Marathon newbie looking for guidance / help / advice

D3PO

Morning guys and gals. New to this particular boards forum but as the title says looking for help / guidance and advice and if needs be a dose of realism.

Anyway Im planning on running (jogging, walking or crawling if needs be) the Dublin Marathon at the end of the month, ive never done one before and always knew it would be a challenge.

That said at 35 and relatively fit I thought that it shouldnt be beyond me, provided I trained right and was realistic in my expectacations.

So a bit of googling and I got myself a 20 week training plan, great, started to go through the plan and everything going well, but one thing I didnt take into consideration was the birth of my first child.

I completely and utterly undestimated quite how much of an impact it would have on my time and as such my training the upshot of this is that I've essentially lost the last 4 weeks of training.

Clearly thats a pretty big obsticle at this stage but as of last Thursday ive got back to training albeit still with time restrictions so Im only getting out to train every second night so 3 sessions back in.

Did a 15km run last night and felt pretty good after it so it would seem I havent lost all of the benefit of the miles in my legs despite the training excursion although timewise my pace is a good bit down on where it was. 15km @ 6 min km pace.

Anyway im hoping some of the more experienced boardies on here can help me. what Im looking for is the following if anybody can assist with answers.

1. Is it still realistic to expect me to complete given this loss of training ? This is my obvious priority at this stage.

2. Originally I had hoped to break 4 1/2 hrs this is out the window now, but would it still be possible for me to complete in 5 hrs with the right training ?

3. Im not sure if the 20 week plan I downloaded is now of any use given I lost 4 weeks of it. Would anybody be able to advise me what kind of training I should be looking at doing for the 4 weeks to achieve a finish ? or should I just continue with the plan I have and ignore the 4 missed weeks.

4. Finally, on the morning of the marathon in terms of food intake any suggestions on what I shoudl be looking to load up on.

Thanks a mill in advance guys

RayCun

novices thread is the place to go

SnappyDresser

Personally I have finished marathons after just doing 3 one hour runs per week but it was not a good idea. Last 8 miles were horrible and awful and time was not great. I would leave the marathon this year and do it in the early spring but if you were to do it I would aim to do an 18miler in early October and see how you go. If you can manage to finish in ok condition perhaps you will be able to finish in reasonable condition. It will put some long mileage into your legs but would risk injury so that is the gamble. However running marathons on limited mileage is not great for the old ticker [and that came from the cardiologist from Beaumont]!

amcgee

D3PO wrote: »

Morning guys and gals. New to this particular boards forum but as the title says looking for help / guidance and advice and if needs be a dose of realism.

Anyway Im planning on running (jogging, walking or crawling if needs be) the Dublin Marathon at the end of the month, ive never done one before and always knew it would be a challenge.

That said at 35 and relatively fit I thought that it shouldnt be beyond me, provided I trained right and was realistic in my expectacations.

So a bit of googling and I got myself a 20 week training plan, great, started to go through the plan and everything going well, but one thing I didnt take into consideration was the birth of my first child.

I completely and utterly undestimated quite how much of an impact it would have on my time and as such my training the upshot of this is that I've essentially lost the last 4 weeks of training.

Clearly thats a pretty big obsticle at this stage but as of last Thursday ive got back to training albeit still with time restrictions so Im only getting out to train every second night so 3 sessions back in.

Did a 15km run last night and felt pretty good after it so it would seem I havent lost all of the benefit of the miles in my legs despite the training excursion although timewise my pace is a good bit down on where it was. 15km @ 6 min km pace.

Anyway im hoping some of the more experienced boardies on here can help me. what Im looking for is the following if anybody can assist with answers.

1. Is it still realistic to expect me to complete given this loss of training ? This is my obvious priority at this stage.

2. Originally I had hoped to break 4 1/2 hrs this is out the window now, but would it still be possible for me to complete in 5 hrs with the right training ?

3. Im not sure if the 20 week plan I downloaded is now of any use given I lost 4 weeks of it. Would anybody be able to advise me what kind of training I should be looking at doing for the 4 weeks to achieve a finish ? or should I just continue with the plan I have and ignore the 4 missed weeks.

