How long does it take you to get back in it from illness (Read 108 times)

>> 200 miles a month training should put you under 4hrs for a marathon at the very least I feel.

PoleVaultMiler may "feel" this, but it is bullshit. Anytime anyone tries to tie mileage (either lack thereof or surplus thereof) to a goal time, ignore this person. For one, there's hella more to it... including what you are doing with your miles. For two, this is usually indicative a person who maybe didn't grow up on the slow end of the bell curve.

That said, run more. The more you can run, the more likely you will improve. The more you run... mostly slow, easy miles... the easier it is to add to it.

As for how long it takes to get back in it from illness, it depends on the illness, yo.

ASK ME HOW I KNOW.

Gizmo - When I started running, I tried to do too much too soon and had some serious injuries as a result. My first two years were basically 7 months running, 7 months healing, 8 months running, 5 months healing. Then I got smarter and just ran more easy miles and focused on short races rather than the HM I had my heart set on. Finally in my 4th year of  running, I did my first half marathon and a year later, my first full. I was 54 when I started running, 58 when I ran my first marathon. I've done one marathon and one or two HMs a year since the first successful one. I've been able to follow 18 week plans without any real issue - first Higdon's Intermediate 2, then Ptizinger's 18/55. I've been lucky in that the only illness I've had to deal with was an occasional cold, usually just before or just after one of the marathons. It probably helps that I'm a hermit of sorts, so don't get exposed to a lot of germs. Pneumonia takes a long time to recover from. I maintain a base of about 35 mpw, which increases during marathon training when I peak at 55 or so. The only 200 mile weeks I do are during marathon training. You can run a marathon on a lot less, but you will enjoy the race more if you aren't doing a death march.

I guess i have heard more about ppl who are checking marathons or races off their bucket list and these are the ones who say its only a 6 month training period.

I've always thought that 6 month training period a ridiculous and misleading assertion.  It ignores or downplays the year or two building a suitable base before focused training even begins.

 

I've always thought that 6 month training period a ridiculous and misleading assertion.  It ignores or downplays the year or two building a suitable base before focused training even begins.

I went from a walking base of around 10 miles per day (on average) to running my first marathon in six months.  Don't get me wrong, the walking base gave me a fundamental aerobic base to start from such that I could run a mile in 11:00 at age 59+ after not having run for a long time.  And the running plan of 6 months took me from running 30 minutes per day on Tuesday and Thursday and a 2-mile "long run" on Sunday up to running my first marathon at age 60 in 5:10:51.

I do agree, though, that a running base of 20-25 miles per week becomes an essential element of a marathon training plan. I had a hip flexor injury in 2015 that took me out of running for six weeks.  Although I got my short distance speed back within six weeks, my long distance endurance took nearly six months to rebuild and the speed, in combination with the endurance didn't come back until nearly a year later.

I had to struggle through the end of 2017 and into last year (2018) with two foot injuries that sidelined me for essentially 4 months in 2018.  I'm still not really "back" I have tried to put together a more consistent easy running program to rebuild the base I lost.  The trick is more than just the miles (noted above) it is the nature of the runs that are put together in a certain pattern to provide the stimulus/training response.  It often isn't immediate with the "results" coming in weeks well after the stimulus.

At a personal level, I don't like following a plan just because it is there and I like to know why I running a certain run.  The plan I like to use has an interesting and challenging mix of running.  The four week mileage totals as I progress through the plan are 151 miles, 186 miles, 199 miles, and 199 miles before starting the taper three weeks out.  Total projected mileage on the plan is 789 miles over 18 weeks (not including the race distance).  Actual distance I ran was about 615 miles and had the easiest marathon and fastest I've ever run (18 months after the hip flexor injury).