Training for a marathon is challenging enough when you have a predictable weekly routine.
But what happens when your work takes you away for two weeks at a time, involves 12-hour shifts, day and night rosters, tropical heat, and very limited opportunities to train?
That was the challenge facing Qwik Kiwi athlete Oonagh Taru as she prepared for the Sunshine Coast Marathon.
Rather than trying to force a conventional marathon programme into an unconventional lifestyle, we needed to do the opposite: build the training around Oonagh’s life.
Marathon Training Around FIFO Work
At the time, Oonagh was working a fly-in, fly-out roster on Nauru.
Her schedule involved two weeks away followed by two weeks at home. While on Nauru, she worked 12-hour shifts for 13 consecutive days, alternating between periods of day and night shifts.
Add temperatures around 30°C and limited running routes, and it certainly wasn’t the environment most marathon programmes are designed around.
But that didn’t mean Oonagh couldn’t prepare successfully for a marathon.
It meant her training needed to be flexible.
Building the Training Around the Athlete
The key was recognising that Oonagh’s training didn’t need to look the same every week.
When she was home, we had more opportunities to complete the demanding sessions and build the training load.
When she was away working, the emphasis changed. Training had to fit around long shifts, fatigue, the heat and the realities of where she was living.
Instead of looking for a “perfect” seven-day training week, we looked at the bigger picture.
That is an important lesson for any recreational runner.
Your training programme needs to work in the life you actually live — not the life a generic training plan assumes you have.
An Early Test at the Gold Coast Half Marathon
As part of the build towards the Sunshine Coast Marathon, Oonagh raced the Gold Coast Half Marathon.
This provided an opportunity to see how her training was progressing and gave us useful information as we continued towards the marathon.
Training races can be valuable during a marathon build, but they don’t always need to be raced as if they are the ultimate goal.
Used appropriately, they can provide experience, confidence and feedback while the focus remains on the main event.
Training on Nauru
Oonagh’s workdays demonstrated just how committed she was to making the programme work.
A typical day could begin around 4:00 am, followed by preparation for work, a 12-hour shift and then fitting her running around everything else.
At times, that even meant running home from work.
There were no perfect training conditions.
There was simply a goal, a programme adapted to the circumstances, and a willingness to keep doing what could realistically be done.
As Oonagh explained at the time, finding your “REASON WHY” can make an enormous difference.
For her, there was an additional motivation behind the marathon.
Running for Poppy
Oonagh wasn’t only taking on the Sunshine Coast Marathon as a personal challenge.
She was also using the event to raise money for Poppy Harrison, giving all those early mornings, difficult sessions and kilometres another purpose.
When marathon training becomes difficult — and at some point it usually does — having a strong reason for doing it can help you remain focused on the bigger goal.
That reason will be different for every runner.
It might be chasing a personal best, completing your first marathon, raising money for someone important to you, returning after an injury, or simply discovering what you’re capable of achieving.
The Coaching Lesson From Oonagh’s Marathon Build
Oonagh’s story remains relevant years later because it demonstrates one of the most important principles of endurance coaching:
Training has to fit the athlete.
Work commitments, family, sleep, travel, training history, injury history, available facilities and recovery all influence what an athlete can realistically do.
Two runners targeting exactly the same marathon may therefore need very different programmes.
The objective isn’t to complete every session at any cost.
It’s to put together enough consistent, purposeful training over time to arrive at the start line prepared for the challenge ahead.
Oonagh’s FIFO roster created some significant constraints, but those constraints could be planned around.
And that is exactly what we did.
Does Your Training Need to Fit Around a Complicated Life?
You don’t need to be working 12-hour shifts on Nauru for training to become difficult to organise.
Maybe you work shifts.
Perhaps you travel regularly.
You might be juggling training with children and family commitments, or you simply aren’t sure how to structure your running around everything else going on in your life.
That’s where individual coaching can help.
I’ve been coaching endurance athletes since 2000, and rather than trying to squeeze every athlete into the same programme, I work with you to develop training that reflects your goals, experience and real-world commitments.
If you’d like to talk about your running and see whether Qwik Kiwi Coaching could help, book an obligation-free 40-minute consultation with me.
There is no commitment required. It’s simply an opportunity to discuss where you are now, what you’d like to achieve, and what might be the best way forward.
Train smarter. Train consistently. And make the training fit your life.