The following heart rate based marathon training program is courtesy of Asics made specifically for the Buller Gorge Marathon. Each day has a distance to run or walk, followed by a heart rate training zone to work in during that day – further explanations of heart rate zones will follow.
You can use the distance aspect of this training program by itself and be prepared for Buller, but by including the heart rate training aspect you will be preparing yourself a lot more, by ensuring you are getting the most out of your training. Without a heart rate monitor it is hard to know if your workouts are actually helping you meet your objectives. You could be pushing yourself too hard and risking injury, or not working hard enough to get any benefits.
A heart rate monitor will give you the feedback you need to ensure you work hard enough to increase your fitness but don’t overtrain, and have the energy and motivation to complete the program, or even the days run.
This program is designed to work with Heart Rate Monitors that calculate your zones for you, however, you can calculate your zones yourself using the formula on the following page, and enter these zones into most of the Polar Heart Rate Monitor range.