Skirt Runner
This is fascinating. It's going to drive a lot of people crazy because the premise is to take a group of completely sedentary people and train them to run the Boston Marathon in 40 weeks. I know a lot of people are wincing just reading that. HOWEVER there is so many interesting parts in this 52 minute long PBS special including a lot of information about the effects of training on the body, in particular the best explanation of what Vo2Max means that I've heard, as well as training effects on the heart, ect. It is very interesting and worth a watch, in my opinion. Though I know a lot of you are going to be annoyed by the fact that these people are being pushed couch to marathon in only 40 weeks, and rightfully so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH8nQiILe1Q
PRs: 5K- 28:16 (5/5/13) 10K- 1:00:13 (10/27/13) 4M- 41:43 (9/7/13) 15K- 1:34:25 (8/17/13) 10M- 1:56:30 (4/6/14) HM- 2:20:16 (4/13/14) Full- 5:55:33 (11/1/15)
I started a blog about running :) Check it out if you care to
I have said on numerous occasions that I could take almost any otherwise healthy person under the age of 50 and train him/her to complete a marathon with the time limit of most major marathons in six months. Merely completing a marathon is no big deal.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
No more marathons
Haven't watched yet, but will. And annoyed? nah. Envious? Yep. Would have loved to been able to do something like this when I first started running, or as an incentive to start running.
Boston 2014 - a 33 year journey
Lordy, I hope there are tapes.
He's a leaker!
Interesting, LTH.... I feel like so many people here, including you, discourage and/or frown on when people try to run marathons after just beginning to run and encourage years of running under one's belt before attempting it. Is that more because you feel marathons should always be "raced" and run at the very top speed the person has the potential to run?
I'll definitely watch that. Sounds interesting.
We've had many many threads about it, but I still don't understand why anyone cares if someone else does couch-to-marathon, or walks a marathon with no training, or does a one-and-done, or jogs an undertrained marathon.
My SO ran a 2:10 hilly HM on about 10 weeks of training, 15 mpw avg and a his longest run was 8 miles. I'm sure if he trained 40 weeks (that is long!), with 25-30 mpw and a LR of 18, he could run a 5h marathon or faster. Mind you, he's already fit and has no weight to lose.
It's all about the time and effort we are willing to invest in this. Most reasonably fit people can accomplish a lot on 40 weeks and 10h of running a week If most of us here were willing, and interested, in running 85-100 mpw, we would see our finish times dramatically improve. But life stands in the way, most of us work full time jobs and running 100 mpw is not necessarily something all of us would enjoy doing.
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Kristin, my SO did not get any sense of accomplishment from his 2:10 HM. He felt he had half-assed the training and was embarrassed he had agreed to do this. I would have felt the same. It's not about the finish time, but more about how well we trained for a race. I agree that the body in general will respond better to marathon training after 2 years of running.
Drink up moho's!!
Watched it many years ago on TV.
Also, I don't know how those people finished, but I doubt very much that even though they ran Boston, they ran a Boston qualifying time...
I'll watch that sometime, but wondering if the goal was to run 26.2 at Boston or to actually BQ on 40 weeks?
Probably the former. But making them run Boston makes it look more impressive than it actually is,,,
No way you can go from sedentary to BQ in 40 weeks. Please tell me there is no way, or I have been doing something very very wrong.
Dave
Some rare people can. But I'd say that for the majority, it's no. The risk of injury is too high.
I think it's stupid to try for several reasons. First, unless you are under someone's guidance, there is a strong likelihood that you'll push things too soon and end up injured. Second, I rarely think there is a valid reason to half ass something. Why take a class, for example, if you don't plan to work hard and do the best you can in the class? Why have the attitude of "meh, I'm fine with a C?" Third, I'm willing to bet that a lot of the marathon bucket listers end up back on the couch. Why? Because they weren't prepared and they finish the last 4-6 miles limping, whining, and crying. It's a miserable enough experience for them to swear off running forever. Either that or they get a sense of, "I ran a marathon so there's nothing else worth accomplishing." Witness the folks who don't understand why a 17:00 5K is a hell of a lot more impressive than a 5:00:00 marathon.
No one will ever run at the very top speed you have the potential to run. No one. Ever. What I do think is that you should be in shape enough to run within 10 minutes of your McMillan predicted time based on an all out 5K. The "should be able to" doesn't even mean that I think you ought to. Hell, I took a camera to Boston, stopped at every mile marker for pictures, kissed the girls at Wellesley, danced with some random woman, and drank a couple of beers along the way.
OK. I saw this a few years back. It is interesting, though.