Training for any marathon takes over the lives of all participants; you are running multiple times a week at ever-increasing distances.
For those preparing for the London Marathon like me, for four months of the British winter there is little else to consider than planning when to hit the pavements, while balancing work and family commitments.
Men and women often follow identical plans, but coaches believe there are key areas female runners can overlook. Here is their advice on the areas to focus on.
Training for a marathon often involves a big increase in activity and it is important to eat enough to support that.
“My No 1 piece of advice for women athletes is always to fuel the work that you’re doing,” Simon De Waal, a senior lecturer in sport and exercise science at the University of Gloucestershire, tells Telegraph Sport. “I think women are under more pressure to look a certain way, particularly women athletes, [although] I would like to think that we’ve moved beyond just looking skinny because we think that’s good for performance.”
The risks of under-fuelling are particularly pertinent for women given the dangers of relative energy deficiency in sport, which can have long-lasting effects on the body, from reproductive health to cognitive function and impaired immunity.
George Morris, who leads the strength and conditioning programme at St Mary’s University, says: “If you are going to be training for performance, make sure that you are fuelling going into training sessions and fuelling coming out of training sessions; a higher focus on carbohydrates beforehand and then a focus on carbohydrates and protein afterwards.”
As a result of the increased focus on running, gym visits can fall by the wayside, but it can be more important than many think.
Jo Wilkinson, who raced for Great Britain at the Commonwealth Games and was trained by the same coaches as Paula Radcliffe, says: “I think women absolutely need to do strength training, particularly as you get older. If I have one regret, it would be not embracing weight training and strength training in my 30s. It’s so, so important.
“In an ideal world you will want to aim for twice a week to three times a week; twice a week is probably minimum because you improve and you get fitter by regular training.”
If someone has not done any strength training for a while, the first few sessions will be “really tough”, De Waal warns, but after a couple of weeks the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) will become manageable.
An important, and often neglected, part of training is allowing the body time to recover between training sessions.
“I think all runners are terrible at rest and recovery,” Wilkinson, now a coach, says. “But I do think women get dragged into caring responsibilities. Caring for children and older parents does seem to be more of a female thing and that is really demanding on your time.
“If you go on a long Sunday run… at that time I was an elite runner so my runs were only two-and-a-half hours, but then I’d want to lie on the sofa all afternoon. I used to take my son to the cinema because I could sit down for a few hours and parent without actually having to do anything.”
The menstrual cycle affects every female runner differently. Some may want to ignore it completely while others might adapt training to specific phases.
One size does not fit all, as Wilkinson explains: “For some women they have a period and it makes no difference to how they train, but I do have other women who have bad cramps, feel bloated or sluggish and so we move days around. So if you’re feeling rubbish, you’re not going to be doing a really hard session.
“There are other women who have the attitude, ‘I might have to race on my period so I want to train on my period’, which I think is really valuable as well.”
Awareness can be helpful and Morris has used menstrual cycle tracking apps with several athletes, which he says “allow people to be more aware of the symptoms that might make training uncomfortable, or there might be a phase where they feel a performance improvement”.
More than 9000 female runners over the age of 45 took part in the 2025 London Marathon, yet it is only recently that menopause has been discussed as a factor in training.
Wilkinson says: “It’s so important for women because you need to maintain muscular strength and women will lose it because of the menopause. Because of the change in hormone profile, you start to lose muscular strength from your mid-40s. The more strength you can build before you start to lose it, the more you can continue, then the more you’re going to slow that decline and that muscle loss.”
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.