First Marathon - Too Tough? Too late... (Read 993 times)

See...I knew it would come across wrong. I am asking for advice. Otherwise I would not post. Yes I did run it on hills. If you look at my post I said I ran the first 10 miles of the course. Not any hills, but the exact marathon I will be doing. And then I ran those 10 miles again back to where i started. 20 miles of hills. I wasn't arguing against the advice. I was wondering if the training program I was using was incorrect or if the calculator I was using is wrong. Does anyone have any thoughts on that? If I ran a HM in 1:45 with not much difficulty and sprinted at the end, the calculator makes it seem like I would be OK during the marathon. Am I wrong in thinking this? And what does an Air Force Base have to do with this?

There is a big difference between a HM and a full marathon, particularly for a first timer. There is also a big difference between a 20 mile run and a full marathon. The last 6 miles of a marathon can be absolutely brutal, and with a hilly course like that even more so. Those predictor tables tend to assume an already aerobically fit runner, so there isn't very much drop-off in pace from one distance to the next. This first time around the tables aren't likely to mean much. You can definitely finish a marathon on a lower mileage program like you are on, but given the course and the mileage and paces of your training runs, I just don't think you can get under 4 hours. That's not to say that you will need to crank out 70 mile weeks to get there, but 26, 27, 29, 13 mile weeks are not going to do it and you don't have enough time left to fundamentally change that without serious risk of injury. I did my first marathon peaking at 45 miles in a week, and I finished in 3:55 on the hilly Atlanta marathon course. I have also done the FIRST training program which involved low mileage but high intensity training and I found that to be fairly effective but physically and mentally exhausting. My suggestion is to keep your long runs to no longer than 18-20 miles so that you don't leave your best performance on a training run, and focus on finishing this marathon as opposed to hitting a goal you are not prepared to hit this time. Aim for a 4:30 finish, and if you feel good at the 20 mile marker, pick up the pace and finish strong.

WOW --- I would probably look for an easier first marathon --- but Im a chicken.......

I'm not going to tell what you can or can't do.....you won't know that until you do it, so how would I know. But... If you can get back to it to run on it again, I would run the 1st 20 of it as one of your long runs. Get someone to give you a ride back, or bring a bike and leave it there to ride back. You could then experience for real what that long hill is going to feel like from mile 15 on...it might also help you refine your time goals.

Hey I live down here in Biloxi and work at the Air Force Base. I can link you up with a group that runs on Sunday Mornings and can even get many of the runs in with you, maybe. Let me know when and I will gladly give you the info.

I think that is what I am leaning towards now is 4:30 (though I can't promise if it starts to feel right that day I wont go for it ) So the general concensus is to keep it under 20 for my long runs? Why is that? I'd think 20 this last run was good, so take a week off, run 12 then go up to 22, then 12 then 24... No? I guess I know the answer already ... too much too soon. Oh well... 4:30 gives me an easier PR to beat. I am moving to Hawaii in Oct and plan on running the Honolulu Marathon in Dec

When you are new to the marathon distance and the training involved, a run that is longer than 20 miles just takes too much out of you. So you run 24 miles, but you can't train for three days because you are recovering from the effort, and when you do come back, your paces are slower because your quads are cooked. When I finish a marathon my legs don't return to their previous strength for a month, at which point I am now less fit because I have essentially been de-training while I recover. When I first started marathon training 6 years ago, a 20 miler took a lot out of me. I would hit the ice bath and then rest for a large portion of the day. Now I can knock out 22 milers, eat a good breakfast and then go for a bike ride with my kids. A couple of years ago I upped my mileage significantly from the year before, knocked out a a couple of 22's and a 24 miler at decent paces. When I hit the marathon though, I had nothing left. I PR'd, as I have with every marathon, but I did not improve to the extent my training indicated I would. I had left my best performance out on my training run. A 20 mile training run at a proper pace should keep you out there long enough to get the desired training effect, but leave you with enough in the tank to resume quality training soon after.

Get on their forum which is linked to their homepage; http://www.gulfcoastrunningclub.org/ . There are a few groups but the one I link up and run with every Sunday starts in Ocean Springs at the corner of Clark St and Government St. We run anywhere from 6-20 miles. Many in the group start at 0500 or theres about to get in the longer runs. Some run on the weekdays but many of us run our own stuff. When are you coming? Again check the forum section of the website and link up with Leonard for some better info.