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Poll: Have you run a marathon?

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Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#41

Post by cullenking »

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!

They are bad regardless. They are just less bad if you train more than 5 weeks :) I hit 3:55 taking it easy and never hit the wall, though my legs felt like wooden poles. The 5 week training plan wasn't optimal, but I went into it as a bike rider who rode 100-150 miles a week and didn't bat an eye at a 100 mile ride. So, cardio was there, leg muscles were partway there etc. Just didn't quite have enough muscle built up to support the knees.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#42

Post by cullenking »

kenoh wrote: post #25
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.

Yup! I watched a 50 year old fit guy drop dead in the first 10 miles of a 100 mile ride. He was gone before he even hit the ground. It's pretty common in hard endurance sports to hear about heart failure, though I think the benefits outweigh the risks in the long term. This is assuming you are training a normal/sane amount, getting plenty of rest, listening to your body etc etc. Work hard play hard doesn't last forever.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#43

Post by dangerf »

kenoh wrote: post #25
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.

Everything causes death; I would not discourage running a marathon based on your anecdote.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#44

Post by cowsandmilk »

waderoush wrote: post #2

I was a first-time marathoner in 2012 and I found Hal Higdon's site very useful. http://www.halhigdon.com/ FWIW, training for a marathon isn't too complicated. Start at least 18 weeks beforehand. Run about 10-11 miles during the week and do one long run on the weekend, building up to 20 miles two weeks before your race.

+1000 for this.

I used Hal Higdon's programs, Novice 1 for my first marathon, Intermediate 1 for my second, Advanced 1 for my third. Followed them almost exactly.

3:40 for my first marathon, down to 3:10 for a Boston qualifier on my third; I'm extremely pleased with those results.

If you're still excited after 3 marathons, then I would tell you to jump over to letsrun.com and look for advice there.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#45

Post by hsitz »

dangerf wrote: post #39
RLindley wrote: post #12

http://running.about.com/od/marathonprograms/a/marathonbeg.h... Really the best training program is just to get out and run. Push yourself for long distance over a flat terrain. I did my elevation training on an elliptical. Long distance built the stamina, and the elliptical built the strength. I did the Flying Pig marathon last year for my first marathon. The combo of long running with elliptical cross training real…

That's hardly good advice for a novice though. I agree somewhat for that a lot of people, they just need to get out the door and run, but there are too many people out there that think they need to run as much as possible. And that's how injuries happen. I know way too many people that have gone and done too much too soon on little training because they're not following good, practiced advice.

I agree that "just get out and run" isn't really helpful for training for a marathon. It helps to have a plan and to follow one of the many training plans. For example, you can do 25 mile weeks by running 4 miles a day 7 days a week or by running 3 or 4 days a week with purposefully different workouts (e.g, long run, tempo run, recovery run, etc.) The purposeful workouts are going to give far more bang for your buck.

Also, one long run per week -- building up to 20 miles or so a month before marathon -- is the mainstay of most good marathon training plans. It's foolish to run a marathon without having prepared with some "long runs". And you'd be surprised at how slowly you can run the long runs in order for them to be beneficial. In fact, pushing yourself too hard on them is more likely to do harm than good.

It also helps to look over the various training plans to find out what works, specifically regarding training mileage and training speed. You don't need to do much if any "speed work" for a marathon, certainly not if you're not planning to do at least sub 3:30 or so.

Finally, people should be aware that based on your training runs and a practice 5k,10k, or half-marathon, you should be able to gauge your likely performance in a marathon quite well. This is of paramount importance, because you have to know what you're capable of and pace yourself properly in a marathon. Many first-timers (and many who who have run multiple marathons) run the first 13 miles of marathon way too fast, which is partly understandable because the proper pace feels quite slow and easy in first half of the race. But it has bad consequences. There is a saying that "For each 10 seconds per mile faster than your goal pace during first half of marathon means you'll be running 60 seconds per mile slower than goal pace in second half." Or hit the wall and not finish at all. Even pacing is the key.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#46

Post by eccp »

Not a full marathon yet, but I'm training for it: Maratón de Santiago on the 7th of April. I ran the 10K on 2011 and the 21K (half-maraton) last year, so this was the natural progression.

My resources:

* one page of the fabulous book "Show me how" by Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom, which I used to train for the 10K and 21K: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9z1cU74rEAQ/TSotdgSW5lI/AAAAAAAAD4...

* The Hal Higdon website. There are several programs, I'm specifically following this one: http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51137/Marathon-Novice-1-Tr...

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#47

Post by joverholt »

Did my first one last November. It definitely takes a toll on your body. As for training, invest in a high quality foam roller and get "The Stick". Learn to enjoy the pain you inflict on yourself with these devices. They will help, and it hurts less the more you do it. Don't try to run through pain, well, most pain. That's your body telling you something is not right! Could be a muscle imbalance that can be fixed by stretching and some simple exercises. Find a good massage therapist and let them introduce you to a new world of pain. A good one can read your muscles like a book and tell you that your ankle pain is actually being caused by an unhappy muscle in your butt. Remember, the foot bone is connected to the leg bone, leg bone is connected to the hip bone. If something is wrong in one of those spots, it will propagate to other areas.

Probably the most important thing, don't be concerned about time. Just learn to enjoy running, and the faster times will come.

Re: Poll: Have you run a marathon?

#48

Post by fxdgear »

I've never run a marathon. BUT I've run plenty of ultras. Even stage races (back to back to back ultras).

Everyone is different. I don't like hearing people saying that running is bad for your body cause I did "x". It might be bad for "your" body but not everyone else. Also it might be bad for your body cause you ran with poor mechanics. There's so many factors...

I'm inclined to say that running is not bad for your body, but bad running is.

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