Building up a base.

One Cold Hand

Hi folks, looking for a bit of guidance here.

I'm looking to run the Melbourne Marathon on 12th Oct this year. Living in Melb now, but was travelling for the last 3 months, so the fitness levels aren't too high. Obviously I'll be following a specific program with 3/4 months to go, but what I want to do first is build up a good base, over the next 2 months.

Would any one have any advise on some ways to build up a good base? I play football twice a week (one training, one match) so I'd like to do another few runs. I'm not sure whether ro concentrate on distance, or on speed or a combo. Any advise would be muchos appreciated!

Oh also I ran a Dublin in 2004 in 4hrs (with not too much training!) so not my first time. This time I want to aim for around 3h 40. Don't think this is too unrealistic!

Cheers!

--amadeus--

Welcome!

Sounds like you have a good plan. I wouldn't bother with any speedwork in your base building phase - the whole point of base building is to give you an endurance platform that you can later build speed onto. I would guess your football training involves some sprint drills anyway, so you can count those as speed sessions!

2 - 3 runs per week would be a good idea, start at a comfortable level with two at middle distance that you can run pretty easily and the last a slightly longer run. Build the distance slowly (no more than 10% extra per week either in total distance or on any individual run) and probably aim to be running 10 - 12 miles comfortably before starting the training program (depending on where you are now).

I strongly recommend that you do NOT time these runs. The point of base training is endurance not speed. If you time the runs you'll be tempted to try and run them faster each week, which will defeat the object. The shorter runs should be at "cruising speed", running comfortably, knowing you are working but working at a level you can maintain, roughly your planned marathon pace. The longer run should be significantly slower, run at conversational pace (as in you should be able to easily hold a conversation while running). If you do time it it should be 60 - 90 secs per mile slower than your planned race pace.

Good luck!

Peckham

Hal Higdon has some good training plans for races of varying distances (5K, 8K, 10K and 15K), for each distance he has a novice, intermediate and advance plan, and each lasts for 8 weeks.

I would suggest you review his plans (found here), and pick whichever one is most suited to where you think your training is now. The training plan for 15K is probably the most suitable in order to link in with a marathon plan, so might be worth looking at the Novice and Intermediate plans for that distance and picking the one that most suits your situation.

Also worth looking out for local races in the next few months to keep the motivation up.

Good luck!

One Cold Hand

Cheers gents,

Appreciate the help. I'm sure I'll be back at some stage to annoy you with more questions!