Considering running a full marathon...

Sorry can't help out in the advice dept but I'm thinking about signing up for my first full marathon May 2013 - I'll be watching this thread!

Training:

Run lots of miles, train smart and listen to your body. Assuming you aren't having injury issues, the more 20 milers the better. Also, it is ok to get ahead of your training plan in terms of long runs. If you are running halfs right now, then you wouldn't start a training program and drop your long run down to 8 miles. You would keep it at 12 or 13 and wait for the program to catch up.

Race day:

1) nothing new on race - sort out all your clothes, shoe and nutrition issues on your training runs (no buying new socks at the expo)
2) don't go out too fast
3) don't go out too fast
4) see 2 & 3...

Most importantly, enjoy the journey! To me nothing is more exciting then getting ready to run further (farther?) than you ever have before. Then you get to do it again and again. Pretty soon you say crazy things like, "I'm only running 15 this Sunday."

Depends on your goal for the full. If you want to finish, then simply follow a Hal Higdon novice training program.

http://www.halhigdon.com

If you want to hit sub-4:00, then you need to step it up. First thing you'll find is your weekly mileage needs to be increased a lot over what you need to do for a Half marathon. Believe me the 2nd half is WAY harder than the first half and the best way to train for that is to get used to running a lot more.

But either way, I'd start looking at the Hal Higdon site for ideas. The big thing on race day is to do even or negative splits. Don't waste too much energy early in the race.

I am no athlete, but have run 3 marathons in my life and if I can do it most anyone can. Since you are already in shape to do a half-marathon and have completed many in the past, you are closer than you think to completing a marathon.

It is hard to give specific advice not knowing your current training schedule, but the marathon training schedule I followed for my first marathon lasted about 3 months and it had me running 3-4 times on weekdays of 3-4 miles each day and then on every weekend long runs or speed work. I had only been running about 3 months prior to starting the program with my longest run around 7 miles.

For the long runs, every third weekend I would increase my miles by 2 and then the following weekend I would do half the distance of the previous week. On the third weekend the program had me do a 5k – 10k speed run. For example, I kicked off my 3 month marathon training with the 3-4 weekday runs and a 12 mile run on the weekend. The following week the long run was 6 miles. The third weekend I did a 5k for speed work. The fourth weekend the long run was 14 miles. Then on the fifth weekend the long run was 7 miles. Sixth weekend another speed work run. I followed this pattern increasing my weekend mileage up to a long run of 20 miles, and then tapered 3 weeks to the marathon. My taper consisted of the usual 3-4 runs on weekdays, but my weekend long days went down to 10 miles and then 5. On the week of the marathon I did a few 3 mile runs and then my last run was 2 miles 2 days before the marathon. I rested as much as possible the day before.

This is the least mileage I would recommend for anyone to do a marathon and most marathon runners do far more. As a slow runner only wanting to finish my first marathon and walk as little as possible, this worked for me. If you have enough time, for my last marathon I also added a few extra weeks in my training so that if I struggled with a long run, I could repeat before moving on and increasing mileage. Or you can use the extra weeks as to rest week or recover if you are feeling fatigued or injured.

If those miles don’t sound like enough, you can also increase midweek mileage every few weeks. For example, for my last marathon I increased my Wednesday mileage a little each week, beginning with 4 mile runs and ending with a 10 mile midweek run which I did the last week of training before I tapered. You can also do long runs every other weekend and integrate your speed work into your weekdays, or do no speed work at all. There are so many ways to train and the key is to find what works for you. Basically you want a pattern of increasing miles/energy spent over a few weeks, followed by a week where mileage is less which allows you to recover before increasing mileage again.

Learning how to fuel and hydrate yourself is important also and how people do this varies greatly. Use your long runs to experiment. My last marathon I had a gel about every ½ hour to 45 minutes along with a salt tab. I drank a little water at the aid stations, and it probably varied between 8-20 ounces an hour, depending on what I felt like.

You have a really good base, much better than I ever had. Increase mileage gradually over a period of months. Have your weekly mileage increase up to around at least 30-40 miles per week the few weeks or month before tapering. Allow for rest and recovery. If you miss a run, even a long run, it isn't the end of the world. You can still meet your goal.