4. Finally, on the morning of the marathon in terms of food intake any suggestions on what I shoudl be looking to load up on.

Thanks a mill in advance guys

Just wondering , are you male or female...as if you gave birth and or back running again and planning on doing the marathon, i cant answer that, but if you male like myself, well you should be able to do it, but at a reduced time and maybe walk run it, especially since you have done 20 miles in a loong run.

but at the end of the day(if you havent entered now..then you wont be running, if you have i think you can.
good luck

amcgee

D3PO wrote: »

Morning guys and gals. New to this particular boards forum but as the title says looking for help / guidance and advice and if needs be a dose of realism.

Anyway Im planning on running (jogging, walking or crawling if needs be) the Dublin Marathon at the end of the month, ive never done one before and always knew it would be a challenge.

That said at 35 and relatively fit I thought that it shouldnt be beyond me, provided I trained right and was realistic in my expectacations.

So a bit of googling and I got myself a 20 week training plan, great, started to go through the plan and everything going well, but one thing I didnt take into consideration was the birth of my first child.

I completely and utterly undestimated quite how much of an impact it would have on my time and as such my training the upshot of this is that I've essentially lost the last 4 weeks of training.

Clearly thats a pretty big obsticle at this stage but as of last Thursday ive got back to training albeit still with time restrictions so Im only getting out to train every second night so 3 sessions back in.

Did a 15km run last night and felt pretty good after it so it would seem I havent lost all of the benefit of the miles in my legs despite the training excursion although timewise my pace is a good bit down on where it was. 15km @ 6 min km pace.

Anyway im hoping some of the more experienced boardies on here can help me. what Im looking for is the following if anybody can assist with answers.

1. Is it still realistic to expect me to complete given this loss of training ? This is my obvious priority at this stage.

2. Originally I had hoped to break 4 1/2 hrs this is out the window now, but would it still be possible for me to complete in 5 hrs with the right training ?

3. Im not sure if the 20 week plan I downloaded is now of any use given I lost 4 weeks of it. Would anybody be able to advise me what kind of training I should be looking at doing for the 4 weeks to achieve a finish ? or should I just continue with the plan I have and ignore the 4 missed weeks.

4. Finally, on the morning of the marathon in terms of food intake any suggestions on what I shoudl be looking to load up on.

Thanks a mill in advance guys

Just wondering , are you male or female...as if you gave birth and or back running again and planning on doing the marathon, i cant answer that, but if you male like myself, well you should be able to do it, but at a reduced time and maybe walk run it, especially if you followed a plan before your child came along.

but at the end of the day(if you havent entered now..then you wont be running, if you have i think you can.
good luck

gladrags

"1.Is it still realistic to expect me to complete given this loss of training ? This is my obvious priority at this stage.

2. Originally I had hoped to break 4 1/2 hrs this is out the window now, but would it still be possible for me to complete in 5 hrs with the right training ?

3. Im not sure if the 20 week plan I downloaded is now of any use given I lost 4 weeks of it. Would anybody be able to advise me what kind of training I should be looking at doing for the 4 weeks to achieve a finish ? or should I just continue with the plan I have and ignore the 4 missed weeks.

4. Finally, on the morning of the marathon in terms of food intake any suggestions on what I shoudl be looking to load up on."

1 Yes-if you have followed the basic criteria regarding training,food & water intake,and pacing.

2 5hrs is reasonable,your age is good

4 Have a good breakfast,simple food,cereal,fruit,porridge.Follow the simple guidelines.

Pace yourself,focus on breathing and relax.

D3PO

thanks for the responses guys. I am male i wouldnt even dream of doing a marathon if I were female and had just given birth :eek:

I really just wanted to know if I was being foolhardy. I have a very stubborn or I like to call it determined streak in me, but wanted to be fed some realisim if it werent going to be possible to complete it.

I realise this is now going to be significantly more difficult than it would have been should I have completed a full training program. I guess I should migrate over to the link Raycon posted and put any further questions to those on there.

thanks guys.

gladrags

How did things work out?

martyboy48

There onto you TbL.....