RUnning a Marathon

nollaig

How long would it take a complete novice to prepare for a marathon? Would 9 months be enough?

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

nollaig

Yep it's more than enough time. Some fantastic programs on this site - http://www.halhigdon.com/

Good luck!

Great stuff. I want to take part in the Connemara Marathon next year. So if I start training in July, I should well prepared for March:D

comer_97

the connemar marathon is a difficult one to begin with. It took me 5 months to get ready for dublin marathon a few years ago. And that was from scratch. I'm a lot fitter now and it still takes 16 weeks, anything less and you are prone to injuries!

John_C

nollaig wrote:

Great stuff. I want to take part in the Connemara Marathon next year. So if I start training in July, I should well prepared for March:D

A word of warning, Connemara is very hilly. 9 months is plenty of time, I usually give myself 20 weeks.

mor

I heard there was an ultra in Connemara as well.
What distance is it?

nollaig

I heard there was an ultra in Connemara as well.
What distance is it?

Pretty sure its 39 miles.

mor

So what sort of training / background is required for an ultra?

I started running in March '05. Till October '05 that year I ran on average about 20 miles a week. Then in November '05 I decided to get serious about it & I decided I would train for the Edinburgh marathon in June '06. So since November, I've been running about 32 miles a week, on average. About three weeks ago, I did a 5km in 19min30sec. Did the Edinburgh marathon (my first one) last week in 3hr43min. Would have been faster but it was very very hot (excuses excuses...).

Would it be too much for a novice to try an ultra or could I do it with that sort of background?

Thanks.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

LegacyUser

How long would it take for an already fit guy to run the Dublin Marathon? I have a friend who is real keen on doing it and I want to do it too...

comer_97

you are talking 16 weeks minimum and it will be hard work and that is just to do the marathon. any less than that and you will increase the risks of injury.

StaggerLee

mor wrote:

So what sort of training / background is required for an ultra?

I started running in March '05. Till October '05 that year I ran on average about 20 miles a week. Then in November '05 I decided to get serious about it & I decided I would train for the Edinburgh marathon in June '06. So since November, I've been running about 32 miles a week, on average. About three weeks ago, I did a 5km in 19min30sec. Did the Edinburgh marathon (my first one) last week in 3hr43min. Would have been faster but it was very very hot (excuses excuses...).

Would it be too much for a novice to try an ultra or could I do it with that sort of background?

Thanks.

Mor,
How were those 32 miles broken down, how many times a week were you running, what kind of distance per run, were you doing 1 long slow run and a few short tempo runs?

3:43... great time for a first marathon, well done.

mor

StaggerLee wrote:

Mor,
How were those 32 miles broken down, how many times a week were you running, what kind of distance per run, were you doing 1 long slow run and a few short tempo runs?

3:43... great time for a first marathon, well done.

Thanks.

Usually out running 4/5 days a week with an evening of swimming as well.
Before tapering, the last few weeks I was pushing 40 miles a week & my schedule looked something like this...

Mon: 5 miles
Tue: occasionally as a speed session or else about 4 miles
Wed: 7.5 miles
Thur: Swimming
Fri: 5 miles
Sat: Long run: 18-21 miles (v. slow)
Sun: Rest

I know I have to put more effort into the speed sessions. They varied from tempos to 400's etc. Not coming from a running/athletics background, they were very foreign to me.

Odysseus

mor wrote:

So what sort of training / background is required for an ultra?

I started running in March '05. Till October '05 that year I ran on average about 20 miles a week. Then in November '05 I decided to get serious about it & I decided I would train for the Edinburgh marathon in June '06. So since November, I've been running about 32 miles a week, on average. About three weeks ago, I did a 5km in 19min30sec. Did the Edinburgh marathon (my first one) last week in 3hr43min. Would have been faster but it was very very hot (excuses excuses...).

Would it be too much for a novice to try an ultra or could I do it with that sort of background?

Thanks.

Hi mate,

I'm heading over to Lapland next week for a 100k Ultra, I've only done two marathons before and the second of these was part of my training for the Ultra. I started training for at the start of year, the way I worked it was three runs a week, the first two months they were 12k, 12k, and 20 or 30k depending on the time I had, after that my weekly long run was 40k.

In addition to this once a month I had a long run which I increased by 10k, so it was 30k in jan, 40 in feb, 50 in march, 60 in april, 70 in may, and 80k in june. I found it difficult to get info on training for an ultra, and basically had to make it up as I went along, but I found some great help off people here. So that was my programme, I've gotton up to 80 so I should finish the 100k. Hope this helps, best of luck with it.

mor

Odysseus wrote:

Hi mate,

I'm heading over to Lapland next week for a 100k Ultra, I've only done two marathons before and the second of these was part of my training for the Ultra. I started training for at the start of year, the way I worked it was three runs a week, the first two months they were 12k, 12k, and 20 or 30k depending on the time I had, after that my weekly long run was 40k.

