Marathon Training

K09

Hi,

I am keen to run a marathon this year. Problem London in the summer.
However, I have not run any typeof race in years so I have no experience.

I have started doing some jogging but I have no idea if I am going too fast or just right.

Any ideas or what training should I be doing??

Thanks!

ir666

My suggestions:

Join a club

enter some 5k, 10k races etc to build experience.

Forget the marathon until you have built up to a half marathon or a few of them.

K09

ir666 wrote: »

My suggestions:

Join a club

enter some 5k, 10k races etc to build experience.

Forget the marathon until you have built up to a half marathon or a few of them.

Where can I find a list of upcoming 5k, 10k races??

Thanks.

RodSteel

I agree with ir66, join a club and they will enter you/advise you on upcoming races plus you will get coaching. Training in a group is beneficial for most people. Forget about marathons in your first year of training.
There is a subforum overhead called "A/R/T Events", here you will find info on races etc.

--amadeus--

Welcome to the world of running

The very first piece of advice I would give is that if you have just started a bit of light running then planning a marathon this year may not be the best of ideas. You don't take your first driving lesson with the intention of an F1 race within a year and marathons are pretty tough on your body. While it is by no means impossible to go from scratch to a marathon in a few months it wouldn't be recommended.

A club is a good idea as it will put some structure on things, introduce you to other runners at the same level and give you some local goals. Other than that just google running plans for the distances you want to race - maybe pick a 5k and then use the Couch to 5k program or a 10k and use a Hal Higdon program. Either way the key is slow and progressive mileage build-up. Ignore speed at the moment, slower is better as you want to build an endurance base. "To finish first, first you must finish" - before you can worry about running 10k quickly you first need to be able to run 10k.

Lastly the London marathon is exceptionally difficult to get into and is run in April, as far as I know entries are fully closed now for 2010. There are lots of Irish marathons to consider and some excellent overseas races without the hassle of London.

K09

I am fairly fit as I play gaa regularly. However, I just dont have any experience running long distance.

Should I still hold off running a marathon?

Thanks!

kit3

Hi,

Not sure where you are situated but there's a half marathon in Kildare in May - separate thread in events - Maybe you could try this and you would be in a good position to train for Dublin if the half marathon goes well for you.

--amadeus--

K09 wrote: »

I am fairly fit as I play gaa regularly. However, I just dont have any experience running long distance.

Should I still hold off running a marathon?

Thanks!

With the greatest respect teh two types of fitness are very, very different.

GAA involves short bursts of anaerobic exercise with a lot of standing around and some light running. It's all on grass - a low impact surface - and is over in 70 minutes with a nice long rest half way through.

A marathon - for most novices - is 4 or more hours of non stop, steady aerobic effort. It's run on tarmac and concrete (high impact surfaces) and involves a steadily increasing glycogen (fuel) depletion. Even the training demands are vastly different, with even first time runners training 3 - 5 times per week with a long run once per week that will peak at 3 or even 4 hours in duration.

I'm not saying your GAA fitness will be useless, clearly it won't be. But it will be of a lot less benefit than you think. There are huge physiological changes that need to be made in your body to withstand teh strains of a marathon and you can only make those adaptations by running long distances on the roads, IMO.

limericklion

--amadeus-- wrote: »

With the greatest respect teh two types of fitness are very, very different.

GAA involves short bursts of anaerobic exercise with a lot of standing around and some light running. It's all on grass - a low impact surface - and is over in 70 minutes with a nice long rest half way through.

A marathon - for most novices - is 4 or more hours of non stop, steady aerobic effort. It's run on tarmac and concrete (high impact surfaces) and involves a steadily increasing glycogen (fuel) depletion. Even the training demands are vastly different, with even first time runners training 3 - 5 times per week with a long run once per week that will peak at 3 or even 4 hours in duration.

I'm not saying your GAA fitness will be useless, clearly it won't be. But it will be of a lot less benefit than you think. There are huge physiological changes that need to be made in your body to withstand teh strains of a marathon and you can only make those adaptations by running long distances on the roads, IMO.

I agree with amadeus 100%. There was a gaa player a very prominent inter county player I knew regarded as been one of the "fittest" gaa players in Ireland. He decided to run a half marathon as I told him his aerobic fitness was very weak in comparison to endurance athletes. He was to subborn and told me he was just as fit as any athlete. The moral of the story is he dropped out after five miles getting sick running 7 minute mile pace. The fitness requirements are on another level and only a naive sportsman would think that field sports fitness is suffcient for a high aerobic activity. I suggest if you are near a local running club go down and observe some of the athletes training. There are stories within GAA circles of the legendary training Mick O Dwyer puts his teams through when in reality 40 laps of a football pitch is only about 8-9 mile not the herculian effort some would like to suggest. Learn about the marathon and the sport in general and then seek advise. regards

Barbaramc

First rule is to have Positive attitude, with steady training - running at least 3 times a week, you'll be able to complete the marathon.

I'm a netballer - (yes, that sport people have no idea about) and i used to run only 4 miles three times a week (not religiously) I decided last year to do the Paris marathon, which i ended up completing in 4hours (for a 1st marathon thats not bad).

So, in other words, start building up your running then go for the marathon training. personally for me, it having a positive head and knowing i could do that got me across the finish line.

Go for it. Can't say you'll love the pain but it feels amazing when you go over the finish line!

Best of luck!

Rebelrunner

If you have an ambition to do a marathon and you are willing to put effort in to training then go for it. I started this time last year from near zero fitness. Ran a foolish Cork marathon in 4.5 hours and learned from my mistakes (and colder weather helped), did DCM under 3.45 hrs.

Did the Hal Higdon training programs which are good IMO so if its what you want to do follow the program and you won't be long finding out if the training is going well enough to enter a marathon or not.