After talking to a buddy of mine yesterday, this morning I signed up for the Houston Marathon just for the hell of it. I saw that the race was already 99% full in terms of registration for the 15,000 runners, so, on the spur of the moment, i went ahead and registered myself [for $95]. The thing is, I haven't trained for it one bit yet. I get done with finals on Dec. 14, and the race is on Jan. 14, giving me one full month to train for a race that people train months in advance for. I was never an athlete in school [I don't count tennis], but I picked up working out in undergrad, and consider myself someone who lives a pretty healthy, active lifestyle. but today i've heard some things about various parts of my body getting chapped, wearing band-aids or Vaseline on my nipples to prevent bleeding, getting short shorts (instead of my usually long Jordan shorts), getting appropriate running shoes, getting dri-fit tops that soak up the sweat, etc. i heard about the months of pain that people put themselves through in training for a marathon, and i'm shaking my head trying to figure out how i'm going to fit it all into one month. i have extremely high metabolism, so i have a terribly thin frame, so i stick to weight lifting when working out, but i always fit in a little cardio at the end of my 4x-a-week workouts, and i could easily run 3.5 miles right now with no training, but that's all a pretty far cry from 26.2 miles. has anyone here run a marathon or half-marathon before? has anyone run the Houston Marathon before? what advice would you give? my diet is exceptionally healthy - i don't drink soft drinks, don't eat fast food, (don't smoke or drink,) get plenty of milk and fish, fruits/vegetables, and rice. how should i run while training? i'm going to start probably around 1-2mi. the first couple days, then try to build up to 6 miles by the end of the first week, and gradually try to get up close to 15-18 miles by the end of week 3. i've heard about people having easy weeks and hard weeks, days to give their legs some rest and days to build up stamina. i've heard people trying to run 26.2 miles at least once for practice before the real thing, and i've heard some people do no more than 12-13 miles when training. i've heard about some people who were seriously-undertrained that had some heart problems after the race, and i've heard about P. Diddy's mangled feet after he ran the NYC marathon a couple years ago. i'm scared as hell b/c i don't know where i'm going to start on Dec. 14th. any advice?
People train for years to run marathons. I would shoot for a 5K, 10K, or a half marathon. I'm going to try and run the half marathon that day.
I am a 20 year+ runner and have run three marathons many years ago. I am running the half this year. Don't run the marathon unless you just want to see if you can survive it. It won't be fun. I think you can switch your registration to a half marathon for a limited time, so check. You are not really even going to be ready for that, but it won't be nearly so bad as a full marathon. If you are determiined to do it, don't try to do too much in the first week, increase your training gradually, and try to work your way up to a couple 10 - 12 mile runs before the race. Don't run much in the last few days. Get some new shoes - go to a running store like Fleet Feet if you don't know what you want/need - your feet will thank you. Remember to have fun!
Google a crash course template. Seriously. Don't miss a single run. Adjust your weight lifting program. Start doing sets in the higher rep ranges. You can even try doing a 20-rep squat program. Hydrate. Get your body used to drinking 2 gallons of water per day. Carb up the week before the race. Good luck.
10km runs are "spur of the moment" runs...not marathons. I run here and there - never really train though. I once trained up for a full marathon, but my Dad got shin-splints so we decided to just do the half. It was fun, but honestly - don't even think about a full-marathon with only a month in prep time...unless you wanna do it in well over 5 hours.
Yea, no joke. The OP has gotta be kidding me if you think you can finish the marathon in any less than 6 hours with training of only a month. I run 5 miles a day- been doing that for 2 years now and I still get exhausted after every run. Your best bet will start taking large doses of Resveratrol if you wanna have a remote chance of finishing.
Train real hard! Eat right! Take steroids! Drink lots of water! Protein shakes! Blood doping! and last but not least... don't forget your wheaties on run day. Your welcome in advance. Glad I could help.
The first time I ran a marathon, I had never run more than 3 miles in my life, and I was in no semblance of cardiovascular shape. I had a respectable finish time (4:10), but my legs felt like garbage for about 3 weeks. If you have reasonably strong legs, it's simply a matter of will power -- if you want to finish, you will. But don't plan on breaking any records. I hate running, but there are few things that compare to the thrill of crossing the finish line. That's why nowadays I use pliometric exercises and hill sprints/scaling 20+ flights of stairs to prepare. It's probably not the smartest thing to do, but what I'm saying is that it's totally doable. One caveat: I'm a healthy 25 with no joint problems at all; I can imagine somebody older could run into serious trouble.
Advice? Don't do it. If you can not help yourself, buld up to running 10K for your daily run and 15-20K for your one weekend run. Then run the half marathon. BTW IMO the minimum time to train for a marathon from scratch is 6 months. Anything less is just asking for trouble.
To me - the point of running is for good health. Doing a Marathon without proper preparation does not benefit your health.
I've done two marathons so far and plan on doing the Houston Half and Austin Full this upcoming year. I would not recommend you attempt a full on 6 weeks of training. You'd be begging and pleading for an overuse injury if not a stress fracture from the training alone. If you haven't been running at least 7 miles semi-regularly in the past few months, you'll be in trouble. While you could probably get yourself to the finish line, you will have significant injuries - not pain, not strains, but injuries. If you're determined to do something this stupid, alternate run/walking. Otherwise you won't finish. For your training do at least an 18 or 20 miler two weeks before the race. If you can't do that, switch to the half. Evan
Save yourself a lot of pain and disappointment and don't do it. I've done a couple marathons, including the Houston marathon, and a Ultra-Marathon (32 Miles). There is just no way you can prepare yourself in a month. Even if you can complete a half-marathon (which you should obviously do before the whole thing) you have to realize you would have to run double that distance. You could prepare yourself (eating right, wearing the right clothes, band-aids on your nipples, etc...) but your body most likely won't be ready for the 26 miles you plan on putting on it at once. I trained a lot for my first marathon and barely made it across the finish line (literally), I had major cramps and my feet felt like they were being stabbed every step I took for a good 5-6 miles. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if you really want to complete it and enjoy it, give yourself at least 3-4 months to prepare your body.