In addition to this once a month I had a long run which I increased by 10k, so it was 30k in jan, 40 in feb, 50 in march, 60 in april, 70 in may, and 80k in june. I found it difficult to get info on training for an ultra, and basically had to make it up as I went along, but I found some great help off people here. So that was my programme, I've gotton up to 80 so I should finish the 100k. Hope this helps, best of luck with it.

Thanks for the info. I might be tempted to give the ultra in Connemara ago. Going to take it easy for the next 3 weeks & think about what I want to do before I start training again. Best of luck in Lapland for the ultra. Looking forward to reading your posts all about it.

thirtyfoot

This is kind of related to the thread, a new Irish record for the 100km was achieved at the weekend.



Thomas Maguire set a new Irish 100km (62.1 miles) road record at the European 100k Championships in Torhout, Belgium at the weekend. Maguire’s time of 7.42.24 in his first ever run over the distance saw him finish in a highly commendable 29th position. The race began at 20.00 on June 16th, finishing in the early hours of the following morning. The event was won outright by Spain’s Jose Maria Gonzales with Spain also taking the team title.

Accompanying Maguire on the starting line was recent Sahara Half Marathon and North Pole Marathon winner, Michael Collins. Both Irish athletes mixed with the top twenty from the outset and passed through their first marathon in 2.54. Collins reached 70k in 5.04, but was forced to retire. However Maguire, who won the Connemara Ultra Marathon in March, recovered from a bad patch mid-way through the event, and went on to post the new record time.

The European 100km Championships is considered almost as difficult as the World 100km: traditionally, only Japan only can match the powerhouse nations of Spain, Italy, France, Russia, Belgium and Great Britain. However, Ireland is assembling an exceptionally talented squad for this year’s World Cup 100km in Korea on October 8th and have high hopes of a breakthrough top six team finish.

Indeed, ultrarunning is progressing quickly in Ireland. In February, Tony Mangan set a new 24 Hour Irish record when running 228.3km (141.86 miles) to finish 16th at the World Championships in Taiwan. A very strong 24-hour hour team, capable of medals, is also expected to compete in the next World Challenge 24H in Canada next year.

Odysseus

Tingle wrote:

This is kind of related to the thread, a new Irish record for the 100km was achieved at the weekend.



Thomas Maguire set a new Irish 100km (62.1 miles) road record at the European 100k Championships in Torhout, Belgium at the weekend. Maguire’s time of 7.42.24 in his first ever run over the distance saw him finish in a highly commendable 29th position. The race began at 20.00 on June 16th, finishing in the early hours of the following morning. The event was won outright by Spain’s Jose Maria Gonzales with Spain also taking the team title.

Accompanying Maguire on the starting line was recent Sahara Half Marathon and North Pole Marathon winner, Michael Collins. Both Irish athletes mixed with the top twenty from the outset and passed through their first marathon in 2.54. Collins reached 70k in 5.04, but was forced to retire. However Maguire, who won the Connemara Ultra Marathon in March, recovered from a bad patch mid-way through the event, and went on to post the new record time.

The European 100km Championships is considered almost as difficult as the World 100km: traditionally, only Japan only can match the powerhouse nations of Spain, Italy, France, Russia, Belgium and Great Britain. However, Ireland is assembling an exceptionally talented squad for this year’s World Cup 100km in Korea on October 8th and have high hopes of a breakthrough top six team finish.

Indeed, ultrarunning is progressing quickly in Ireland. In February, Tony Mangan set a new 24 Hour Irish record when running 228.3km (141.86 miles) to finish 16th at the World Championships in Taiwan. A very strong 24-hour hour team, capable of medals, is also expected to compete in the next World Challenge 24H in Canada next year.

Man, those times are amazing, there is no way I'll be finishing in that time:eek: However, its a case of completing for me, but you have to respect athelets like that.

mor

Tingle wrote:

Thomas Maguire set a new Irish 100km (62.1 miles) road record at the European 100k Championships in Torhout, Belgium at the weekend. Maguire’s time of 7.42.24 in his first ever run over the distance saw him finish in a highly commendable 29th position.

So he did 62.1 miles in 7'42'24...
That makes it 7'26' a mile for about 62 miles or so...
:eek:

thirtyfoot

As well as that, the mens world record is 6.13, but even better the womens is 6.33, thats 2:40 ish marathon pace I reckon for 62 miles, thats scary stuff. Both are Japanese.

Next time you're in the gym on the threadmill, put it on 15kph and this is the pace these guys do for 100k or 6 hours or so, I'd struggle to do it for 5 minutes!