If you’re planning on going for gold in this year’s marathon, your normal training regime will need a complete overhaul.

Preparing your body for the huge physical strain will take time and expertise. Luckily, we’ve rounded up top tips from the best experts around to give you the boost you need to cross the finish line like a pro.

Justin Way, Personal Trainer and Fitness Expert at Pure Gym (www.puregym.com) has three top tips for marathon success.

1. Stretching is a great way of keeping mobile and injury free during your marathon training regime. Even if you’re not a regular exerciser a weekly stretch can help you relax and promote healthy blood flow which is quite invigorating. When you stretch make sure you stretch your major muscles, think of where you may feel tightness…..the back of your legs, your lower back, any stretch around your hips is good as there are a lot of muscles cross these joints. Generally, holding a stretch for 15-20 seconds would be enough to relax the muscle, if you hold it for around 30 seconds then this would help improve flexibility.
2. Tracking your progress is so important, it allows you to set staggered short term objectives to help you towards your ultimate goal. What you record depends really on what you do and what you want to achieve, but logging things like how long you ran for, how far you rode and how many repetitions you completed is important if you want to beat your personal best come marathon time!
3. A warm down towards the end of a workout is extremely beneficial. The length of the warm down really depends on how intense your workout was. As a general rule, the harder the workout the longer the warm down.

If you want to make the most of your training regime, you’ll need to make sure you’re staying adequately hydrated. These 3 top tips for healthy hydration from the Natural Hydration Council should ensure you’re always kept topped up.

1. For most light intensity types of exercise including swimming, golf and walking, and for any physical activity lasting less than 45 minutes water will rehydrate you adequately
2. Sip water in small amounts during and after exercise. For example, sip 150-300 ml roughly every 20 minutes during exercise5, and then drink 250-500 ml fluid5 once you have finished exercising.
3. Replenish fluids regularly especially when sweat rates are high and/or exercising in warm environments.
4. If you’re serious about your fitness, you may need a little extra boost to take you from weekend runner to Olympic hopeful.

Hurdler and Olympic hopeful Ruben Tabares explains: “I have discovered the power of nutrient-rich whole foods and take Sun Chlorella ‘A’ because it is an extremely effective nutritional tool to provide the body with a unique fuel for achieving optimum physical performance. By incorporating Sun Chlorella ‘A’ into the diet, amongst other health benefits I also get a powerful ‘dual-action’ effect – an instant energy boost prior to physical activity as well as a repair and anti-inflammatory benefit after training.”