Don Fink - IronFit’s Marathons after 40: Smarter Training for the Ageless Athlete

Don Fink is an internationally known triathlon and running coach/trainer and author of the popular endurance sports training books Be IronFit: Time-Efficient Training Secrets for Ultimate Fitness (3rd edition, 2015), IronFit Triathlon Training for Women (2014), IronFit Strength Training and Nutrition for Endurance Athletes (2013), and IronFit Secrets for Half Iron-Distance Triathlon Success (2013), all published by Lyons Press. Among his credentials, Don is a certified personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and a professional member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Don and Melanie train endurance athletes on five continents through their business, IronFit (ironfit. com). Don and Melanie have utilized their innovative approaches to coach hundreds of athletes to personal best times and breakthrough performances in the marathon, half marathon, ultras, triathlon, and other sports.

In addition to being an endurance sports coach/trainer, Don is an elite athlete. He has raced more than thirty Iron-Distance triathlons (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run) and has many age-group victories and course records to his credit. Dons time of 9:08 at the 2004 Ironman Florida is still one of the fastest times recorded by an athlete in the 4549 age group.

Don also placed in the top three overall in the 2002 Ultraman World Championships (6.2-mile swim, 262-mile bike, and 52.4-mile run) on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Melanie is a certified personal trainer and health coach through ACE and a six-year past Regional Council member of USAT Triathlon Mid-Atlantic. She coauthored all of the books mentioned above.

In addition to being an endurance sports coach/trainer and Level 2 Masters Swimming coach, Melanie is an elite athlete as well. She has many age-group and overall victories in triathlon and open water swimming competitions, has completed twelve Iron-Distance triathlons (including the Hawaii Ironman twice), and completed Ultraman Canada (6.2-mile swim, 270-mile bike, 52.4-mile run) in Penticton, British Columbia. Melanies passion is helping athletes at all levels to get into running and endurance sports and to become athletes for life.

Don and Melanie live in Carroll County, New Hampshire.

Marathons After 40

Also by Don Fink and Melanie Fink

Be Iron Fit, Third Edition

IronFit Secrets for Half Iron-Distance Triathlon Success

IronFit Triathlon Training for Women

IronFit Strength Training and Nutrition for Endurance Athletes

An imprint of Globe Pequot

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2010 and 2017 Don Fink and Melanie Fink

IronFit is a registered trademark of Don Fink, all rights reserved.

All exercise photos featuring Yvonne Hernandez are provided courtesy of Debra Trebitz.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

ISBN 978-1-4930-2687-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-2688-3 (e-book)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

The programs in this book are designed for athletes with either a high level of fitness or the physiology to attain a high level of fitness. Readers should consult a physician before beginning any of the workouts suggested herein. If you experience any pain or difficulty with these exercises, stop and consult your health care provider.

To our loving parents,
Claire and Richard and Esther and Martin

Seven years... wow!

Its amazing to us that its been more than seven years since an earlier version of this book, Mastering the Marathon , was published. It has been an exciting time for the sport, which continues to skyrocket in popularity worldwide. The entire marathon experience has continued to get better and better.

As we have traveled the world over this time, we have been blessed to see so many wonderful races and meet so many truly inspiring people who share our passion.

We have been working with hundreds and hundreds of athletes over the last seven years, and we have continued to improve upon our coaching methods and approaches. We have successfully found ways to make our training even more efficient and beneficial.

Because of this, the time has now come to offer a new generation of Masters Marathon training programs, including all of these advancements and improvements. So, yes, as successful as the original programs were, the five new marathon training programs in this book are even better. In fact, not only are they better, but they are more fun too.

We are also excited about many new additions to this edition. We have a new chapter focusing on the half marathon with three twelve-week training programs and tips and guidance on how to maximize your performance in this popular distance. We have also included a new chapter specifically geared to triathletes who want to maximize their marathon performance within an Iron-Distance triathlon. And, most excitingly, we have included all-new state-of-the-art functional strength and core training, dynamic warm-up, and stretching programs.

Now its your turn. Since youre reading this book, we know that you have exciting goals you want to accomplish in road racing. Perhaps you are still deciding if you want to take the marathon or half marathon plunge, or perhaps you already have completed the marathon or half marathon but are ready to improve your times and take your performances to the next level. Either way, you have come to the right place. Let your journey begin!

If you are forty years or older and would like to run faster marathons or take on the marathon challenge for the first time, this book is for you.

The American marathon boom that started in the 1970s is alive and well and growing every year. In the late 1970s about 25,000 Americans attempted a marathon annually; by the year 2010, this number exceeded 500,000.

Athletes of all ages view the marathon as a wonderful lifetime accomplishment. Some may consider it a goal to accomplish just once, while others see it as a recurring challenge. Nowhere is this truer than for those forty and older. This enormous segment of the population is especially keen on the marathon experience.

Have you been running for many years, but found that you are no longer improving like you once did? That the training methods you used to follow successfully when you were younger no longer seem to work? Whats more, the more you try to make them work, the more injured and discouraged you become... pushing your goals farther out of reach. If so, you can benefit from a new training approach, specifically targeted to the more mature athlete. This book is written for you.

Or are you newer to the sport? You picked it up later in life, found it to be challenging and rewarding, but the methods you found online or in books dont seem to work for you. You notice that the programs you read about do not even differentiate among ages, let alone between veterans and first-timers. The program for a twenty-year-old is the same as for a sixty-year-old. You know that cant be right. You realize there must be a more sensible and effective way for the mature athlete to achieve his or her goals. This book is written for you as well.