#marathonerasks

Hey there! So for my first half-marathon and both of my marathons, I used a free training plan from RunKeeper and modified it a little bit. For all of my other half-marathons, I kinda built my own training plan, and for my upcoming marathon I’ll be using a free RunKeeper plan. So I have a lot of experience with different plans which I can totally share!

How many days a week of running?

I typically do 4 runs a week, 5 if it’s a more intensive training program

These are usually divided into one tempo run, one interval run, one long run, and a slow jog the day before the long run

I organize it so Tuesday and Thursday are my tempo and interval runs, then Saturday and Sunday are my slow jog and long run

If I have a fifth run it’ll be Wednesday and it is usually a slower, shorter jog

How many days of strength training?

I like to add in strength training to my plans because it’s sooo good for working those minor muscles and improving your form!

I usually do 2 days of strength training a week, the Wednesday and the Friday

I focus on exercises to strengthen my core, back, shoulder, and minor leg and glute muscles

Strength training is my equivalent of crosstraining - if you’re not a fan, other good options are swimming, biking, yoga/pilates :)

Two workouts in one day?

I know this is popularly done but I frankly don’t have the time to make this work, so I usually don’t

The only time I do “two” workouts is if I have a run on the Wednesday in my program, and in that case I’ll go to the gym right after my run

Difference between half- and full marathon training?

Yes, definitely! Mainly mileage and distance, yes, but also in the number of runs and the intensity of interval training

Half-marathon training for me has a peak mileage of around 45-48 miles, whereas for marathon training it is around 50-55 miles

The longest run I do in half-marathon training is usually 14-15 mi, whereas for marathon training it’s 20 mi

Marathon training plans have more of the weeks with 5 runs and longer interval runs too

Marathon training plans have longer/faster “sim runs” - these are meant to be done the day before your long run to simulate how tired you’ll feel during the race. For half-marathon training it’s usually just a slow 6 mi, but for full marathon training I can do up to 8 mi at a tempo run pace

First half/full?

Hooray!! If it’s your first ever, I recommend giving yourself a full 16 weeks (4 months) to train; the free training plans on RunKeeper are a great start

However, once you start running more halfs, that can get shorter! I trained 6 weeks for a half-marathon once and it was my first trail and I ended up setting a PR!

For full marathons, I would highly recommend giving yourself 16 weeks, as well as working up to a mileage of 50 miles/week before starting the plan

Of course, it is also important to keep in mind that this depends on your goals! I am very competitive and I was determined to run my first half in under 1:50 and my first full under 4:00. If your goal is just to finish, you might find that you’re doing a lighter training load. My best advice is to compare and contrast different training plans that are free online and you’ll find lots of patterns in how they’re designed! In any case, below I’ve included some guidelines for building your own training plan too.

Guidelines for building your own training plan

1 tempo run, 1 interval run, 1 sim run, and 1 long run every week; include an extra, shorter sim run between the tempo and interval runs for your heaviest week

The first 1-2 weeks should be relatively easy, with no more than a 10 mi long run for half training and no more than a 12 mi for full training

Spend 3 weeks building up your long run distance, then take a week of recovery; repeat again starting at the long run distance you’re most comfortable with

Recovery week should be around 3-4 runs, all at a slow conversational pace, and no distance greater than 8 mi

Start tapering 2 weeks before your race. 2 weeks before don’t run more than 8 mi per run, 4 runs a week. The week before (week of), keep your runs to 40 minutes or less and do a slow and short shakeout run the day before your race (around 15-20 min)

Interval runs for recovery weeks should be slow 5 or 6 mi followed by 5x30s sprints with 2 min breaks in between at the end

Tempo runs for recovery weeks are slow runs

Good interval runs to include in half training: 16x400 m, 8x800 m, 10x1000 m, 5x1 mi, 3x2 mi

Good interval runs to include in full training: same as above, 2x4 mi, 2x5 mi, 3x3 mi, 4x2.5 mi

For interval runs, always warm up with a slow 2 mi before runs and cool down with a slow 1 mi after

For the other runs, just do some dynamic exercises before you get going

Incorporate 1-2 crosstraining days, such as lifting and swimming, per week

I bought the Princeton Review 7-book set and used their website! Basically, I read all of the books cover to cover and took handwritten notes on all of the chapters with information that I struggled with when I first learned it. I did this over the span of 2 months, studying about 2-4 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. I would also do the practice questions at the end of each chapter.

