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Poll: Have you run a marathon?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#21

Post by pseut »

cullenking wrote: post #16

Whatever you do just realize that marathons are, for most people, bad for your body. I ran my first (and last!) marathon last year and ended up not being able to go on light runs for over 6 months. This isn't an uncommon story. There are a bunch of training plans you can find online and they all share one thing in common: start out easy and work your distance up, then back off a month before the run. Make it to 16 or…

> don't do what I do and train in only 5 weeks

This part needs to be first because it heavily discounts your first paragraph.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#22

Post by pseut »

MicahWedemeyer wrote: post #19
bnegreve wrote: post #15

Yep! It's nice to see that one third of HN population run marathons. Wait what, BIAS??? no way.

1/3 of people who clicked on this link and decided to answer. Most non-runners probably just don't care to read about it.

I'm still confused about the 2/3 of people who opened the link to vote "no."

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#23

Post by mrspeaker »

cullenking wrote: post #16

Whatever you do just realize that marathons are, for most people, bad for your body. I ran my first (and last!) marathon last year and ended up not being able to go on light runs for over 6 months. This isn't an uncommon story. There are a bunch of training plans you can find online and they all share one thing in common: start out easy and work your distance up, then back off a month before the run. Make it to 16 or…

Marathons are bad for your body if you train for 5 weeks! That's ludicrous! I trained for 6 months and (despite being built like a computer programmer) was jogging again straight away (with a day of rest, of course). My time was 3 hours 45 - so not too slow. But man, a LOT of training before hand!

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#24

Post by spodek »

I've run five -- four in New York City, one in Philadelphia, where I got my best time (3:51) and inspired my Mom to run her first, at 66 years old, which I wrote up here -- http://joshuaspodek.com/redefining_possibility -- and story-told here -- http://joshuaspodek.com/telling-my-awesome-story.

I didn't use online tools. They feel like the opposite of why I run. I like to feel free and untethered, feeling just the wind. About once a year I try running with an mp3 player and they ruin my experience. I run in minimal shoes now (Vivo Barefoots, which I recommend) and will consider moving to total barefoot when I run my next.

I just run. If I'm not running my best time, so what? I don't expect to win. I expect to push myself, to practice discipline, to enjoy myself. I know how not to get injured. If my time could be a few minutes better because I'm too busy running the way I want instead of running optimally, I sleep just fine.

Here are more of my thoughts on running marathons and inspiration -- http://joshuaspodek.com/on_reading_new_york_city_marathon_re....

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#25

Post by kenoh »

cullenking wrote: post #16

Whatever you do just realize that marathons are, for most people, bad for your body. I ran my first (and last!) marathon last year and ended up not being able to go on light runs for over 6 months. This isn't an uncommon story. There are a bunch of training plans you can find online and they all share one thing in common: start out easy and work your distance up, then back off a month before the run. Make it to 16 or…

I have literally known 2 people who have died while running a marathon (one 30ish, the other in his mid 40s). It's stupidly abusive on your body, but if you do want to run one, make sure you get your heart fully checked out by a doctor.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#26

Post by Avenger42 »

pseut wrote: post #22
MicahWedemeyer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1/3 of people who clicked on this link and decided to answer. Most non-runners probably just don't care to read about it.

I'm still confused about the 2/3 of people who opened the link to vote "no."

I came here to vote "no" because I wanted to ensure the pollster got an appropriate balance of "no" answers.

I usually vote in every HN poll that I see anyway.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#27

Post by mikereedell »

4 marathons here. Three were Ironman marathons and one just-a-marathon (Philly 2007, 3:48).

I followed a similar program for the standalone as I did for the Ironman marathons: one hard run (hills, tempo, fartlek, etc), one long run, and 2-3 easy-ish runs. Each run will get longer as you progress until you're at the point of doing 15-17 miles as your long, 8-10 as your hard workout, and the rest being as short as 3 and as long as 6 miles.

I personally never ran more than 2 hours (~15-17 miles) at a time when marathon training. Others, like my wife, would run three hours as their long run. For me, the recovery and wasted days after a three hour run weren't worth it. I'd rather run 2 hours then another hour the next day than run three hours and not be able to run again for two days.

And since you're still a ways out, weight train now to avoid injury later. You don't need to do massive weights and you can avoid bulk using higher rep sets but getting some lunges, squats, and dead lifts in now could save you from injury during your key training period.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#28

Post by dbaupp »

ddw wrote: post #8
briangonzalez wrote: post #5

I have fall in love with Strava - minimal iOS running app ( http://app.strava.com/mobile ). I am not affiliated with them in any way. I can also second Hal Higdon's site above. A lot of people in a recent half marathon I ran were using the half marathon as a staging ground for their full marathon. By running a half marathon/5k/10k you can get a feel for what running an actual race feels like, which is invaluable.

Thanks for the Strava tip - looks nice. How's the GPS accuracy? RunKeeper's been giving me problems lately.

Surely the GPS is an OS thing, so that apps just request latitude and longitude (etc) and the OS/GPS chip does all the relevant computations leaving no room for different apps to have different accuracies.(Other than different smoothing algorithms layered.)

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#29

Post by diego »

mrspeaker wrote: post #23
cullenking wrote: post #16

Whatever you do just realize that marathons are, for most people, bad for your body. I ran my first (and last!) marathon last year and ended up not being able to go on light runs for over 6 months. This isn't an uncommon story. There are a bunch of training plans you can find online and they all share one thing in common: start out easy and work your distance up, then back off a month before the run. Make it to 16 or…

Marathons are bad for your body if you train for 5 weeks! That's ludicrous! I trained for 6 months and (despite being built like a computer programmer) was jogging again straight away (with a day of rest, of course). My time was 3 hours 45 - so not too slow. But man, a LOT of training before hand!

The training required to run a marathon is way past the sweet spot of (exercise benefits - side effects). A one-off marathon is not necessarily a big deal. However, running 2500 miles a year is not good.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#30

Post by benburleson »

cullenking wrote: post #16

Whatever you do just realize that marathons are, for most people, bad for your body. I ran my first (and last!) marathon last year and ended up not being able to go on light runs for over 6 months. This isn't an uncommon story. There are a bunch of training plans you can find online and they all share one thing in common: start out easy and work your distance up, then back off a month before the run. Make it to 16 or…

Not being able to run for 6 months after a marathon you've trained only 5 weeks for may not be uncommon, but you didn't take an intelligent approach.

Your experience is not common for people that put in the effort early.

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