I did something stupid

[Desperate Dave]

For a bet I entered the London Marathon! :eek: Now I haven't got a clue how to train for it.

I'm pretty fit and young(ish) at 31. Do I just need to pound the streets for the next 4 months to get ready for it? If so, how many miles should I be covering each week?

A very Desperate Dave

[Julian Meldrum]

Having completed seven Marathons, in company with tens of thousands of other runners, starting when I was past 40, I can reassure you that it's an achievable goal and there's a lot of sound advice and information available to you. Runners World magazine, for example, has some great Marathon training schedules which are available online to subscribers.

My first piece of advice would be to get yourself to a specialist running shop and buy two pairs of decent shoes. You'll need two in order to wear them on alternate days, and still be able to run that Marathon in shoes that you are comfortable and familiar with.

Yes, you will need to do some long runs. At shorter distances, I would say up to half Marathon, you can if you prefer do a lot of your aerobic work cross-training, e.g. on a bicycle. But when it comes to Marathon, I really think you must aim to build up to a 20-mile (32 km) run at something close to your target pace for the Marathon by about 4 weeks before the big day.

Don’t know what your target pace is? If you’ve taken part in road races at shorter distances, e.g. 10 km, then there are various online calculators which will give you a pretty good idea of what you might be able to achieve.

The key is to progress gradually. A widely used rule of thumb is to increase your distance by no more than 10 per cent per week. You can apply this both to your longest run and to your overall weekly distance, though you’ve got to start somewhere!

For many people, starting somewhere means mixing running and walking, and indeed if your aim is simply to get round the course and enjoy the wonderful street party atmosphere that is the Flora London Marathon, that is a perfectly legitimate strategy for race day itself.

You may end up running every day, though if so you’ll need to vary the intensity, for example, by alternating hard days and easy days. Gym sessions on treadmills can be great for a bit of speed and pace work, but most of your training should be outdoors if you can possibly arrange it. If it means going out in the dark, take care of your safety – get a good high-visibility vest along with your running shoes.

And in the final stages of training, rest will become critically important. The Marathon is one of the best examples of an event where leaving everything to the last minute just doesn’t work. But if you’ve prepared decently, trained hard but sensibly, the sense of achievement is quite unbeatable. Then again, if it all goes wrong, even at the last minute, defer your entry to next year!

[rachelk]

I know someone who thinks that just because they have exercised all their life - child / teenage years of football, rugby and athletics followed by cross training in the gym for 15 years - that they could do the marathon without an ounce of long distance running training. They think that they could turn up on the day and run the 26 + miles in a pretty good time.

Possible? All is he just full of hot air?