Once I got through the books, I did 5 practice tests (3 from PR, 2 from AAMC) in total. During the tests, I would flag each question that I struggled with a bit, so that I knew which questions to go over even if I got them right by chance. Then, I would take the next week to go over the material concerning the questions I struggled with. After that, I did another practice test. Basically just repeated this process for all 5 practice tests.

For CARS, I practiced a lot of passages on the Khan Academy website, and also used these passages to practice more difficult concepts in the other sections too. Super helpful and free!

The week leading up to my MCAT was spent mostly reviewing definition/basic memorization stuff (like everything in Psych/Soc lol) and just relaxing :)

A few things to keep in mind:

The Princeton Review tests put more emphasis on physics than the actual MCAT, but I liked that because I suck at physics lol

If you’re short on time, you can condense this and not do it over 3.5-4 months like I did! Up your studying to 6-8 hours a day for example

The practice tests and Khan Academy practice passages were honestly the most helpful things - do as much of this as possible. While review is important, if you’re in a Science program you’re already familiar with this stuff, and most MCAT passages give you all the info you need. The reason the MCAT is hard is because of the testing style.

This worked well for me, but my preferred method of studying is handwritten notes and repetition, and I tend to do well with rote memorization (this doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone)

I hope this helped, and I know you’ll kill your second try!! It’s super common for people to struggle with the first try anyways and most of the time people do waaay better on their second one. I believe in you!

I’ll also be re-writing my MCAT this summer so if you want a study buddy lemme know! :P

I’m posting my results below the break if anyone is interested :)

Hey there!! Yes, I definitely do have a lot of things I look back on and think “damn, if only I knew…”

It’s okay to say no to people. This was hard for me to learn. I always felt bad when I said no to going out with people or when someone asked for my help. While breaks are important, it’s important to recognize that you should always come first! If you have too much to do or simply don’t feel like you have the energy to go out or help someone, no one’s gonna be mad at you for saying no (and if they are, then that says more about that person than you).

Schedule your study time, and try your best to stick to it. I get that hanging out with your friends is fun and I wouldn’t give it up for the world, so something that works well for me is I schedule my study time and try to be as productive as possible during that time. i.e. - “If I study for 4 hours today and get x, y, and z done, I can go out later tonight.” This helps me stay on top of things and also allows me to be more in control of my free time. I also don’t feel as bad saying no to people because I know I will have a time soon when I can say yes, and I don’t feel as if I’m constantly saying no.

Speaking of schedules, use your time wisely. At least in Canada, undergrads only have about 3-4 hours of classes a day, at most (5 classes per semester, 3 hours a week each). Sometimes, more free time is daunting and huge, and this is what leads to lack of productivity. Make sure you’re reviewing daily and don’t fall behind in your notes by more than a week. You have a lot of time outside of classes that can be used to get ahead for your exams. I like to re-write and re-read lecture notes within 2 days of the lectures so that when it comes to studying for an exam, all I really need to do is practice and go over my own notes.

Get involved! Volunteer somewhere on campus, play intramural sports, work on campus. Find something that is both social and relaxing. You deserve the down time and this is a great way to connect with other students and faculty and find even more opportunities that may help (both with applying to med school or for finding work). My biggest regret is not starting to volunteer on campus earlier!

Don’t be scared to talk to your profs. Don’t hesitate to e-mail if you have a question, or simply set up a meeting with them if you find their research interesting and want to volunteer in their lab. In my experience, profs are really welcoming and helpful when students take the initiative to reach out to them.

