It's more of the same in Week 4 as we reinforce the messages of last week.

Remember, Nick Carling from Actin Fitness hold free Solar Eclipse Marathon Training Squad sessions at the Port Douglas Sports Complex at 6am Saturdays.

Understanding the process of training for an endurance event is very important - endurance training is different to other forms of training.

The goal is to be able to travel as far as possible, as quickly as possible with as low a heart rate as possible. To do this requires great fat metabolism or what is commonly known as aerobic conditioning.

For this reason, improving the aerobic system is the first stage in endurance training. It involves high mileage at low intensity. This is about 60% effort.

If you have a heart rate monitor, take 175 and minus your age and this should be roughly the effort level you should be running at.

Once aerobic conditioning is completed, we can then start building speed, power and performance. This is where the hard work comes into it. Finally we freshen up with a taper to get the body feeling great leading in.

As we start picking up the mileage, technique becomes much more important. One of the biggest issues for runners is a condition known as ITB friction syndrome.

It’s caused by the big tendon that runs down the side of your leg becoming tight and rubbing on the knuckle on the side of your knee. It creates a burning sensation that stops most people in their tracks.

There are many causes of ITB friction, but it is most often caused by the glute muscles being turned off by people running without keeping the arch in their lower back.

As we get tired, we tend to lean forward causing us to lose the nice arch in our back. This causes our lateral muscles to tighten pulling on this tendon creating problems.

It is important that the back is always kept straight in order to prevent these ITB issues.

Check out the Week 4 program below - for those of you who are following the programs, it follows that of Week 3. If you've missed a week, take a look in our Sports Archive.

WEEK 4 PROGRAM