Welcome to the 2016 edition of the
Dublin Marathon Mentored Novices Thread!
This is the 8th leg of this epic journey. In
2009, the tradition was started by
--amadeus--.
Rainbow kirby took over in
2010,
Raycun in
2011, followed by
Younganne in
2012.
career_move followed suit by taking care of the Novices in
2013, passing the baton to
Ososlo for the amazing class of
2014. The wonderful
Dubgal72 managed to get a large group of Novices over the line in
2015.
As the tradition goes, one of last years Novices is asked to host the next thread. This honor has somehow been bestowed on me (
nop98) - so, let's get this party started.
About the Novices thread
Anyone considering doing the
Dublin City Marathon for the first time this year, on
October 30th - this thread is especially for you. Even if you have tried your hand at a marathon before, but want to go again, feel free to join. You can consider following one of the two programs we have - both starting towards the end of June, you can ask whatever questions you might have (keep it running related
) and share experiences with your fellow Novices.
The opening posts of the two previous Novices threads are compulsive reading for all 2016 Novices - I'll capture some of the highlights below.
We'll work with an online mileage tracker, that will allow all Novices to track their progress as we move through the months. Details to follow, but for reference, the tracker of the 2015 class can be viewed
here.
We will do our best to answer and guide you as much as we can. There's a "team" of fellow former Novices and more experienced marathoners in place to help out with answering your questions. Furthermore, there are many very experienced runners on this forum, who are all invited and encouraged to share their experiences and help guide the class of 2026 to what will hopefully be a fabulous day in October - with positive and constructive feedback!
Will I, won't I !?
An excellent question. Do you want an honest answer?
Training for your first marathon is hard! As much as this thread will aim to help, you'll have to do a lot of that hard work (well, all of that hard work, actually
) yourself. A lot of it on your own, and a lot of it at unsociable hours.
Obviously, this journey requires a reasonable level of fitness, and you may consider a full medical check just to be sure. Some of you might have already made up your mind, and will try and tackle the distance this year - maybe having tried before, or covered one or more half marathons to date. Some of you might not be so sure. The good thing is, you don't have to make up your mind, just yet.
Our training plans start
Monday, June 27th. The guidance is to be running quite regularly, for a year. Come June 27th, you want to be running comfortably 3-4 times a week, every week, at that stage, covering at least 20 miles per week. My recommendation is to examine the two training plans on offer carefully, and start structuring your training routines like the early weeks, starting right now. Start getting used to running 3-4 days in a row, and a longer run at the weekend. Can you fit this in your daily routine, your holiday plans, your family life? If you're unsure, just try it out for a couple of weeks and see how you get on. The mileage in the programs will go up, so be realistic in your self-assessment Post your progress here and we'll try and give an honest assessment.
Training Plans
This thread works of two plans: the
Hal Higdon Novice 1 plan, and the
Boards.ie plan, designed by career_move and expanded by Ososlo and Dubgal in recent years. The plans have been used successfully by many Novices over the years, and are slightly adapted to fit the 2016 race series schedule.
- The Hal Higdon Novice 1 plan is a widely used novice marathon plan. It's a simple, and straightforward plan, which slowly increases the weekly mileage to eventually include a 20 mile training run, and has step-back weeks built in to help the body adapt. It uses 3 mid-week runs, which will slowly increase in length, and a longer weekend run. Ideally, you mix in one day of cross-training, too.
- The Boards plan for 2016 is for slightly more experienced runners. It includes a more variety in paces (either "easy" pace, or PMP ("planned marathon pace")), it includes strides on some of the easy runs, and generally covers more miles - e.g. 2 20 milers and more long LSRs.
Both plans include 2 of the Race Series build-up races in the Phoenix Park (the Frank Duffy 10-miler on August 20th, and the DCM Half Marathon, on September 25th). You don't have to run these races, but targeting a tune-up race is a useful tool during training; and both runs great events in their own right. You can of course substitute these events for other events around the same time, if that's more suitable geographically.
There are many more plans out there - you can use whichever appeals to you. Hopefully, for most 2016 Novices, one of our plans fits the bill. If you're looking for some pre-plan training advice, check
this out.
Some General Advice
- Choose a plan, and stick to it. Try not to miss runs (especially the longer runs). If you do need to cut out a training run, cut out one of the shorter easy runs, and don't try and make up for it. Obviously, you can swap days around within a week to suit your needs.
- In the weeks leading up to the start of the program, ramp up your mileage very gently towards 20 miles. Don't increase your mileage by more than 10% each week.
- Run slow. Once you think you run slow enough, run even slower. You will not be able to complete all the training miles if you don't run the majority of them slow (slower than you will run on the day itself). Once the program is about to start, we'll talk about how to determine your ideally training paces.
- Be realistic. First of all, about being able to participate this year. A marathon is quite an undertaking - ideally you have already participated at the shorter distances. Second of all, about your goals for the day. If you do want to set a target time (we'll talk about that later), be conservative. The marathon has the tendency to catch up with you.
- Be sensible about things like nutrition, alcohol, and sleep. You don't have to start leading a Spartan lifestyle, but paying attention to this things will reap benefits in the long run. Everything in moderation (except for the sleep part!).
- Get yourself a decent pair of running shoes (if you don't have them already). You're likely to go through at least one pair during this cycle. It's also worthwhile to invest in a couple of sets of proper socks and t-shirts (if you don't have them already). You're going to be hogging that washing machine so having a few extras won't hurt. There's a lot of other gadgets you might use during training or on the day itself, we'll talk about that later.
- Listen to your body. If something doesn't feel right, stop your run. If it persists, seek professional advice. This thread will not be able to cover or answer medical issues. "Get your physio on speed-dial", Dubgal said repeatedly last year.
- Discuss your plans with your significant other(s). They'll have to deal with a lot of marathon talk and exhaustion over the coming couple of months! You need them on your side more than us!
About "nop98", your host
I ran my first and so far only marathon as part of Dubgal's class of 2015, having participated in about half-a-dozen half marathons before that. I followed the Boards.ie plan as close as real life allowed. Sometimes, it felt that the scheduling effort was harder than the running itself! Despite having a decent base, I thought the first 6 weeks of the plan to be the hardest, as the mileage ramps up rather quickly. On the day itself, I ran for hours with the wonderful 4-hour pacers. Unfortunately, during the last couple of miles, I had to stop twice due to cramp. I managed to come home in ~4h02, and almost fell in the arms of the great Sonia O'S, who was standing at the finishline, congratulating finishers, fresh as a daisy from her 3h marathon. One of the more memorable days of my life!
The support, advice, and camraderie on the 2015 Novices thread carried me (and many fellow Novices) through the hard training months. I hope this thread will help you, 2016 Novices, as much as it helped us.
Joining in the fun
Wanna be part of this amazing journey? I hope you still do! Feel free to introduce yourself if you want to participate. All are welcome. It will help us tremendously if you could answer the following questions:
- Have you raced before? If so what are your PBs? (Date and distance please!)
- Do you still need to take walk breaks in your training? (No problem if you do)
- How much training do you currently do ? Distances, how many days a week, cross training - whatever you think is relevant to your current fitness level.
- What do you want to achieve? Dream finishing time and realistic finishing time? Or just complete it in no specified time?
- How many days a week can you train? And what plan do you intend to follow?
- Why are you running this marathon?
Right. That's it for now. It's going to be
absolutely epic. Over the coming couple of days, I will post more generic advice (mostly shamelessly plagiarized from the 2014 and 2015 threads). Most importantly, we're going to be talking about training paces.
Run slow. If you're already running slow, run slower!
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