Anticipate exam questions. One of my favourite newfound study habits is to come up with questions I think my prof would ask on an exam and try to answer that without looking at my notes. It’s really great for classes without sample exams or those with written exams.

Make friends with older students in the same program/field as you. They’ve already gone through what you’re about to go through and have a plethora of experience and information to share!! Don’t be scared to approach them just because they’re older. A great place to start is your students’ association or talking to RAs (resident assistants).

That’s all I can think of for now! At the end of the day, it’s important to keep in mind that university is very much a learning process. Even if you don’t see something coming, what matters most is how you deal with it and learn from it :) Best of luck with your degree and future med school applications!

Good question!! Here’s some basics that I can recall off the top of my head:

Anything with bread (wraps, sandwiches, tacos) shouldn’t be made more than two days in advance; that being said, make the taco meat for the whole week (even freezes well)

I usually make salads day of or night before if needed (but keep dressing separate until you eat it)

I don’t peel boiled eggs until the night before so they can stay fresh a little longer, but I typically boil a dozen at once and they keep well in the fridge and in the shell

Anything yogurt based, I prep for the whole week (with the exception of adding cereals/granola)

Overnight oats can be prepped for the whole week

I personally have no problem with prepping pancakes in a jar for a whole week but they do get a bit softer due to the yogurt separating - if you’re sensitive to sogginess, then don’t do it, but it certainly doesn’t ruin the pancakes!

Stir fries, curries, stews can be prepped for the whole week (even if you add rice to them it’s all good)

Anything that’s hot (oatmeal, polenta) I make the day of

Intervals more than 4 mi means that each interval is longer than 4 mi! I know that’s getting into non-interval realm and more like tempo running, but once you get into longer distances you have fuuuuun runs like 2x5 mi :P So in my previous reply, I’m talking about the length of each interval.

I do change up how much I rest depending on the distance of each interval and how many repeats I’m doing. With longer intervals and more repetitions, I tend to take longer breaks. Typically, these are the rest times I take for each interval type:

400 m (16-18 repeats) => 30 - 45 s

800 m (8-10 repeats) => 45 s - 1:00

1000 m (8-10 repeats) => 1:00 - 1:30

1 mi => 1:30 - 2:00

1.5 mi => 2:00 - 2:30

2 mi => 2:30 - 3:00

3 mi => 3:00 - 4:00

4 mi => 3:30 - 4:30

5 mi => 4:00 - 5:00

I did considerably worse on my practice tests lol, so I wouldn’t stress it! I think they purposely make them a bit more difficult. Just take advantage of reviewing the reasoning behind the correct answers, especially for CARS, and you’ll do great on the real thing :)

For reference, I wrote two AAMC practice tests about a week and a half before my MCAT and got 508 and 512, then went and scored 518 on the actual thing. SO U GUCCI.

I don’t typically use the 5KP, 10KP, HMP method for training for two reasons: 

I haven’t run a 5k in like a million years lol

I don’t fit that smooth curve that dictates how your pace increases with distance because I raced 5ks so much in high school and then very abruptly switched to only long-distance (I have a very weird racing strategy as a result)

So if I’m making my own training plan, what I usually do is figure out the pace that I need to run to meet my goal, then determine the paces I should be running for intervals based on that. I prefer this because I feel like it pushes me towards my goal much better!

Here’s an example with my training this summer:

I want to run a marathon in 3:30:00, so I need to average out at approximately 4:58-4:59/km

That means my steady/tempo runs are going to me around 4:48-5:08/km

My intervals that are longer than 4 mi will be around 4:38-4:48/km

My intervals that are between 2-4 mi will be around 4:28-4:38/km

My intervals that are less than 2 mi will be around 4:20-4:36/km

Sprint/stride intervals (30 s, 20 s) are done at fastest sprint possible, always