn’t be used as a training tool; at least not in a regular basis or if you’re not training for an ultra or a 100 miler.

Now in terms of fitness, it’s still hard to say that you really gain fitness for a marathon.

A marathon is incredibly hard on your body and it breaks you down. For that first week or so after a marathon, you’re not gaining fitness because you’re so broken down. You’re still recovering from that marathon.

Once you recover, then technically yes, you have gained fitness.

It typically takes around two plus weeks of absolutely no running to start losing fitness. That’s a common misconception.

Most people think that if they miss one day, two days, or one week, that you’re going to totally be reduced in your fitness. Your fitness is going to be gone, and that’s not correct at all.

It takes over two weeks of no running whatsoever to truly lose fitness.

Hopefully, people take solace in that and knowing that, hey if you miss a run here and there or you miss a week here and there because of work or whatever is going on, that’s not necessarily a big deal.

That’s not to say that you’re gaining fitness. You’re not gaining the fitness that you would have otherwise, but you’re also not losing it either.

Now during the marathon recovery process, that’s anywhere from a three to four week period, we encourage light joggings, some cross training and this will help keep your fitness, because you’re not necessarily taking three or four weeks completely off.

You’re taking three or four weeks basically down, basically a chance to recover, recuperate, let your legs regenerate, but you’re still jogging a little bit.

You’re probably doing some hikes, and some light cross training. This will help you keep your fitness and keep that fitness that you gained in the marathon, and of course, in the build ups in the marathon.

You might feel a little rusty when you start back up. That’s not a lack of fitness; that’s just feeling a little bit stale because you haven’t done any proper training in a while.

The recovery process after a marathon might leave you feeling just a little bit stale.

5ks and 10ks are a bit of different story. They don’t take near as long to recover from, so it’s not quite to the level of a marathon in terms of taking multiple weeks to recover from it; it’s totally different.

Here’s a good example.

I used to run back in college. I ran the mile, 1500 meters and I had a season where I was coming back from an injury.

I was kind of out of shape, and I wasn’t looking good. The season was coming up pretty quick and I didn’t have a ton of time to get in great shape.

The way my coach described it is that, we kind of raced into shape.

Basically, we used the races as workouts, basically as a chance to improving fitness, but that was a mile.

That’s so different on your body. Yes a mile is difficult. You go run a mile as hard as you can, it’s not going to be easy.

It’s going to be tough. The lactic acid’s going to build up and it’s a hard effort. It’s a very hard effort, but it doesn’t take very long and you’re going to recover very fast.

Two or three days later, assuming you do things right after the race, you’re going to be 100% recovered effectively from that race.

It doesn’t take multiple weeks like a marathon or a half marathon.

5ks and 10ks are kind of the same deal. They don’t take near as long to recover from, so they can be used as a training tool.

I don’t recommend doing this super often because most of the time, what a 5k or 10k is going to do, is they’re going to be on either a Saturday or a Sunday morning, and they’re effectively going to replace your long run.

When you’re training for a half or a full marathon, you don’t want to be doing that all the time.

You don’t want to be replacing your long runs. You want to have your long runs, and you want to get those in, because they’re very important.

Now one thing you can do is, especially if it’s a 10k, is make that part of your long run. One thing we have people do is, we prescribe fast finish long runs, fairly often.

What we’ll have people do is say, ‘Okay, you’re running a 10k. Get a lengthy warm up and then have the 10k effectively be your fast finish.’

Your legs are a little tired, and you go run the 10k and that’s your fast finish. You run the 10k as a fast finish, getting faster through our effort, and it effectively becomes your fast finish long run.

Again, you don’t want that to be at the expense of your long run.

You want it to be either every now and then, replacing your long run or you want to be basically making it a part of your long run.

Don’t want it to be replacing it all the time.

If you’re training for a 5k or a 10k that’s a different story, because at that point, those tune up 5ks and 10ks are very important, and can help have you run faster on race day because you’ve already done it.

It’s going to be effectively speed work, kind of race simulation for the ultimate race day.

Now, to answer your last question about race efforts being too stressful to gain fitness? Not necessarily because anything that stresses your body, as long as you are able to recover from it, you will improve; you will gain fitness.

To answer your question, I would say yes, in general, race efforts are too stressful to actually use as a training tool, to recover from and truly gain fitness.

It’s kind of playing with fire. It’s difficult for most of us to get into a race scenario, even if we tell somebody, “Hey, take this race 90%. Don’t let yourself go all out and don’t let yourself dig deep in this race.”

That’s very difficult to do for most people. You get out there, you’re surrounded by people, it’s a crazy environment, it’s exciting and you go for it.

I would generally not recommend using races too often as a training tool, but it can be useful in some situations. Like I said, those 5ks and 10ks are relatively easy to recover from; those can work well.

To recap, you gain fitness in a marathon but you don’t want to rely on it.

At least for a week after you’ve lost fitness, until you recover from the marathon, at that point you have gained but not necessarily an amount that’s worth it to use in training.

5ks and 10ks are short enough to use as training tools but not at the expense of long runs.

Long runs are much more important in half and full marathon training, but if you are training for 5k or 10k or shorter race, then those can be used as training tools.

Okay Runners Connect fans. That’s it for today.

Don’t forget to submit your questions at runnersconnect.net/daily-running-podcast and we’ll feature your question on the show.

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