Marathon Training
urbansmamma
Posts: 202 Member
I completed my first and only marathon in 2005 but it wasn't pretty. It was my first race ever and half way through my training I pulled a groin and fizzled out in my training. I did complete it because my BF at the time said i couldn't finish it, so i was dermined to finish even if I had to crawl across the line. It was a brutal and taxing 7 hrs, but I got my medal. After that i quit runnign, but I got back into running at the beginning this year after having my son. This time I decided to be smarter and take my time. My ultimate goal is to train and finish a marathon but run it well. So I completed a half in June and took my sweet time in 2:36:20 and am training for my second half in Oct. I'm looking to complete a marathon sometime between April-July. Do you think this is realistic? Also what is your favorite training guide for avbeginner marathon?
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I don't see why you can't do a full if you can already do a half! I've done 2 halfs and a 25k so far and am doing my first full this October. I follow the plans from Runner's World Smartcoach and they have worked wonderfully well!!!
Good luck! We can do anything we put our minds to if we have a good plan, so go for it!0 -
Sounds good to me. After your half in October, keep your weekly long run up ~ 12 - 14 miles. Once you pick your race then you can start an 18 week training program.
Assuming you keep your long run up, you should NOT drop back at the start of your training program. If it says to run 8 for your long run, you go ahead and do your weekly 12 or 13. Wait for it to catch up or you can get ahead - the more 20 milers you can do, the better.
Good luck and have fun!0 -
Great!!. After my first half I dropped my mileage. Guess I shouldn't have done that. Oh well, now I know!! Thanks for the advice!!!0
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I say you can do it! I did my first full in June - I have only really been running since about October/November of last year. I am doing my first whole in October, so 4 months after my half. I am very deep into my training schedule and I am dealing well with the training runs, so I feel very confident! I only have 2 long runs left until I taper, so I have no doubts that I will finish it. I believe that you can do the same based on your past experience!0
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I've had good luck with the McMillan Pace Calculator (http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/calculator). Pick any 4-month marathon training plan. Go run a 5K and then plug your time into the pace calculator and it will spit out a reasonable race goal, plus recommend pace/time for 400m, 800m etc. workouts. Follow those times. At the end of the month run another 5K (or two mile time trial on your own) and repeat.
Following that approach I took 38 minutes off my marathon PR. Here was my training schedule:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aprp5zbn00SqdEdBMTROOXpmMjR0cmxOaEZmYWpiS2c0
