Forums >Racing>Marathon Training
I am thinking about running my first marathon in the spring.
I am not that fast, but have a decent running base. I am naturally stronger at shorter distances and respond well to speed training. I ran a 5:59 mile in college. I can sometimes run up to 8 miles at 7:30 pace without it feeling too difficult, but it depends on the day. I averaged 35-40 miles/week in college. I tended to perform the best running slightly lower mileage, but this was over short distances and with 3 speed workouts/week.
I jogged a trail 50K this fall in about 7:45. I finished in the top 25% overall and top 15% female, but a lot of people hiked. I imagine that I finished towards the back of the runners. I averaged 27 miles/week for the 5 months leading up to the race, but peaked at 52 miles. My "training" was very unstructured. I only ran a couple speed workouts during this time.
How should I train? What can I do too make sure that I maintain speed when I run a marathon? Are there training plans for runners that respond well to speedwork? I imagine that I will need to average closer to 50 MPW than 30 if I want to run a decent time.
What kind of time should I expect to run if I am willing to run high mileage and speedwork? I know that its all up in the air the day of, but I'd like to have a goal to shoot for.
running metalhead
Hi,
You don't look like a beginner or being out of shape.Why not trying the classical Pete Pfizinger book and build a plan on that. He explains pretty much everything you need and once you read it through you will have a very good understanding on why you are doing certain trainings and how to do it.
Speed is still important, but there will be less in favour of more endurance and lactate threshold trainings. I don't think that you will have much trouble with the endurance and lactate trainings as they will be longer but at a lower pace.
Another plus-point is that these plans are the most popular in this forum so that you will be able to get tons of sound advice.And last but not least, the book is dead cheap: http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Marathoning-Edition-Peter-Pfitzinger/dp/0736074600There are second hand editions starting at 3:00 USD.Success
- Egmond ( 14 januari ) : 1:41:40 (21K)- Vondelparkloop ( 20 januari ) : 0:58.1 (10K but did 13.44!!!)- Twiskemolenloop ( 4 maart ) : 1:35:19 (3th M45!)
- Ekiden Zwolle (10K) ( 25 maart )- Rotterdam Marathon ( 8 april )- Leiden Marathon Halve ( 27 mei )- Marathon Amersfoort ( 10 juni)
Thanks I just ordered the book.
Why not trying the classical Pete Pfizinger book and build a plan on that.
+1
That's really hard to even guess. The best way is to get in some shorter races; then you can look on various calculators (e.g. McMillan's) to see what you "ought" to run if equivalently trained for the marathon. However, in the lack of much data at all, you might set qualifying for Boston as a goal.
BTW you don't see many people who are "naturally stronger at shorter distances" running 50Ks.
Options,Account, Forums
I do.
(I would like to pretend I'm more of a distance runner, but that's fooling myself, judging by my times.)
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.