Health & Fitness
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
marathon training follow-up question
How did you know when you were ready to train for a marathon? So far I've done 1 half and my next is in 2 weeks. My time for my first was 2:32 and I am hoping to get it closer to 2:20 for the next (if I manage to not stop to pee I can shave at least five minutes off!).
I have been running about a year now and the full would be in January. Is there some way to determine if I'm ready. Or is it a matter of being ready whenever I decide I'm willing to put in the time and effort?
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Re: marathon training follow-up question
I never had a desire to run a marathon and then all of a sudden something in my head clicked one day was was like, "I think I want to train for a full". (I blame this board!)
Given that you've already done a half and have another one on deck I'm sure that physically your body can handle the additional training. It's just a matter of when you feel completely ready to go for it.
I haven't done it yet but have kind of been walking through this thought process as you have been posting about it.
Physically, I know I can do it. I've run 3 halfs and am quite happy with at least one of them.
I'm not sure I'm mentally committed yet though. Still thinking about it
I think you just kind of know
I did 3 halves and had been running consistently for about 3 years before I decided to do one. I was always in the never ever camp, and then one day (with some prodding from my marathon running boss) I just decided to go for it.
Ditto all of this.
#PerfectStrangers
2012 Races:
1/28 - Planet Adventure night trail 1/4-marathon - 1:25:47
3/24 - Sam Costa half marathon - 2:02:47
4/14 - Hoosier 10 miler - 1:25:21 (8:32) PR!
7/8 - XTERRA Freedom Fest Hawaii 10K
9/1 - Indianapolis Women's Half Marathon
10/20 - Indianapolis Marathon Relay
11/4 - Monumental Marathon (full marathon #2)
11/22 - Drumstick Dash 4.5mi
My Clean Eating Blog
Green Living Reading List
I think it's so individual and really depends on your goals. I would say that in general, people probably take marathons too casually and run them before they're really "ready." I know I did. For me it was just something that I figured would be a one time thing. A bunch of people were doing it (TNT) and I just kind of said, "why not?" I never figured that I would love it as much as I did. Was I ready? No. That's why my thrid marathon time was over an hour less than my first marathon time. I think anytime you see someone making gains that huge you realize that they weren't anywhere close to their potential when they decided to run their first marathon.
Sometimes I wish I had waited longer....but on the other hand, I survived and that experience is where my love for marathon training came from. I put in a lot more work now. I see 50 (& this next time around, 60) mile weeks. I do the speedwork, and I keep improving. I still have a way to go before I hit my potential. Some people wait years and years and their first marathon is 3:00. Some people are ok just feeling out the distance & simply finishing the race. I think if you can do either resonably without injury and you're ok with whatever your goal is, you could go for it.
Yes,I'm smiling...I'm a marathoner!
Bloggy McBloggerson
CO Nestie Award Winner-Prettiest Brain-Back to Back!
2011 Bests
5K-22:49 10K-47:38 Half Mary-1:51:50
2012 Race Report
1/1-New Year's 5K-22:11
2/11-Sweetheart Classic 4-mile-29:49
3/24-Coulee Chase 5K-21:40
5/6-Colorado Marathon-4:08:30
5/28-Bolder Boulder 10K
Something just clicked I guess. (plus i'm pretty sure pinkwillow spiked my water bottle with something after our last half that would make me think i can run a full)
By time the space coast marathon rolls around i'll have been running for 3 years - I feel like I made some pretty decent improvements over the last year, and I am curious to see what I could do in a full, although the distance does terrify me.
It was always something that I thought was cool and I admired the people that did it.
I decided last fall that I wanted to do it. I was inspired by another mom in my neighborhood who had done it and by my sister who had run a few half marathons. So I started running regularly with my ultimate goal of a marathon. So I put my eye on the MCM 2012 and figured I would start by doing some races to get there. I did a 10K in December 2011 and a HM in March. I signed up for the MCM in March. Based on my progress so far, I feel like it's something I can do.
I guess it's just something that you have to decide for yourself.
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
honestly, I don't think you should do it. why now? why this marathon? you haven't even been running a year. do some more halfs. build your base. the marathon will always be there.
I was not ready when I trained for my first marathon. I did not know it at the time. I did the HH-Novice 2, got my miles in and finished (and not much else) injury free. it wasn't until I started training for marathon #2 that I realized what a bad idea marathon #1 was. my second training experience was so much better because my body was more ready.
