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Training- enough time to prep for my 1st marathon?

flatlandrunner
flatlandrunner Posts: 54 Member
edited November 20 in Social Groups
|Hi All,

Happy Tuesday!


Here's the scenario: I run at least 3x a week (3-4 miles on average), I trained for and ran a 1/2 marathon this past April 2015 and loved feeling so accomplished so now I'm thinking of aiming for a full marathon (also there are no other halfs coming up in my area until May of 2016)

So if I take on the beast of 26.2 miles, that leaves me with 40 weeks to train to run it in March 2016- I'm thinking 40 weeks is enough time to train up for a marathon but am curious if others see this as too much to take on or if 40 weeks is plenty of time?

Thanks all; have a great day!

Replies

  • mwyvr
    mwyvr Posts: 1,883 Member
    Yes, plenty of time. Maybe check into the availability of running groups in your area? Usually there are some dedicated to training for upcoming local marathons / half marathons. They can be great sources of info plus many find it nice to run with partners on the long run day (typically on a weekend).
  • redredy9
    redredy9 Posts: 706 Member
    40 weeks should be sufficient. There are no guarantees, injuries do happen but 40 weeks should give you enough time to build slowly enough to avoid injuries if you are healthy and injury-free now. Make sure to pay attention to cross training and stretching too. I made the mistake of ignoring the importance of strength training and stretching and made training a lot harder for myself than it needed to be. Good luck! You can do it!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Yep, do it!
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
    First question that you need to answer is can I get my mileage up to 25 miles per week in 24 weeks without being injured. If you can, then you could consider a 16 week marathon training plan.
  • DavidMartinez2
    DavidMartinez2 Posts: 840 Member
    I would suggest that you start by adding extra days per week. Run the same distances per run as you currently do but go 4 days a week for a couple of weeks, then move up to 5 days a week. After you have done 5 days a week for a bit start making one of the those runs longer by adding a mile to it every week. If you can build up to 4 days a week 3-5 miles and once a week 10 miles without any issues you will be ready to start an introductory 16 week marathon training program.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    I posted a response on your other thread on the Happy Feet group, in case you missed that. But I also wanted to add that you should not get hung up on talk of speed work and tempo runs and things like that. That will come later. Right now your focus should be building a strong aerobic base by running lots of slow miles.
  • cleback
    cleback Posts: 261 Member
    Goodness, I hope so! I have the same stats as you and I'm running my first marathon in early Oct! Happy running!
  • M_lifts
    M_lifts Posts: 2,218 Member
    Plenty of time
  • scarfe9991
    scarfe9991 Posts: 778 Member
    I ran my first half a year ago March, and then my first full in December of same year, it's definitely doable! I followed a 16 week training program.
  • 419er
    419er Posts: 53 Member
    The question may not be "is 40 weeks enough time on the calendar?" but "do I have enough time in my life?"

    Training for a marathon is a time commitment that you need to be sure you can make, and that you work out with anyone/anything important in your life.

    Consider this - you've been running 3-4 miles, 3 times per week. That's probably a total of 2 hours of running at the most. That probably has no impact on relationships or work. Now - fast forward - it's 5 weeks before your marathon and you have a 2.5 hour, or 3 hour, or 20 mile or 22 mile (depending on your training plan) run to do - that will take you a few hours to recover from. That's going to take a full half a day. Do you have time to do that? Every week? for 16 weeks?

    So - my answer is - if you have enough time in your weeks to do the training, you definitely have enough time on the calendar to properly train and perform well.
  • yusaku02
    yusaku02 Posts: 3,472 Member
    That's more than enough time. I only trained about 14 weeks for my first marathon and I had been doing strength training prior to that which I feel hindered me for the first couple weeks. Throw in the 2 weeks I took off for a knee injury and I only ended training 12 weeks.
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