Marathon Training

socrmommy

Has anyone seen a good 6 month training program? Want to finish. No other goal at this point. Currently can run a 1/2 in about 2:45 so slow and steady. Any good 1st marathons that the time limit thing won't stress me?

TavistockToad

Most marathon training plans are about 16 weeks. If you've got 6 months spend the next few weeks slowly building up your mileage.

How many miles do you currently run per week?

sarabushby

Depending how long you've been running for and how often you run you probably want to look for something that's minimum 16wks-22wks long but in the meantime, assuming your background is not strong, just concentrate on building up running min 3 days a week so that you don't get injured once you start a plan. There's so many free plans available online you just need to see which would suit you as a person best, not just in terms of how many times a wk you run but also in how prescriptive the plan is, e.g is it done by time, distance, RPE, HR etc. Runners World and Hal Higdon are both popular examples.

There is also a great app from Asics which you can download, tell it your current ability, PBs, goals, timeframes and how often you want to train and it'll structure a plan to the data that you give based on when your event is.

Remember to be cautious about how you ramp up your training, suddenly jumping to running 5x a week instead of 3 could be a recipe for injury (it was for me and for many pals too). It takes the body a long time to make the structural adaptations that'll support a marathon and the training that goes with it.

Good luck!

socrmommy

TavistockToad wrote: »

Most marathon training plans are about 16 weeks. If you've got 6 months spend the next few weeks slowly building up your mileage.

How many miles do you currently run per week?

I run 2-3 miles 3 days a week with occasional 4-6 on a weekend. That's why I thought 6 months is a safe goal

gdyment

Get up to 5-6 days a week then 16 weeks before the race do a specific plan. You will be amazed at the improvement just by running more frequently. (Obviously build up to it)

lemurcat12

socrmommy wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

Most marathon training plans are about 16 weeks. If you've got 6 months spend the next few weeks slowly building up your mileage.

How many miles do you currently run per week?

I run 2-3 miles 3 days a week with occasional 4-6 on a weekend. That's why I thought 6 months is a safe goal

Very sensible. There are lots of open marathons that I'm sure would fit your schedule, and I bet if you just start increasing your base you won't have to worry about the cut-off. (I'm doing Seattle Thanksgiving weekend, and since I looked around that time period I know there are a bunch.)

Check out the Long Distance Runners group too, quite informative: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/94-long-distance-runners

For my first one I did a local training program -- about 18 weeks, followed the Hal Higdon program, but having a group to do the long runs with was helpful. Maybe check to see if there is anything like that around you (ours is aimed at the local October marathon). In any case, the Hal Higdon beginner program is good, and Runkeeper and other such apps will have training programs too that might be motivating.

MeanderingMammal

socrmommy wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

Most marathon training plans are about 16 weeks. If you've got 6 months spend the next few weeks slowly building up your mileage.

How many miles do you currently run per week?

I run 2-3 miles 3 days a week with occasional 4-6 on a weekend. That's why I thought 6 months is a safe goal

I'd suggest increasing your weekly mileage to about 25 per week, at least, before starting your training plan.

My current plan started with short runs being 6-8 miles, and longs of at least 10. Many marathon plans also have long back-to-backs, with a 10 followed by a 12-15.