I was 21, and even though I had not run much in the way of long distances it seemed like a good idea at the time. My first half marathon was during marathon training. I finished in a painful*5:25, and declared myself a bucket lister marathoner.
After DS (10 years after my first marathon), I started running more seriously, and figured "why not?". My son was only about a year, and I still was probably not as prepared as I should have been, but my time was decent (3:50). From there I just kept going.
Neither of my firsts were when the H&F board would have deemed me ready, and they would have probably been right. But, I survived and still ran more. So I guess I don't really have a good answer for you!
Eta: *by painful, I mean I spent the next 6 months in physical therapy.
2012 Goal: working towards pre-pregnancy speed!
04/15 KI Metric Marathon/16.3 m (2:05:55, 7:43 pace)
05/06 Frederick 13.1 (1:41:09)
11/04 NYCM
When I was toying with doing the Shamrock marathon as my first full this spring, someone sent me this article from RW: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/1,7120,s6-238-244-255-13763-0,00.html and she also added the corollary of "have you been running injury-free for a year".
I definitely didn't have the right answers. And I'm okay with not doing a marathon until I have them.
for me, the answer is not for a long long while.
I don't want to be a 5+ hour marathoner (not that there is anything wrong with that) and right now, with my half PR being a 2:15, I know it would take me over 5 hours to finish a marathon. That just doesn't look or sound like fun.
I need to get better at running, get faster at running, lose more weight to protect my joints and make it easier on my knees to carry me that far and get smarter about nutrition and training.
I've don't want to just run a marathon, I want to race it, and I think that's still several years away for me.
j+k+m+e | running with needles
I think it just depends what your goal is. My full was the first race longer than a 5K I ever did. It was on my bucket list, my husband was training at the same time for the same race, and I just bit the bullet and did it. I didn't know how hard it would be because I wasn't really a "racer" and just ran 3-5 miles a few times a week for fitness until I started training. I'm in reasonable shape, it took me 4 months to train, and I finished in 4:07, which is 9:27 pace. I was happy with that and am very glad I did it. I will NEVER do it again. I think I was just really, really lucky to make it through the training and race uninjured and had great weather on race day, a great experience, etc.
There is just no motivation for me to invest that type of time again. I could maybe shave a few minutes off, but I think I ran pretty close to what my body is/was capable of. I don't love running. I do it because it's free, and easy to do when/wherever, which works right now with my life with little kids. But I would rather spend my work out time doing other exercise (hot yoga, playing sports, etc) than running, so there is no real appeal for another full.
My goal was to do one marathon and finish it in a "respectable" (to me, which was under 10 min/miles) time. If my goal had been to race, or to be super prepared I probably ran it too soon. But it wasn't, so I'm happy with how it all turned out.
2012: Running & Race Accomplishments:
2-12-12: Riverview Winter Fest 4 mile, 34:59 8:45 pace - 23 weeks pregnant
2-29-12: Leap Year 4 mile, 36:45 9:11 pace - 25.5 weeks pregnant
3-11-12: Corktown 5K, 28:33 9:13 pace - 27 weeks pregnant
3-25-12: Rock CF Island Half Marathon, 2:11:03 10:00 pace - 29 weeks pregnant
4-16-12 Boston Marathon, deferring to 2013
8-11-12: Run thru Hell 10 mile or 4.8 mile
9-30-12: Brooksie Way Half Marathon
10-21-12: Grand Rapids Marathon
11-22-12: Detroit Turkey Trot 10K
Thanks for sharing this. I didn't have all the right answers either so I think that answers it for me as well.
Yay! Glad you found your answer. Happy training!
2012 Goal: working towards pre-pregnancy speed!
04/15 KI Metric Marathon/16.3 m (2:05:55, 7:43 pace)
05/06 Frederick 13.1 (1:41:09)
11/04 NYCM
Good for you!
One last bit of advice: during your "maintenance" phase, don't let your long run distance drop below 8-10 miles. You'll find that ramping up during training will be much easier if you keep the long-run base strong. Between my first (Oct '10) and before training for my second (May '11) I alternated between 8, 10, and 12 miles for long runs and took 39 minutes off my time.
My Clean Eating Blog
Green Living Reading List
I kept increasing my races. I ran a 5k and wanted to challenge myself to a 10k which then led to a half. I really never thought I'd run a full until I found out that a local race was going to be on my 26th birthday and I took it as a sign. I'm now 24 days out til the race and I'm so glad I'm doing it. I really have enjoyed the training and seeing how far my legs will run.