Question:
I've been running steadily now since
Feburary and I'm interested in seeing
if I can run a marathon. My goal
is to run my local marathon. Is
this a realistic goal? I'm currently
running 3 - 4 time a week, with
distances of 2 to 3.5 miles. Does
anyone have any marathon training
program suggestions for a beginner?
Answer:
Before the first marathon, you should
have been running 10-20 miles a
week for 2-3 years. This is preferable,
but a serious schedule starting
from advanced beginner is also possible,
allowing a marathon within 9-12
months. An advanced beginner can
run at least 20 minutes without
stopping.
A marathon
training schedule should preferably
from a platform of at least 20 miles
a week, which should have been held
for several months. Such a schedule
would run for 6 months, gradually
bigging up long runs, and tapering
off 2 weeks before competition.
On the course
of building up to 20 miles a week,
you should not increase weekly mileage
by more than 10% a week, and stay
level for 3-4 weeks when reaching
the goals of (1) running at least
20 minutes 3-5 times per week, and
(2) running 20 miles a week.
Right now
you are running 10 to 15 miles a
week. Increase the distance by 5%
to 10% per week until you get to
30 to 35 miles a week. When doing
this you may want to increase the
length of one run per week until
it gets to 10 to 13 miles.
Do 30 to 35
miles per week for a couple months.
After doing this you will be ready
for a build up to a marathon training
program of 10 to 13 weeks. There
are books that discuss training
for a marathon. I don't know the
titles of recent books but Galloway
and Henderson have written good
books. Get a book that has maximum
weekly mileage for marathon training
in the 40 to 45 mile range.
For many people the first marathon
is the most fun.
