Running marathon or farther on only water

MinnesotaManimal

I have a personal goal of running miles equal to my age on my birthday. I do not want to be hassled with carrying more than I have to. I would like to hear from people who have done this, granted Im not running for a time, but for miles........ I expect to finish in around 6 hours based on current ability. I have NOT run marathon distance before so I will be breaking many mental and personal records next May.

russelljclarke

A nice goal Nick, such a shame you're 97!!

biobreak

My rules of thumb for long runs are this:
* If I'll be out for more than an hour, or if it's hot, I bring water
* If I'll be out for more than 90 minutes, I bring sports drink instead
* If I'm out for more than 2 hours, I bring 1 Gu for every 5-6 miles that I'll be running
* If I'll be out of my neighborhood, or anywhere that's not well traveled, I bring my phone and $10 cash, just in case

Try to plan out a route that goes by water fountains or other places you can refill. That's it. Do you have a Fuel Belt or other waist pack for water bottles? That can free up your hands and make it a lot easier.

Very cool goal. How far will you be going? Good luck!

MinnesotaManimal

I will be going roughly 30 miles, I do not have any accecories for running other than good shoes and bandaids for my nips :-P

I took this thread public due to low response rate, Thank you for replying. I will consider trying some gels when my long training runs begin to exceed 2 hours.

biobreak

Do you have a good running store near you? They can help you get stocked up on what you'll need to train for that distance. By the way, if you add 1 more mile to your 30 mile goal, that's a 50K distance - definite ultramarathon. How are you training? A good rule of thumb when you're increasing your mileage is to increase by no more than 10% per week, and make sure that your long run is no more than 40% of your total weekly mileage. You definitely don't want to get injured.

I looked at your profile and saw that you're in conservation - me too. Nice to see other conservationists here.

MinnesotaManimal

Nearest running store is about 75 miles away. I will make the effort to go up there in the next month or 2. I also think I will create a quick excel spreadsheet to extrapolate the 10% weekly increase in order to see if there is adequate time remaining to safely train.

Thank you for the advice.

MinnesotaManimal

IF I don't miss a run week and can consistently increase by 10% a week, I could be at my goal in 14 weeks. That being said, ID like to be up to running 25 miles on my long runs once a week a full month prior to attempting 30. Training will be grueling as we typically have a week to a month where day time temps do not exceed 10 degrees for day time highs.

cheers

Nick

biobreak

You've got the right idea with a bit of a plateau for a few weeks - that gives your body the time to catch up to the training you're giving it. It's also a good idea to give yourself a cutback week every 4 weeks or so - cut your mileage by 20-25% to give your body a break. Just as important in training for distance as putting in the mileage is letting yourself rest! *That's* when you get stronger!

calderst

I use either a hydration belt or camelbak for anything longer than an hour or so. The belt is great for 10-15 miles but anything more and I run out of water. It's also rather bulky. Lately I've been wearing my camelbak. It's just big enough for the water bag, a few gels, and my cellphone. It fits snug to my back, so I hardly notice it once I get started.

Best of luck with your training!