My Marathon

[Swordpoker]

I took up running on Tuesday. Quite liked it. Needed a goal. Will be running in Amsterdam Marathon on 18th October.

The backstory:

My friend Peter is training to run a 10K. He is one month into a three month training schedule. He's making awfully hard work of it so I thought I'd show some moral support and I offered to come on one of his training runs. This was on Monday. It took us a total of 40 minutes to run 4 minutes: 1 minute running, several minutes walking/recovery time. I thought that this was a pretty inefficient way to train. So on Monday night I figured I should put my Jedi mind powers to good use and figure out how best to get into a training mindset to be able to train for and run a 10K. I created what I thought was a good strategy and the next day I decided to test it.

Now, I am not a fit chap and my beer belly has outgrown all of my trousers. According to my newly bought pedometer I have been averaging 1,500-2,000 steps a day basically going from sofa to computer to fridge to bed. I coach fencing which, over the past few weeks has amounted to about 1 hour per week of gentle exercise. I have never been a runner (I reckon school sports days don't count) and I have always scoffed at the idiots I see jogging around the park. Never looked like much fun to me.

Anyway, armed with my mental superpowers I got myself into a really good state of mind. I was in one of those "anything is possible" modes. "Fuck it" I thought, I'll just run 10K and bypass all the training. And I did.

Having just achieved this goal, I felt pretty good. I re-learned that you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it. It would be a shame not to put this learning to good use so I decided to stretch the boundaries. So, next stop marathon.

[byronkincaid]

how long did the 10K take?

[Swordpoker]

1 hour 8 minutes. I was quite chuffed with that. Apparently, good runners who train 3 times a week should aim for 45 mins.

On Friday it took 1 hour 5 mins

[thetank]

Well done on the 10k first of all.
Running a marathon on jedi pie power sounds a bit easy for a man such as yourself, so seeing as how it's all about convincing yourself that you can do it, I'll contribute towards making it a little harder for you by writing a post that may be considered a bit of a downer...

For some odd reason this thread reminds me of that guy in the 20s who attempted to run up Mount Everest stark bollock naked because he thought fk it, how hard can it be?
The expedition didn't end so well for him. Maybe he didn't believe in himself enough?

Admittedly what he did and what you're going to attempt is not quite the same coz empirically you know that loads of people run marathons and at the time of nutter's death nobody had been up Everest before (and those who had tried usually took shit like ropes, ice axes and underwear along for the ride)

But still, Marathons a totally different beast to 10k from what I hear. 20 miles is halfway yo!

[thetank]

1 hour 8 minutes. I was quite chuffed with that. Apparently, good runners who train 3 times a week should aim for 45 mins.

On Friday it took 1 hour 5 mins

So that's like just over 50% more.

If your marathon time is anything close to 50% on top of what an apparently good runner would expect (4 and a half hours?) then I'll buy you a pie.  

[kinboshi]

Good luck with this, quite a tight schedule to get all your mileage in before the marathon in October but doable if you're committed. 

Have a look on runnersworld.co.uk for training plans for marathons as they're quite a useful guide to what you need to be running. 

[mckelinho]

I run quite alot. Running the Glasgow 10K next month. I do it in 43-49 minutes but thats with years of playing good level footy and training 3 times a week. and im still only 24

A marathon is unbelievably different. I dont like mararthons, i think its a little insight into how dying feels. You cant feel ur legs for the last 8 miles, they just drag behind you

[Swordpoker]

1 hour 8 minutes. I was quite chuffed with that. Apparently, good runners who train 3 times a week should aim for 45 mins.

On Friday it took 1 hour 5 mins

So that's like just over 50% more.

If your marathon time is anything close to 50% on top of what an apparently good runner would expect (4 and a half hours?) then I'll buy you a pie.  

Excellent. 4 1/2 hours is now the time target. I had to write down an estimated time when I signed up. I said 4 hours 37 minutes. I'm off to have a think about it and shave 7 minutes off my time.

[Swordpoker]

Good luck with this, quite a tight schedule to get all your mileage in before the marathon in October but doable if you're committed. 

Have a look on runnersworld.co.uk for training plans for marathons as they're quite a useful guide to what you need to be running. 

Thanks, I had a look already but as this is a psychological experiment rather than a physical one, I don't plan to follow any sensible advice.

[byronkincaid]

you could kill yourself doing this, GL with it though, this should be an interesting thread

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Rhabdomyolysis+marathons&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[kinboshi]

Good luck with this, quite a tight schedule to get all your mileage in before the marathon in October but doable if you're committed. 

Have a look on runnersworld.co.uk for training plans for marathons as they're quite a useful guide to what you need to be running. 

Thanks, I had a look already but as this is a psychological experiment rather than a physical one, I don't plan to follow any sensible advice.

If you're looking to run a marathon within 3 months, and hope to do it in 4:30, and you're not a runner who's already putting in 20-30 miles a week it's definitely going to be a physical test.

[Swordpoker]

bloody show off

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090728/ten-injured-izzard-on-1-000-mile-run-5a7c575.html

[Rooky9]

bloody show off

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090728/ten-injured-izzard-on-1-000-mile-run-5a7c575.html

No way will he do that as it's written.

[kinboshi]

bloody show off

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090728/ten-injured-izzard-on-1-000-mile-run-5a7c575.html

No way will he do that as it's written.

I can't see it either.  Will be utterly remarkable if he does.  If he does, he might win SPOTY at the same time!

[Swordpoker]

Less than 2 weeks to go!

I ran 10K this evening. Slow and steady. The last time I ran was on the 19th of August and that was only a 5K. I'm unfit, overweight and haven't been eating at all healthily.

My run today was really about reasuring myself of my physical and mental techniques. I feel good and still consider the marathon to be 'in the bag'. I'm really looking forward to it.

Rule for myself: I must run the whole way (no walking at all). Time doesn't matter, I'm only interested in finishing. Though it'll be nice to win a pie off thetank for finishing in less than 4 hours 30 mins. That'll be the tastiest pie the world.