My first marathon

monnells

Hi all

I aim to run the Dublin marathon in October. I've been talking about doing it for a few years now but am quite competitive by nature so will only do it when absolutely ready and well prepared, haven't really had the time to train until this year, hopefully!

I've done a few 10k races and did the connemara half marathon last year. Any advice on the months ahead would be greatly appreciated. I hope to complete in under 4 hours, but what does anyone know about times until they've actually run one. I know there are loads of marathon training guides out there but would like to hear from some real marathon runners. The next few months are important for me as I really want to build up a good base fitness, I ran 10k in gym today, took 54 mins so am not starting from scratch. How many km should I be clocking up a week with 7 months to go?

Thanks in advance for any comments. p.s. I am 26 year old female, quite sporty all my life but only starting running 3 years ago.

Lila

I used this Hal Higdon novice plan for my first Dublin marathon last October www.halhigdon.com/marathon/novices2.htm. I found it great as gave me the structure I would have struggled without. It's an 18 week plan so you can start it around mid to late June. In the meantime keep running regularly to get your body used to the pounding before the real mileage kicks in in late summer. Maybe start a 10km training plan first (www.halhigdon.com/10ktraining/10kintro.htm) and aim towards an event like Womens 10km in June?

Another piece of advice I would give you is to do at least some of your runs outside, not all on the treadmill. It's quite different on the roads with wind etc and a little tougher on the joints. You want to be used to that before the real training starts in the summer.

If you live near Dublin the Adidas series races (5 mile, 10 mile & half marathon) are great preparation. Good luck!

--amadeus--

Welcome to the club!

I'll second everything Lila says, running outside and using the Addidas series as warm ups are excellent ideas. The Hal Higdon plans are very highly reccomended but you might also want to look at this. It's a 3 days a week plan so allows you to continue cross training. Also look at this for loads of great info.

Best advice is - as Lila said - to pick a mid summer event and train up for it to get ready for a training program for June. Have a look at the various plans and if you have any questions post them up here and someone will give you advice on it.

Good luck!

monnells

Thanks for the advice guys, will have a look at the links and training guides. Looking forward to getting down to it! Will no doubt have questions for ye along the way. Have the adidas runs pencilled in my diary already and mini marathon entered, fun times.

poh

I did Dublin last year and it was great. The crowd support really helps along the route.

I would recomend getting one of the garmin forerunners if you havent already got one as you seem well into your running now.

They are a great training tool and helps to focus on times and paces and allows you to track all your training on your computer.

I recently purchased the garmin 301 and its great. Nice and cheap on amazon altho you have to get it delivered to NI as they wont deliver in ROI.

Good luck with the training

monnells

Great Poh, thanks for the advice, hadn't even heard of Garmin, just read through other thread on them ,sounds like good idea, generally do all treadmill running, primarily as I'm a bit pedantic about knowing my times distances etc. But looks like the Garmin thing would make road running more enjoyable for me. I'm off to NY on hols in few weeks, could I get one there does anyone know?

christeb

Done Dublin in 2003, great crowd as mentioned, I won't embarass myself with my time though! Plan to do again prob in '09...

In the meantime before you get your Garmin device (or similar), this site is great: www.mapmyrun.com for measuring distances quite accurately and planning new routes.

Best of Luck

--amadeus--

I am a huge fan of Garmin's and you should be able to get one in NYC. But they are expensive and I only got one after I had been running for a couple of years and knew that I'd get the use out of it. It's a bit of a commitment buy!

If you are serious about marathon training then you need to get off the treadie. Whatever (small) advantage you get from running exactly 8 miles rather than 7.6 or 8.2 or whatever is totally negated by the fact that the treadie is not the same as road running. Specifically you need to get your joints used to running long distances on hard surfaces (treadies are cushioned). You also need to get used to variations in terrain and elevation. Then there is weather - no wind resistance in a gym! And you don't want to run in teh rain for the first time on the race day. Pace cannot compare directly from treadmill to raod (I have heard that you can expect to be 10% slower on a road for the same effort) because of teh way a treadmill operates.

Fair enough if you happen to be in a gym and want a quick, warm and dry 5k. But for proper marathon training you need to run on roads I'm afraid.

W00dsi3

Hi Folks,

I'm in the same boat monnells.... Doing the NYC city marathon in Nov for charity.... Started running last year... longest I've done is 10miles.....
I'm at 7 miles at the moment... quite a bit to go....!! I Need a training plan to stick to. gotta stay motivated
How was the half marathon? tough?

monnells

Hi W00dsi3. Half marathon was tough alright, but I probably hadn't done enough training, completed in 2 hours so a lot to be done to complete the full marathon in 4 hours!

Thanks for advice Amadeus, yes I really need to get over my fear of the road and get out there, I'm a bit of a gadget freak so the garmin may be the extra incentive I need to get into the road runs!

911sc

monnells wrote: »

Half marathon completed in 2 hours so a lot to be done to complete the full marathon in 4 hours!

By using a race time predictor like this one,
your marathon time would be 4h26min..
Though, there are many other parameters coming into play, incl your endurance, profile of the course, weather on the day, etc..
My half marathon time at the moment is 1h52min and i ran the Connemarathon last week-end in 4h26min (calculator gave a predicted time of 4h08min).
Aiming for a sub 4h in Dublin...

gaf1983

911sc wrote: »

By using a race time predictor like this one,
your marathon time would be 4h26min..
Though, there are many other parameters coming into play, incl your endurance, profile of the course, weather on the day, etc..
My half marathon time at the moment is 1h52min and i ran the Connemarathon last week-end in 4h26min (calculator gave a predicted time of 4h08min).
Aiming for a sub 4h in Dublin...

Very handy link that 911sc. I did a half-marathon in January in 1:52, so should have done the full/aimed to do the full in 4:08:30, actually took me 4:14:30 to do Connemara - I definitely slowed down in the last 6 miles.

RRSC

Hi Monnells

having 10 dublins in the bank (83-92) I reckon the best advice I can give you is to get out and run at least 4 days every week, with ur longest run on a sunday. Build this run up slowly - if your long run is 2 hours now, build it up to 3hours over a period of months, not weeks. try to find a group or club to run with as it shortens the miles. Don't get hung up on the gadgets, steady training is the key and eat well. The gym is of limited use for marathon training - we are coming into the bright eveings now so get out and run the parks and roads. Use the Irish Runner series as benchmarks - especially the 10 and half mar. Come end septemebr you need to have your weekly long run up to 20 or even better 22 miles. At that stage take it steady and taper down to a 12 mile run the sunday 8 days before the race. Best of luck.....

RRSC

HardyEustace

RRSC wrote: »

Hi Monnells

having 10 dublins in the bank (83-92) I reckon the best advice I can give you is to get out and run at least 4 days every week, with ur longest run on a sunday. Build this run up slowly - if your long run is 2 hours now, build it up to 3hours over a period of months, not weeks. try to find a group or club to run with as it shortens the miles. Don't get hung up on the gadgets, steady training is the key and eat well. The gym is of limited use for marathon training - we are coming into the bright eveings now so get out and run the parks and roads. Use the Irish Runner series as benchmarks - especially the 10 and half mar. Come end septemebr you need to have your weekly long run up to 20 or even better 22 miles. At that stage take it steady and taper down to a 12 mile run the sunday 8 days before the race. Best of luck.....

RRSC

I'd have to disagree with this statement if the poster means that the gym as in weight work is a waste of time.

I've recently started circuit training with weights. I think that the strength work has made a massive difference to my running. I'm much stronger and feel great when running. I also think it's reduced my injury.