Me? Run a full marathon? Yes, sir!

christibam

I've been walking for a few months and recently started jogging/running. As of now, I can maintain a solid 14 minute mile. As long as I'm not running up steep hills (which is almost all I have in my neighborhood), I can keep going for a while without dying.

My goal was to complete a full marathon before I'm 30. So a little over 5 years. However, this new thing I'm doing for self-motivation is to push myself to my absolute breaking point both physically and mentally... and then break past that.

A friend of mine mentioned that she is flying to Orlando, FL in January for the Disney Marathon. I immediately got this sinking feeling in my chest and stomach knowing that if I don't at least attempt it, then I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I only live about an hour and a half from Disney and I have family and friends that live as close as 5 minutes from the parks.

So what am I going to do on April 10th this year? That's right. I am going to sign up for the full marathon. In the meantime? I am going to train my *kitten* off. I figure that 9 months should give me sufficient time to build up enough endurance for 26.2 miles and I should gain enough speed to maintain at least 16 minutes per mile, which is the absolute slowest a racer is allotted without being swept.

I've been researching marathon training, marathon race walking, and other various things involving this. My butt will be out there training multiple times per week until race day. I'm also hoping that all this training keeps my weight loss up because I would LOVE to be under 200lbs by then. Only 59 more to go! (Maybe less, my scale is FUBAR'd so I could weigh less now) If not, whatevs. I'll just be one of the fattest people running it and I don't mind that at all besides the fact that it would be harder on my knees.

Just thinking about doing this makes me all warm and fuzzy inside because, even 4 months ago, I really would have laughed at anyone that told me I would even register for a marathon at any point in my life. My goal is to finish before the course time requirement of 7 hours. In the unfortunate event that I do not make it, I will still have the knowledge that I registered, showed up, and gave it my all.

Do any of you have any personal tips that I might not find online to prepare for this? Both physically and mentally. Also, any tips for the race itself would be much appreciated.

dls06

I don't know but wanted to say congrats. I could not run to the bathroom. But I found this online.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/5k-run/SM00061

christibam

I don't know but wanted to say congrats. I could not run to the bathroom. But I found this online.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/5k-run/SM00061

Thanks. I started the Couch to 5k program and I figured that's about as good of a first step as any. Over time, I'll just go longer and longer and work on my time. There's a 20 mile trail about 20 minutes from me, according to google. I'm thinking I should start doing that by November or December and have a solid enough pace the whole way.

p.s. RunKeeper is my new second favorite app besides MFP lol

scottb81

Spend the rest of the year just building aerobic fitness. Don't worry about any speed training, although your speed will increase greatly as your aerobic fitness improves. Run easy, sometimes at a conversational pace and sometimes a little faster. If your breathing is out of control you are going too fast.

As your fitness improves, increase the amount of time you run. Aim for five or six days a week. One you get comfortably to that level you can add a second daily short run as a very easy pace if you want to.

Ultimately aim to run around ten hours a week in a schedule something like this; 1.5 hr, 1 hr, 1.5 hr, 1 hr, 2 hr, rest, 1.5 to 3 hr. maybe you can't reach this schedule this year. No problem, you can get there eventually if you want to. Just incrementally work in that direction and you will be running faster for longer distances than you think possible.

See this link for a lot of information. http://www.runbayou.com/ArthurLydiard.pdf

With 10 months to train you will be able to run the marathon, and probably run it well, if you have the determination to put in the work in the coming months.

Mom2rh

Congratulations!

What I would do if I was going to run a marathon:

1. Join a training group. I would absolutely need to support, information, motivation. My local running shoe store has several available. They give you the training schedule, they have once a week runs, give you homework.
2. If you already have good running shoes (fitted by a specialist) I'd buy several pairs.
3. I would sign up for interim runs...start with a 5K, move to 10K, do a half or two, as part of your training. Running in a "race" or event is different than training runs.

You can do this!

christibam

Spend the rest of the year just building aerobic fitness. Don't worry about any speed training, although your speed will increase greatly as your aerobic fitness improves. Run easy, sometimes at a conversational pace and sometimes a little faster. If your breathing is out of control you are going too fast.

As your fitness improves, increase the amount of time you run. Aim for five or six days a week. One you get comfortably to that level you can add a second daily short run as a very easy pace if you want to.

Ultimately aim to run around ten hours a week in a schedule something like this; 1.5 hr, 1 hr, 1.5 hr, 1 hr, 2 hr, rest, 1.5 to 3 hr. maybe you can't reach this schedule this year. No problem, you can get there eventually if you want to. Just incrementally work in that direction and you will be running faster for longer distances than you think possible.

See this link for a lot of information. http://www.runbayou.com/ArthurLydiard.pdf

With 10 months to train you will be able to run the marathon, and probably run it well, if you have the determination to put in the work in the coming months.

Thanks so much! I read somewhere online that I should focus on getting to 90 steps per minute with a close stride at first. Something with not having a lot of impact and going slow but getting used to moving my feet quickly... is that sort of what you're talking about with running easy?

christibam

3. I would sign up for interim runs...start with a 5K, move to 10K, do a half or two, as part of your training. Running in a "race" or event is different than training runs.

You can do this!

Oh god, I know. I can't even imagine what 24,000 running people is going to be like.

scottb81

Running easy is just running at a pace that doesn't put a lot of stress on the body so that you can recover faster and run more. You don't have to run real hard to build aerobic fitness but you do have to run a lot to build it to a high level.

*** At some point in the future you will have to run real hard but you don't need to do it until your aerobic fitness is high. The gains you get from running hard are on top of the aerobic gains. Running hard before the aerobic system is developed is kind of counterproductive because you won't be able to do much of it and it will wear down the body preventing you from doing the aerobic training that will currently provide the most benefit right now.

Getting your stride rate above 90 is part of running with good form which will increase your running efficiency and help to reduce the chance of injury. Google "Good Form Running" for a lot of information.

christibam

Thanks again. I'll look that up in a few.