110: How to Train for Your First Marathon With Jeff Cunningham
The Nick Bare Podcast
Nick Bare
5 • 5.9K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2025
⏱️ 105 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, I'm bringing back a crowd favorite, Jeff Cunningham, to discuss essential strategies for training for your first marathon. We cover the importance of easy miles, weekly speed workouts, and structured long runs. Jeff shares his philosophy on the 80/20 rule for easy versus hard runs to maximize adaptations and avoid fatigue. The discussion also covers the significant role of nutrition and hydration in performance and recovery.
Jeff and I emphasize the importance of fueling properly before, during, and after workouts, and relay personal experiences to illustrate the benefits of structured training and proper nutrition. This is not for first timers only, this conversation is filled with practical advice and inspiration for both novice and seasoned runners.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 The Reality of Marathon Training
01:44 How to Train for Your First Marathon
06:31 The Importance of Easy Days and Recovery
15:10 The Austin Marathon Experience
22:29 Making the Commitment to Run a Marathon
48:41 Building Fitness and Loving Running
50:56 The Reality of Marathon Prep
01:01:07 The Importance of Easy Miles
01:16:48 Incorporating Speed Workouts
01:27:48 The Role of Nutrition in Training
01:31:31 Fueling for Performance
01:37:36 Balancing Diet and Training
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Bat City Track Club is an emerging national class and regionally elite team with a primary focus on distances 5,000m to the marathon.
MENTIONS:
The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero
https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-that-Natural-History-Zero/dp/0195142373
FOLLOW:
IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/
YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness
JEFF CUNNINGHAM:
IG: instagram.com/@jdcunningham97/
BAT CITY: instagram.com/@batcitytrackclub/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're not going to wake up motivated every day. |
| 0:03.8 | And especially in a marathon prep as mileage increases, the wear and tear on the body increases, |
| 0:10.2 | you become more tired. |
| 0:11.7 | You start questioning, why am I even doing this? |
| 0:14.4 | You have to go through that mud at some point because when you cross the finish line |
| 0:18.3 | of 26.2 miles, it's all going to make sense. |
| 0:21.9 | Why? |
| 0:22.6 | Because the days that matter are the days you don't want to. |
| 0:25.5 | Nobody ever got good in anything without going through the mud. |
| 0:29.9 | If you just loved it every single day, if you woke up, fired up about going through the inevitable monotony that it |
| 0:39.7 | takes to be good at everything, it takes repetition, right? Then I question whether or not you're |
| 0:46.6 | actually truly investing in what it takes to be good at something. |
| 1:00.0 | Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. |
| 1:05.9 | Today we have on a fan favorite Jeff Cunningham. |
| 1:07.0 | Jeff, what's up? |
| 1:09.3 | Man, not a whole lot. |
| 1:10.3 | Excited to be back. |
| 1:11.1 | Everyone always loves when you're back. |
| 1:13.0 | I love when you're back. |
| 1:14.2 | The conversations are great and there's guaranteed. |
| 1:17.9 | I'm so excited for the one-liners that come out of today's conversation. |
| 1:22.4 | I promise. |
... |
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