Life after 1st marathon

opus

I finished my first marathon (in fact my first ever race of any sort) in Cork on Monday. Taking a week off any running now but been wondering what then! Sort of thought about running another one in the Autumn as I got quite a kick from finishing it & figure I could learn from a few mistakes I made to improve my time a bit.

But I've read that you should leave 6 months between marathons especially if you're an inexperienced runner so just looking for some advice really. I started running at the end of '09 following a friend's suggestion that I give the marathon a try and hadn't done any running before that.

Thanks!

ecoli

You could look to improving shorter distance times (5k-10 mile) this will benefit you once you look to your next marathon and will provide you with a bit of focus

gerard65

Well done and enjoy the post race glow. As ecoli suggests you could have a go at shorter distance until you start planning for your next marathon. Have a look at the BHAA Cork races: http://www.corkbhaa.com/. You'll enjoy the shorter races and be able to run them more often.

hot to trot

it also depends on what kind of running you enjoy and how competitive you are.
Did you enjoy pushing yourself on the shorter weekday runs or did you enjoy the long runs once they got more comfortable?
I did my first in April and did my second in August and third in October. Because I hadnt left it tooo long between them I didnt have to start at rock bottom to build up the distance on my long runs again. I still got some speedwork in , but I enjoy the long runs and the marathons in different places .
It was suggested I undertake training to get my speed up too , but to be honest it nearly put me off running altogether . See what you enjoy and what appeals to you most and then off you go...
ENJOY it . and congratualtions on your marthon

Oisin11178

hot to trot wrote: »

it also depends on what kind of running you enjoy and how competitive you are.
Did you enjoy pushing yourself on the shorter weekday runs or did you enjoy the long runs once they got more comfortable?
I did my first in April and did my second in August and third in October. Because I hadnt left it tooo long between them I didnt have to start at rock bottom to build up the distance on my long runs again. I still got some speedwork in , but I enjoy the long runs and the marathons in different places .
It was suggested I undertake training to get my speed up too , but to be honest it nearly put me off running altogether . See what you enjoy and what appeals to you most and then off you go...
ENJOY it . and congratualtions on your marthon

I agree with this to be honest. That 6 month between marathons is a blanket thing. I did my first last august and will be doing my 10th in 2 weeks. I dont mean you should do that many but for example dublin in october should be fine. Keep limited milage going while you are recovering so you dont have to start from square one again. You could also do what some other said and concentrate on the smaller distances.

Barty

Would agree with deciding which you prefer, the shorter or longer distances. I did my first marathon last June in Cork, didn't go as planned. I did my second in Dublin last October and was very happy with it and have just started training for Dublin this year. It is just over 20 weeks to the DCM '10, which means you could take it easy for the next two weeks to give your body time to recover and then start an 18 week training plan for it. You will already have a good base of fitness and as you said you will learn from any mistakes made last Monday and hopefully improve on your time

opus

Thanks for the suggestions, it's probably the longer runs that appeal to me most to be honest (gives me time to make some dent in the podcasts that keep mounting up!) so I'll probably start to build back to doing another one in the Autumn after a week's break. Was really looking for a bit of reassurance that it wasn't an insane thing to do

hunnymonster

In fairness, looking for confirmation of sanity from this lot is worrying. Many of them (us??) take insanity pills with their morning porridge! Great to hear you're enjoying marathon training and running. Dublin 2004 was my first Dublin 2005 was my 8th so there is no problem with packing them in especially if you don't want to run them all fast. Do what you enjoy.

RayCun

hunnymonster wrote: »

Many of them (us??) take insanity pills with their morning porridge!

I like the way the woman who just ran from Malin to Mizen puts question marks after 'us'.

average_runner

I would go for Dublin, but as Honeymonster said we are a bit crazy and so are you now:D Welcome aboard!

Do a few 5/10/13 mile races and go for Dublin. Dublin is a great marathon just because of the amount of people out supprting you.

It be my first marathon out watching, ran the last two.

aero2k

OP, save yourself - stay away from boards A/R/T forum before it's too late!

People here are a very bad influence. After Cork on Monday I sat in the pub beside RacoonQueen, and after swapping stories it came to "so aero, have you ever thought about doing an ultra?"

About an hour later, hunnymonster arrived in and sat down beside me. We talked a bit about Malin to Mizen, before she added her "so aero, would you consider doing an ultra?"

