Forums >General Running>From couch to Marathon at 49
Thank you for the HM race suggestions. I will definitely check out the race in Dewey and the trail in Annapolis. Both of them sound ideal for me and are close by.
How long did it take some of you to work your way up to running 25-30 miles a week? Once you got there did you continue running the same or do you vary your amount of running just based on if you are training for a specific race?
There has been some good advise already! I'd like to stress the importance of not doing too much. When I hit the 5-6 days per week, I kept getting injured. I currently run 2-3 days per week and have been injury free. Take rest days and plenty of cutback weeks. If you feel that something's not right, it's probably not, so dtop and take rest.
I went from 10 mpw (end of c25k) to 30 or so in about 4 months. As I said though, that was too fast for me since I ended up injured (pelvic stress fracture). OTOH, I'm an older female with osteopoenia, so I might have had issues even if I'd gone slower.
ATM, I try to maintain a base of 35-40 mpw. I increase mileage when I'm training for a marathon (peaking at 50-55). I have lower mileage weeks when I'm on vacation, since I do a lot of hiking then, but I try to keep a level where I can run a HM without needing to ramp up my miles too quickly.
I went from 10 mpw (end of c25k) to 30 or so in about 4 months. As I said though, that was too fast for me since I ended up injured (pelvic stress fracture). OTOH, I'm an older female with osteopoenia, so I might have had issues even if I'd gone slower. ATM, I try to maintain a base of 35-40 mpw. I increase mileage when I'm training for a marathon (peaking at 50-55). I have lower mileage weeks when I'm on vacation, since I do a lot of hiking then, but I try to keep a level where I can run a HM without needing to ramp up my miles too quickly.
Thank you for posting this. I use the Runkeeper app for tracking my runs and it has a feature where it will make personalized training plans based on your starting ability and the days you have to train. It has me starting training on Sept. 11 for an April 22 HM. I like the stages it uses and the gradual increases. I may use this plan and use my 5K and 10K races as a way to gauge my progress. Using this plan it has me running 20 miles a week by Nov.1. Right now I am running on average 10 mi per week. That is pretty close to a 10 % increase per week. I think that sounds feasible.