INTERVIEW IGNASI DE LA ROSA

You have large experience training professional athletes. What are the basic elements that an amateur sportsman must consider when preparing a marathon for the first time? Advice for amateurs.

First, an amateur sportsman who is preparing to run a marathon must look for a professional who advise him to prepare for the race. This distance is not an ordinary distance, and the challenge requires a commitment to be able to complete the preparation.

What are the main problems that can arise when preparing a race as hard as a marathon?

There are many things that can happen. Preparation of a marathon usually takes a minimum of 12 weeks, and this is a long enough period for setbacks to arise. Said that, during the preparation, the most usual thing is that some organizational problems arise that prevent all the training sessions from being completed or any injury to occur.

How do you manage the concerns of an amateur who has followed a training, but has not been able to complete all the planned trainings?

There are always concerns and uncertainty before a challenge of these characteristics, both in amateur and in more experienced runners. No matter how much experience you have, you always have the doubt if you will be able to do it, that will always be there and is part of the game. You must enjoy all the way that takes you to the start line, to get the prize of crossing the finish line.

The runner gains confidence in his/her possibilities as he or she can comply with the training sessions. From this point, if you can follow the way to success, you must trust your possibilities and go for the challenge with conviction. If you can’t reach the minimum preparation requirements, it would be difficult to achieve them with guarantees, as the toughness of the Marathon is unforgiving. You must be aware of the work you have done and be honest with yourself.

What are the most common injuries when you prepare a marathon for the first time?

Unfortunately, the hardness of this distance is sometimes associated with injuries. I would like to point out that with good preparation and monitoring, many of these problems can be avoided. From here, injuries such as Achilles’ tendinopathies, plantar injuries, iliotibial band and some muscle injuries are the most common injuries that we can observe.