Weekly mileage before starting 1st marathon training

FitFitzy331

I'm still far away from starting but I wanted to have a good foundation before I sign up for my first one.

I've read that something as low as 15-20 miles a week is fine for starting marathon training. I expected something higher than that considering a marathon is longer that that weekly start.

I've completed my first half a couple weeks ago, 2:07:43 and I wanted to run a few more races, including hopefully getting my half time sub 2, and work my mileage up further and then run my first full in spring/summer 2016. Assuming an 18 week training plan (looking at Hal Higdon right now) Where do you think a solid (not minimum) weekly mileage should be before officially training for a marathon?

lporter229

It really depends on your goals. If you are content with just finishing the marathon without a specific time goal, then yes, you can get by with STARTING your training with a 15-20 mpw base. But if you really want to give it a solid effort, I feel like at least 6 weeks at 30 mpw minimum is a good place to start. The challenge then, will be finding the right plan for you because many of the novice plans are going to start with a lower weekly mileage than your starting point. OTOH, an overly aggressive plan may also not be appropriate for your first marathon.

Between then and now, I would try and do some research and collect info from on line forums (recommend the long distance runners group here) so that you can get a better idea of what to expect and decide what you feel capable of. then choose a plan that best fits your abilities and schedule. there are plenty out there to choose from! Good luck!

CarsonRuns

My recommendation, to make sure you have a good training and marathon experience, is to average 25 miles per week for 12 to 18 months prior to starting a marathon training plan.

FitFitzy331

I want to put in a solid effort, not like Boston qualifying time but maybe a sub 4:20 sounds good to me. I'll check out more forums and do a bit more research for the right plan. Thanks!

lporter229

FitFitzy331 wrote: »

I want to put in a solid effort, not like Boston qualifying time but maybe a sub 4:20 sounds good to me. I'll check out more forums and do a bit more research for the right plan. Thanks!

You didn't really give a lot of info on your back ground so far, but I just want to throw out there that if your current HM PR is 2:07:43, sub 4:20 may be doable, but it's going to take a good amount of effort.

kristinegift

lporter229 wrote: »

FitFitzy331 wrote: »

I want to put in a solid effort, not like Boston qualifying time but maybe a sub 4:20 sounds good to me. I'll check out more forums and do a bit more research for the right plan. Thanks!

You didn't really give a lot of info on your back ground so far, but I just want to throw out there that if your current HM PR is 2:07:43, sub 4:20 may be doable, but it's going to take a good amount of effort.

Seconded. Your goal may change as you start to tackle the longer runs. I ran my first full last year around 4:45 and my half marathon time was sub-2 at the time.

And to answer your mileage question: I got back into running last April after some injury/laziness/post-graduation time away, and I quickly got my base to 15-20 mpw before I started a training plan for a marathon June 1. I probably should have spent more time building my base, in hindsight, but I had a fine experience training and still enjoyed the race. So yes, you can start with the 15-20 mpw base you have now, especially if you're expecting to run it next spring rather than this fall. You can use this summer and fall to get some more half-marathons & long runs under your belt. (Though personally, I would recommend a 2016 fall marathon because training over the winter is awful, imo.)

STrooper

As other state above, you probably want your first marathon to be a good experience. I made the leap from a 10K race (at age 59, that I didn't train for) to a full marathon at age 60. Although I clearly wanted to finish, my declared time goal was around 5:00. It took me six months to train up to running the marathon (used a Jeff Galloway run/walk training to finish plan) and I finished in 5:10.

Although I had not really run since I was 32-33 years old and certainly had zero miles per week running, I had 3 years under my belt of walking/hiking of 75-100 miles per week, every week. I had a structure to my walking/hiking schedule. With or without a pack (sometimes a daypack and sometimes a pack with 35-55 pounds), with or without trekking poles, it both helped me get down to a reasonable running weight and built up the endurance of my cardiovascular system and the skeletal structure.

Yes, I used different muscles for differing amounts of time. Nor did it automatically translate into speed (but it very quickly resulted in faster times as I trained). But in the two years since I returned to running and the year-and-a half since I ran my first marathon (I run my 7th next weekend), I've worked on the progression of bringing my time down without burning myself out. I'm down to 4:34 and feeling pretty good at the end of each race.

Yes, I do have a plan to get to BQ time but that is about a year away before I'm really ready to try that.

But if the experiences are good ones, you'll tend to want to keep doing running and maybe translate that into better times and more speed. But I have a number of friends that are state and medal collectors and that is fine, too.