The Annual Running thread – beginners/ultras/whatever

I have just entered the Manchester Marathon!

Bike fitness is good and I run occationally for around 1 hour.

I was thinking of doing a 12 week 1/2 marathon plan before Christmas – a break over Christmas itself – and a 16 week marathon plan after Christmas.

What are your thoughts on the Garmin Coach training plans, or would purchasing a plan on Training Peaks be better? (Which ones?) Luckily I have 6 months to train!

@dyls, I would consider either paying for a specific plan for you or just following a free generic online plan. The paid for plans on Training Peaks or Runna or similar seem the worst of both worlds to me.

I paid Chris Ford £50 for a tailored plan when I wanted to go sub-3 at London and it was money well spent. He wrote the plan around my current abilities, my time constraints and also what I liked and didn’t like. It worked really well for me and as it was built around me I was able to follow it much more easily than an off the shelf plan.

I’ve got a copy of Ben Parkes marathon plan that I can send you if you want a look at that. Drop me a PM.

Awful news from the GNR.

Going to a race and not coming home is just unthinkable.

I believe he was raising money for mind and his page has now raised nearly 11k.

@dyls – do you have a marathon time in mind?

What lunge said.

Thanks Lunge, £50 seems ok for a tailored plan – I’ll have a look at his website.

I have no time goal at the moment, cardio fitness is good from biking, but I need to transfer this to running now. The winter will help as its easier to run from your door than to cycle.

What would be a good time for a first marathon?

I found the Garmin Marathon plan worked for me last year. It just gave me a bit of discipline to mix up my running a bit. Combining that with some strength work and yoga/stretches seems to work out pretty well. Well enough that I won my first (and only) Ultra – in my age category.

What would be a good time for a first marathon?

@dylsm, how long is a piece of string? I reckon under 4 hours is a realistic target for someone who runs already and/has some fitness to build from. But even under 5 is a serious achievement.

Enjoyable (almost) 4km run this morning.

I’m working towards a 10km trail run on the 2nd of November, which is basically straight up, bit of a traverse then straight down again. Enjoyed it last year and hoping to prepare a little better this year.

Today’s run was deliberately fasted for the avoidance of stitch, I seem to need a very long period between eating and running!

How long can you realistically run on an empty stomach? I think at last year’s event I maybe had a banana for breakfast then a gel halfway round…

How long can you realistically run on an empty stomach?

You can go quite a long way at a low intensity. I routinely do long training runs on empty, up to 16 miles, but they low intensity, slow runs.

But if I’m racing, even if it’s just 10k, a light breakfast (porridge, bagels, etc.) at least 2 hours before you start and a gel on the start line works for me. I likely want take any food on in a 10k but will for anything more than that.

Has anyone ran/hiked Tour du Mont Blanc? I’m looking into a trip next summer to do it over 4 or 5 days, would be good to hear from anyone who has done it before.

What would be a good time for a first marathon?

Depends on a load of factors – I did my first (and only!) marathon 2 years ago. Only ran once or twice a week and only usually to about 1.5 hours. During my training I tried to up it but only broke the half marathon distance once during training about a month before the actual event but didn’t feel too bad afterwards. Wanted a sub 4h30m and got something annoying like a 4h31m but the sense of achievement was incredible. Would I do another? Maybe but I’ve barely done anymore running since until a couple of months ago when I entered a local 10k which I’d done before and enjoyed. Started training by basically going straight up to 10k again from the off but was finding it difficult to get up to my pre-marathon fitness in such a short space of time but did the race last weekend, aiming for a sub 55 minute plod and did a 53. Can’t comprehend how some people were doing 32s (5 minute miles!)…

Plan is to keep it up as its just easy exercise and once past the first mile or so, its actually enjoyable once you get into a groove…

What would be a good time for a first marathon?

Mine was 3:09, but I’d done a fair bit of running before that. Vague plan to do Seville next February, but not sure I CBA to do the road training needed to get the speed up. I’d like to do a sub 3 sometime in my life…

That’s where I’m at. I’m pretty sure I could get a marathon PB if opted for a road one but I hate running on the road. Even the training would depress me.

That’s where I’m at. I’m pretty sure I could get a marathon PB if opted for a road one but I hate running on the road. Even the training would depress me.

Can confirm. I did my sub-3 earlier this year and the training was dull and hard work.

It its when it’s Sunday morning and all your mates are off on a nice, slow social run around the the trails and you have to go out solo for a long road run with a pile of work at goal pace. Dull, dull, dull.

I get the road running training thing. I try as much as possible to do a mix during my runs – got an old tarmac railway line near me I use to get some easy distance, a nice few miles off road on a flood bank by the river and some nice quiet country lanes with decent footpaths alongside I can use. What I can’t get my head around is the people who do laps of the racecourse near me – 3ish km tarmac loop inside it littered with dog walkers and kids on bikes and you see loads of people lapping it. Definition of mundane – I like to treat my running like my rides and see some scenery!

I know a guys who’s entire marathon training is done on a 1 mile lap round a park. He’ll do 22 mile long runs with efforts round there, will be going round the same circle for 3 hours.

Saying that, I also know a fella who did the same on a track. Though he did change direction every 10 laps apparently.

I’m obviously weird because I enjoy road running and even training for a marathon. It probably helps that the roads are wonderful round here. I even go back and forward on a particular 2.5km flat stretch when I want to do proper work at effort/pace, roughly once a week during marathon training. Once or twice I’ve done as much as 20km at marathon pace there, 4x up and down the same stretch. But that’s still a lovely bit of road through a flood plain with birdlife and views into the hills.

Quick question for the runners who have done 50K events, How do you know when you’re good enough?

I’ve been hoping to get a 50K run done for most of this year and did have one pencilled in for May but unfortunately I ended up with an injury and had to shelve it, however I’m back to being injury free and have been running well (for me) for the last few months. Previous to my injury the longest run I had done was 32km and since being over the injury the longest run I have done is 25km, both of these were hilly trail runs, not particularly fast but consistent.

I’ve been running consistently for about the last 3 1/2 years, as in at least twice a week, and I know I can do a half marathon with relative ease anytime I feel like it

I’m running 4-5 times a week at the moment, a mix of plodding 10k’s hilly 10k’s and intervals on the treadmill (I have the use of one at work, it wouldn’t be my first choice) and trying to get one long run in a week (aiming for 30k this week). The event that I’m looking at is about 6 weeks away, is this doable? Should I just throw caution to the wind, enter and see how it goes?