How to train for a winter marathon

Running marathons are extremely beneficial for one’s health as it can help you improve your immune system, increase your metabolism, helps in weight loss and much more. It is one of the healthiest activities one should indulge in.

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Running a marathon in winters is a lot different from that in summers as due to decrease in temperature in winter, running a marathon requires little more training as compared to summers. You need to be a little more careful when running a winter marathon. So here are a few tips that can prepare you for a winter marathon:

Dress according to the temperature:

Make sure you are fully covered when running a winter marathon. The ideal outfit to wear would be loose fitted clothes. You can also wear dark color garment as it will help you absorb the heat of the sun. Also to keep yourself warm, make sure you cover your head.

Dress according to the weather
Dress according to the weather / freedigitalphots

Maintain strength:

In order for you to run a marathon, it is important to be strong and for that you must do resistance training. This should have at least 8- 10 different exercises. You should also try and do some strength exercises so that you can run for long.

Keep the weather in mind:

When going for training, make sure you look at the weather forecast, as it can affect your workout. Keep everything in consideration because weather can make or ruin your training session.

Stay hydrated:

The most important element of surviving or even participating in a marathon is that you should keep yourself hydrated at all times. The one myth that people tend to believe is that winters make you sweat less. Well, this is false and therefore you should always have some water on you.

Stay hydrated
Stay hydrated/ freedigitalphotos

Make your warm ups longer:

You must always warm up before any kind of physical activity. Warm up raises your heart rate which in turn betters the blood flow in the muscles. Warm up helps you to perform better. In winters, your warm up period should be nothing less than 15 minutes.

Warm up for long
Warm up for long/ freedigitalphotos

Stretching:

In winters, your muscles tent to get less flexible which makes you at a higher risk for major injuries. Running a winter marathon can put a lot of stress on your muscles, and that’s the reason you need to be more flexible. In order to maintain your flexibility, you should do some still stretching.

Stretching before running
Stretching before running/ freedigitalphotos

Training for a winter marathon is really important. You need to be dedicated and strong willed. Stay strong and you can overcome any hurdle.