Excellent, I am preparing for a half marathon in May but so far I am training condition only and I haven't done more than 6km. I know that soon when I feel my condition is up I will have to vary my running, I have to do uphill trainings and speed intervals. Do you have a good program for that? As well as a good diet?
I'll put my 2 cents here.
You will need to focus on Complex Carbs, as they digest slower in the body and give propper source of energy. Pasta, Rice, Bread, Fruits and Veggies..
You also need to increase your water in-take (or any other sport drink).
Yamensbs is pretty much spot on in terms of diet. But carbo loading can also hinder your ability to train effectively. You can feel really heavy when jogging after eating lots of pasta, rice or bread. There's no doubt that if you're training most days a week then you're going to need to increase the amount of carbs you eat and the plan is simple. Stay away from fatty foods. Eat a sustained variety of carbohydrates and protein.
I'm no expert on training for marathons but I do run half marathons myself occasionally and I try to run 15kms twice a week. I don't actually recommend doing any type of interval training on a regular basis. When it comes to cardiovascular fitness it seems that there are different outcomes in terms of ability according to how you train. Interval training will allow you to exercise intensely for limited periods of time (e.g middle distance running, rowing, football). The way to train for a marathon is to emulate the marathon itself at least twice a week. In saying that there is a need to mix up routines even in cardio training. Here is exactly what I'd do in your shoes.
Monday - Jog 6 kms followed by hill sprints x4.
Tuesday - Jog 8 kms.
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Swim for 10 minutes as warm up. Then go to do 50 meter sprints x6 with 30 - 45 seconds rest in between. Then warm down with another 10 - 15 minutes of low intensity swimming. (Swimming is awesome cardio and it targets muscles in the body that are seldom used so its not surprising that even some of the fittest people find it tough).
Friday - Jog 8 kms.
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - Run (higher intensity) 4 - 5 kms.
This plan that I used to use kept me interested and gave me enough rest to get through the week. I think if you want to get to that 22kms Jack, then you need to up your distance another 2 kms every 3 weeks or so when you jog. 6 kms isn't a whole lot and if you increase your distance to 8 there's no harm in taking it slow for the first few tries and you'll slowly become accustomed to the longer run.
Right again but it's pretty hard because it takes a long time to know how much you need calorie wise, to get it down to a tee.. And even then you should gain some fat.. I love food and i can understand the whole "eat big, get big thing" to a certain extent, you'll just need some good fat blasters and two weeks of extreme dieting though
Yeah I get what your saying but thats not what he's saying. Its hard to target exactly what you need so its better to eat to much then not enough. However he still asserts 'excess' blah blahhh.
You can do what you said. Eat till your hearts content and then go through a cutting phase every so often and as an Italian who's Nonna was his personal full time chef I'd agree with you. But that's a poor mentallity because cutting agents are dangerous bastards and extremely strict diets suck. And like they always say.. when you go on a diet you eventually have to go off the diet and that's when you blow back up.