10 weeks training for Marathon - Advice

8Balboa4

Hi all, have been following this forum for some time and finally decided to sign up and contribute.

As the title of my post suggests I am seeking some advice about training for 10 weeks and 'hopefully' running the Barcelona marathon this year.

I had hoped to start training for the race, following a Hal Higdon plan, before Christmas but between one thing or another never got proper into it. I had been eyeing up the Barcelona race for some time for a number of reasons..

1) I completed 2 half marathons last year and would love to run a full marathon this year
2) Ideally I would like to run a Spring marathon to leave the summer free for other sports/travelling
3) It would be a great weekend in Barcelona and a cool (but very painful) way of seeing the city
4) Has to be the ultimate new years resolution!

I really started getting into running last year. Completed 2 half marathons (1hr 32 and 1hr 29). I had been running 3/4 times a week (mostly 8 or 10km) before the Christmas set it. Basically just looking for advice as to whether this would be too much to take on in 10 weeks. I have never run further than a half marathon before. I ran 4 miles today and hope to do 8/10 on Saturday as my first long run.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

macinalli

These threads pop up here fairly often, and the response generally falls into:

• You've paid for your flights, registration etc - go for it
• You only get one first marathon - take the time to do it justice and enjoy the experience

Based on a 1.29 half, you've got a pretty good base but the step up to a full marathon is a big one. If you are to go ahead with this, then I think that you need to:

• Run regularly - 5 days a week would be the norm
• Do 1 long slow run every weekend and gradually increase the distance of this run. If you take a look at a Hal Higdon (or another) training plan, you'll see the distance gradually going up each week
• Increase this distance gradually (10% rule) and keep the pace slow (10% slower than your expected marathon pace)

There are lots of other things that you could do - these would probably be the most important points. The final point would to be realistic about your expectations. When picking a target time, many people would take their half marathon time, double it and then add 10%. This would give you a target marathon time of 3.16 (for example). There's a good chance that this could be out of your reach on the day - not because of ability, just the lack of training time available. Most training plans are 3-4 months long, whereas you have only 8 weeks training time.

ThePiedPiper

There's no reason why this shouldn't be do-able. A few suggestions to make it easier to complete the distance:
1. For now, don't set yourself any time targets for the marathon itself.
2. Focus on a lot of easy running, increasing the distances gradually.
3. Build up to a 10 mile long run (do it slowly) in the next 1-2 weeks.
4. Listen to your body. If you feel like you're coming down with a cold, or injury, be prepared to miss a day or two running.
5. Have a concrete plan in place and stick to it.
6. Start now, and be commit to the marathon. It'll be hard work, but worth it.
7. Enjoy your training and running.