Training for my first marathon

jwemt81 · March 2014

Hey everyone,

I am getting ready to start training for my very first marathon and am looking for training advice. My cousin, who lives out of state, is coming up to where I live in October along with a friend of hers to run in this marathon (it's also their first) and she texted me last night asking if I wanted to do the 3-person relay full marathon with them, so I said absolutely. I've always been a runner; however, this is my very first marathon. Does anyone have any training tips/advice? I already have pretty decent endurance and am pretty fit, but I know I'm definitely going to have to step it up for this event. The marathon is on October 19th, so I have 7 months to train and get my endurance up even higher. I do own a treadmill that has iFit with Google maps, but I've never really used that feature and have only used the manual controls for speed and incline. What should I focus on more? Speed? Incline? Distance? My treadmill's incline goes up to 12 and I do know for a fact that there are some pretty steep hills in this marathon, but I'm not entirely sure how many. It takes place in Acadia National Park here in Maine. Currently, I can run at 7 mph at an incline of 2.5 for about 10-12 minutes without stopping, but I want to increase that. Should I take my speed down a bit to say around 6 mph and practice running for longer than 10 minutes without stopping? Should I increase the incline much if at all while training for this thing? As you can tell, I have a ton of questions! I'm determined to get in the best shape of my life in these next 7 months!

mbilling · March 2014

I would definitely decrease your speed and work on endurance. There are a lot of training schedules out there than can give you a good idea of how many miles you should be running each week. They will also advise what sort of pace with each run you'll want to take up. Also, run outside as much as possible! With the relay, does that mean the 3 of you will equally split the 26.2 ? Good luck!

jwemt81 · March 2014

Thanks! I do run outside, but we've had a ton of snow and ice this winter, so I've been staying inside and using the treadmill a lot. I definitely run outside more when the weather is nicer! Since we're doing the 3-person relay, we'll be splitting the 26 miles, so we'll each be doing about 9 miles. I figured I should probably decease my speed a bit and work on endurance. I'll probably cut back from 7 to 6 mph and see how I do with that.

mbilling · March 2014

Everybody has their preference, but I've used Hal Higdon's training plan for my marathon and half marathons. He has a 15k/10 mile plan, maybe you can try that once you get closer to your date. They say you should be able to maintain light conversation on an easy training run, so don't be afraid to slow it down.
http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51126/15K-10-mile-Training-Guide

wolfgate · March 2014

Edited to remove Dumb question. You answered it later

ThickMcRunFast · March 2014

You should basically do a 15k training plan. How many miles/times a week do you run now?

I would increase distance up until about 3 months before the race, then do a 12 week 15k training plan that will include tempo and interval work to have you run your fastest. Specifics depend on your endurance/speeds stats right now.

jwemt81 · March 2014

I currently run anywhere between 4 and 6 miles 3-5 times a week and I can usually do a mile in about 8.5 minutes.

ThickMcRunFast · March 2014

I currently run anywhere between 4 and 6 miles 3-5 times a week and I can usually do a mile in about 8.5 minutes.

Is that your average pace or your fastest?

How you specifically go about this depends on how fast you want to run the race, butt his is what I would do: I would get on a schedule. Run 4 times a week. Make whatever day the race is (usually Sunday) your long run. If you ran 20 miles last week, increase to 22 this week (something like 4-5-6-7). Progressively increase your total mileage by 10% each week (people will argue this, but its a conservative increase). Run the 'long run' a 1-2min/mile slower than you plan on running the race. Every month or so, take a step-back week where you run less (but don't stop running entirely that week). In 3 months, start making one of those weekday runs a tempo run or interval workout.

A tempo structure would look something like, for a 6 mile run: 1 mile warm up, 3 miles at your 10k pace (faster than your long run, not so fast that you couldn't speak - it should be 'comfortably difficult') - 1 mile cool down. Intervals should be at your 5k pace, or closer to an actual sprint. You shouldn't just run one interval distance, alternate between 400m, 800m, and mile repeats. That structure would look something like: 1 mile warm up, 4x800m with 90 second jogs in between, 1 mile cool down.

If you want a specific plan, there are a lot of good resources online. Runners World has a 'smart coach' plan that will make you a 12 or 16 week plan. Hal Higdon also makes good plans.

jwemt81 · March 2014

Thanks for all the tips! I just thought I'd post my progress so far over the past week. I've cut my speed down from 7 mph to between 6.3 and 6.4 mph with a 2-3% incline and I'm able to run about 20 minutes straight before I need a quick break. I've been doing between 50-60 minutes on the treadmill and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm able to do almost 6 miles in that amount of time. I do add in some brisk walking at 3.5-3.6 mph with a 10% incline and I did a total of 10 minutes of that during my 60 minutes on the treadmill, but the rest of the time I was running. Within the next few weeks, I'm going to see if I can do 9 miles all at once. We'll see how that goes! I've also continued to do my strength training to keep my muscles in decent shape.

Training for my first marathon

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