Question:I began running about 2 weeks ago, and the first day I managed 0.15 miles
(stopped after that since I had this terrible blood taste in my mouth)..
Anyway, I increased it slowly and mixed in more walking, and yesterday I
actually ran 2 miles (without stopping/walking) which was a major high (go
ahead, laugh, but it is alot for me, the most I've ever run in one go,
ever!).
Anyway, I'm thinking about registering for the Silicon Valley Marathon (the
Half Marathon), which takes place on October 27th, more than 6 months away.
I'm currently training 30 minutes (but I expect that to increase as I
increase my distance) 5 days a week.
Is this a reasonable goal? Or is it just madness going for a half marathon
after only 6 months (especially considering that before 2 weeks ago, I never
exercised whatsoever)? I'm aiming at a speed of 13 minutes per mile, so it
is not very fast, and some people could probably walk faster than that, but
I only want to finish. It might also be worth noting that I'm currently
about 70 pounds overweight (I'm tall though so it is not as bad as it
sounds, except that it is an additional 70 useless pounds I have to carry
around the track).
Any training programs I should follow? Any books I should read? Anyone with
experience of being overweight and running a half marathon? Is it even
possible?
Answer:
You can find half marathon (and just about any other) training programs on
various places on the web. Runners World did a whole thing (including
training) in last months issue.
Most of them involve running some base mileage three or so times a week
(possibly substitution an equivelent time of crosstraining) and then doing
longer runs one day to work up the 13+ distance.
I went from Couch Potato to full marathon in 6 months, so if you want to
do it, don't let people disuade you from trying.
That's very encouraging. As a matter of interest, did you follow a
particular training schedule like the Runners World one, and what was
your time?
I started out on the treadmill on the gym, just trying to run as long
as I could. When I got up to about 2 miles (took maybe a month and a
half) I started looking for like a 5K race. I found the DC Marathon
had a training program that was about to start, so I did 20 weeks with
them. Essentially, the group met for a long run (starting at 3 miles
and working up) one day and you had a certain number of miles to do the
rest of the week (started at 6 miles I think and worked up to 18).
Around the time I could do six miles, they sent everybody out to do
a 10K race (65 minutes for me) and then resorted everybody by 10K time.
I trained at ~12:00 (sometimes a little faster). I was torn between
trying to do the marathon at a 5:00 time (11:20 pace or so) or running
with the group I trained with at 12:00, but finally decided, that this
being my first, I'd do the latter. I had a nice fun run and came in
at 5:11.
My wife and daughter were out on the course at a couple of places. My
daughter is just getting into the idea of racing with one of her friends,
so we've signed up to do the Rock-n-Roll half on labor day. She won't
really have time to train in earnest until school gets out, but thats
plenty of time. She did a 5K last week in the cruddiest tennis shoes
with no training 35 minutes (better than my first one). I suspect I
may have problems keeping up with her by the fall.
It's actually more fun training with others. You might check around where
you are and see if there are any running clubs that get together.
Really cuts down the monotony of the longer runs.
I've made a couple of attempts to train over the last few
years, but they have all foundered for one reason or another, some
after a short time, others after I got to run 6 miles 3 times a week..
I'm now into my third week following a schedule I got from the Dublin
marathon website, and am aiming at this year's Dublin marathon at the
end of October. Looks like there's hope for me yet!
I do find running alone is much harder to keep up than running with a
partner, but the upside is that I can train at whatever time suits me,
which I like.
I'm certainly no expert, but I took up running last year with the aim
of running a half marathon within 6 months and it worked out fine. Be
very careful not to try to do too much too fast - everything I've read
here has taught me that to try to increase mileage too fast is the
quickest way to injury. Check out the archives at Google, and (as has
already been mentioned) look at some websites for training schedules.
The Runners World site seems a good place to start - I'm following a
marathon training programme I got there, and it seems to be working
ok.