Finally, the marathon is a long distance, but it is such a realistic goal for most people. You will be more tired and have more pain than you did in the half-marathon but it isn’t that bad if you train. 26.2 miles seemed like a lot to me before my husband starting doing ultramarathons of 30, 50 and 100 miles. It is amazing what the body can do when you train it properly. Sounds like you are well on your way.

I guess people train a little differently. I know some marathoners, and I'm going to do one later this year. I am planning on training exactly the same as I do for the Half. 3, 5, 3, Long. The only difference is instead of 12 miles, I'll start extending those to 14, 16, 18, and 20. I'll probably just do the rest of my training running 20 on Saturday until race day. That's it. It's not really rocket science. Although, maybe there's more to it than that. The guys I know that run marathons, they do exactly as I said. 3, 5, 3, and then long on Saturday, week after week.

It's funny, as someone else mentioned, that my idea of a long run has changed significantly. I used to think 5 miles was a huge run. Now, that's a warm up. Ha! I find 10 mile runs kind of easy.

I've run 10 marathons now, some training with people and most of them training alone. The best advise I can give you is to find a partner that has run a marathon or a marathon training group (most running stores have groups or info about groups). You will get the best advice from people who can see how you are progressing and potential problems. Best of luck !!!!

I've done 4 full marathons. It is an amazing and grueling experience. It's as much a test of your will power and emotional fortitude as it is of your physical endurance. My suggestions are do a long training plan.... like 20 weeks instead of trying to cram into a 12 or even 16 week plan. Stuff comes up... and it's nice to get 2 or 3 20 milers under your belt. Work out all the kinks in your training... what clothing feels good, how to fuel and hydrate during the run, etc. For my training - I tried to do two short runs per week of either 3 or 4 miles. I did one long run and one medium run which was half the distance of my long. For example if I was scheduled to run 16 mile long run that week... I might do two 3 mile runs, an 8 mile medium run, and the 16 mile long run. I usually tried to incorporate some kind of speed work into one of the short runs.... but not always.

And whoever said - don't go out too fast on race day was 10000000% right. It's tempting, but 26.2 miles is a long way to go and you don't want to crap out at mile 10.

A lot of good advice so far...

Find a good training plan and stick to it, maybe an 18 week one for your first marathon. I just came off my 11th marathon, so currently I use a 16 week training schedule, with 3 running days, 3 strength days, and a rest day or an easy run (you may want to put in a rest day for yourself). A typical week looks like:

Monday - Strength (core/weights)
Tuesday - Easy Run
Wednesday - Hill Repeats
Thursday- Strength (squats, deadlifts, lunges etc)
Friday - Speed or Tempo runs
Sat - Strength or rest
Sunday - Long run

I do 3 weeks on and then a rest week were all my runs are easy. I will typically run 20 miles 3x during a training cycle. Remember to taper off before the marathon, so you're not tired. I would do my last 20 miler 3 weeks before, then a 12 miler two weeks, an 8 miler the week before.

Good Luck!

Nobody has mentioned strength training? Do you just stop all strength training while you are training? And if so, do you find that you lose a significant amount of muscle? Does anyone mix in cross training (biking, swimming) as well?

I didn't do any strength training at all while I trained for my first (and I still gained 2 lb. of muscle while training, so go figure). This time, I'm going to incorporate some simple upper body strength training (say, push-ups and some simple dumbbell exercises) to help with hills. I was also supposed to do some core work during my last training program that I wasn't exactly religious about, so I intend to work that in, also.

After I run this marathon, I may take on a tri, so will definitely work in biking and swimming then! But the best training for running is running, so I just stuck with that for my first time.

I've only done 2 marathons but my suggestions are
1.Listen to arc
2. You can never start building early enough to run one. Safely build as high a mileage base as your body & free time allow.
3. Run a lot of your miles easy
4. Keep a mid week "semi-long" run that is half your weekend long run distance.
5. Plans are great, but they are only general guides, not written in stone. Tweak accordingly to suit your needs.