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Advice to improve marathon speed

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Wonderwomarathoner
Wonderwomarathoner Posts: 11 Member
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I ran my first marathon in September and I am in love with the marathon! I ran the entire race without stopping (except 1 time to use the facilities). My time was just under 7 hours. I only trained for 5 months (during this time I went from 270 pounds to about 230)... Please note that I am a very ambitious person. I had an injury about 8 weeks prior to the marathon that scared me a bit. I do not want it to happen again. With cold winters in Wisconsin I have to take advantage of the "warm" days and run on a treadmill other days. Any advice on both indoor and outdoor training runs to improve my speed. I would like to break 6 hours in my next marathon in May 2013. Thanks!

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  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
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    WIth further weight loss and another six months of consistent aerobic mileage your time will considerably improve. At this point there is no reason to do any speedwork other than perhaps a weekly tempo run. That is 20+ minutes at a hard, but consistent and sustainable, pace.

    For the marathon it is all about improving your aerobic capacity. This is a very good explanation: Athletic Training by Arthur Lydiard, available free at http://www.lydiardfoundation.org/pdfs/al_training_eng.pdf
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    WIth further weight loss and another six months of consistent aerobic mileage your time will considerably improve. At this point there is no reason to do any speedwork other than perhaps a weekly tempo run. That is 20+ minutes at a hard, but consistent and sustainable, pace.

    For the marathon it is all about improving your aerobic capacity. This is a very good explanation: Athletic Training by Arthur Lydiard, available free at http://www.lydiardfoundation.org/pdfs/al_training_eng.pdf

    Yep, just keep running, nice and easy and gradually build up your weekly mileage. That will give you the most benefit right now. The marathon is between 95% and 99% aerobic, so that's the type of running you'll want to do.
  • Wonderwomarathoner
    Wonderwomarathoner Posts: 11 Member
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    Thank you both very much, I will just keep running =)
  • marikevr
    marikevr Posts: 389 Member
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    Congrats on your marathon finish. Think Dory in Finding Nemo:
    Just keep runnning. Just keep runnning. Just keep runnning, runnning, runnning. :)
  • drakechic08
    drakechic08 Posts: 156 Member
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    Just keep increasing the time you spend running. You want to make sure you are training most of the time a comfortable pace, not full speed. Even if you end up doing walk/run intervals to spend more time working out that will benefit you more than a shorter amount of time at a faster speed. Talk to some ultrarunners. I got this information from someone who does mostly 50 and 100 mile competitions. Also, focus on nutrition. That will help also.
  • ramonasowner
    ramonasowner Posts: 136 Member
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    First, fantastic finish girl!!!! Congrats.

    I banked 30 minutes in one year after loosing 40 lbs and i strength trained one day a week and only ran 3.

    my first marathon I weight 215. you go girl!
  • Wonderwomarathoner
    Wonderwomarathoner Posts: 11 Member
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    Thank you! I will :)
  • Wonderwomarathoner
    Wonderwomarathoner Posts: 11 Member
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    I am finding that as I do this, nutrition is so important to feeling GOOD. This is why I am glad I found this site, to help with this. Thanks for the information, I take what I can get. :happy:
  • Wonderwomarathoner
    Wonderwomarathoner Posts: 11 Member
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    what kind of strength training did you do?

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