I’m looking at signing up for a marathon at the end of September, giving me 2 months to get comfortable running 10 miles (to start my 16 week FIRST training programme).

I’ve been laid off for 2 years, any advice other than build it up gradually and back off if any pains arise?

I’ve just run a half marathon. last one i did was 12 years ago. I don’t run at all normally. I have a pretty good base level of fitness. I just started with about 3 miles, and ramped it up each week. Ran 3 times a week at most. One of those was a bit of speed work, sprinting every fifth minute. longer run on saturday morning. I tried following a half marathon plan off the web, but found it too demanding time-wise. 6 runs a week was too much.

Finished in 1:30:27, which i was pretty happy with

good luck!

Back off before pains arise, so don’t push too hard too fast and risk the pain. If you want to do more, walk rather than run. It is still mileage and better than not walking or running.

Lots of flexibility work – might reduce risk of injury.

Run some offroad while you’re building up – grass hurts less to land on than road, certainly in today’s weather the going will be soft.

I would try a run from week 7 from Couch to 5K to start and see how that went, try a week 8 run next and run 5K for a week or so before moving up to 10 miles. I suspect it may well hurt and good luck with the training.

And stretch, before and after.

Edited for clarity as my original was a tad ambiguous.

Once a runner.. always a runner… 😉

Your body is naturally conditioned that way now. Yule bee fine.. 🙂