As for Thomas Bubendorfer, I have decided his race reports and blog are no-go areas - they make the whole thing seem like a perfectly sane and reasonable way of spending a few (too many) hours.

hunnymonster

@aero2k, so that's a yes then?

rainbow kirby

aero2k wrote: »

People here are a very bad influence. After Cork on Monday I sat in the pub beside RacoonQueen, and after swapping stories it came to "so aero, have you ever thought about doing an ultra?"

I believe I may have been asked the same question while drunk after the Great Ireland Run :pac:

hunnymonster

what can I say, myself and RQ have one track minds :-)

Izoard

hunnymonster wrote: »

Dublin 2004 was my first Dublin 2005 was my 8th so there is no problem with packing them in especially if you don't want to run them all fast.

I know that is probably a piece of pi$$ in the context of M2M (congrats BTW...), but every time you post, there is another mega feat casually dropped in.

Insane (in a good way...):D

Krusty_Clown

I have found that you can run a couple of non-competitive marathons after your category 'A' / goal marathon. But you can't do it the other way around (run some leisurely marathons while building up for your goal marathon) as it affects your training/recovery, and increases the risk of injury (I learned the hard way).

So if you're interested in multi-marathoning (Hunnymonstering) best to do it just after your goal marathon. Then leave a clear stretch for your next goal marathon (to achieve a personal best). There are exceptions to every rule, Oisin1178 and Woddle spring to mind (and of course Hunnymonster who is an exception to humanity).

shels4ever

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I have found that you can run a couple of non-competitive marathons after your category 'A' / goal marathon. But you can't do it the other way around (run some leisurely marathons while building up for your goal marathon) as it affects your training/recovery, and increases the risk of injury (I learned the hard way).

So if you're interested in multi-marathoning (Hunnymonstering) best to do it just after your goal marathon. Then leave a clear stretch for your next goal marathon (to achieve a personal best). There are exceptions to every rule, Oisin1178 and Woddle spring to mind (and of course Hunnymonster who is an exception to humanity).

It all depends on the person I guess to, I know people who run marathon after marathon and dont' really care about pb's but the pure mileage alone is getting them to a very good standard, there are people running every marathon around in really really good times, i'd wonder what they would do if they focused on just one marathon but each to their own really.

aero2k

hunnymonster wrote: »

@aero2k, so that's a yes then?

No, never....

However, when I decided to become a born again runner, I said I'd only do one marathon (DCM '08), then I said "oh maybe only one per year".

With the gap between marathons now down to 7 months and falling I think I'm on a slippery slope - but it's fun so far!:D

OP I'm pretty conservative in terms of recovery, so I might have a different perspective to others. If you're doing it just to enjoy the experience then there's no reason not to do Dublin in October, it's a lovely course and a great event, but if you want to do your best possible time it might be worth waiting until next spring.

Have a look at the training logs on here - it's worth looking at those from people with similar or slightly better ability to yourself. The inspiration will be helpful, and you'll get loads of useful tips.

opus

While improvement would be welcome, it wouldn't be the main thing as I enjoyed the overall experience of the day so wouldn't mind a repeat. Although having said that I think I could find ten minutes by not repeating mistakes from Cork. I'll come up with a plan at the weekend as to what one I'll try next (not an ultramarathon btw )

Hunnymonster, I read about the Malin to Mizen run in the paper, just want to say congratulations on a fantastic achievement! If I remember the article correctly think we both work in the same place, small world or what!

ocnoc

OP - if you consider taking a break from marathon training, i'd recommend you look here
Much better scenery

aero2k

rainbow kirby wrote: »

I believe I may have been asked the same question while drunk after the Great Ireland Run :pac:

You need to keep your wits about you when those folk are nearby - there's no point trying to outrun them, you need to be devious.:D

meathcountysec

hunnymonster wrote: »

what can I say, myself and RQ have one track minds :-)

And a very long track it is too....:D

opus

After some debate over the w/end, it's the marathon in Berlin in September for me. A friend of mine is doing the roller-blade version on the Sat so we'll set up some sort of mutual support pact between us After a week off will ease back into training tomorrow.

Krusty_Clown

opus wrote: »

After some debate over the w/end, it's the marathon in Berlin in September for me. A friend of mine is doing the roller-blade version on the Sat so we'll set up some sort of mutual support pact between us After a week off will ease back into training tomorrow.

It's been sold out for quite some time. Have you reg'ed already?

opus

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

It's been sold out for quite some time. Have you reg'ed already?

I had to book via Sport Travel International so cost me a nice chuck of change. Got reasonably cheap flights Ryanair flights to Frankfurt as I'm staying a few days with friends near there so it will be a week's break in the end.