Marathon Running

That's an excellent point. It does get easier, to the point where I do a lot of things now that I used to "train" for and still do moderately well by my standards. I just felt like offering an alternative training plan to the standard "run far, then run farther each week, and then run less far for three weeks before your race."

This week I only went running twice. I really need to be more disciplined in ensuring three times per week.

Wednesday: 8.2km in 45 mins
Saturday: 10km in 55 mins

I've noticed that from a cardiovascular perspective, this doesn't really stretch me - I'm not out of breath. But my legs feel tight and stiff. A side-effect of sitting in the office all day, I'm sure. I think I might need to get an occasional sports massage to loosen out.

I have that leg stiffness problem, too. I have great heart and lung capacity/endurance (resting pulse rate is 52), but my legs rebel after a certain distance.

Maybe it's the 2 times per week thing - but I also notice that if I do some core stability exercises after running, my legs don't get stiff, unless I really went over the limit. I did these exercises - the guy is a bit over the top, but the exercises are good.
http://www.coachjayjohnson.com/2011/11/eight-week-general-strength-progression/

My resting pulse is 40. Last time I was with the doctor he thought that there was something wrong! But apparently it's just good cardio fitness.

Resting pulse about 54 here. This thread did get me thinking again about doing a marathon.. and running in general. Been out of it since that bad run in January, only ran 12 times since July and my last run was sept. 8th. Maybe I'll go for a quick 5K tomorrow morning before work.

So where do you all run? It's mostly pavement here, I'd have to travel to the other side of town to even run through a park. Sometimes wish I had a house at the edge of a forest or something like that.

I run along the roads. Mostly rural, including along the water which is nice.

I like trail running best. There is a nature preserve about a fifteen minute drive from the house with some very rugged trails involving good hills, even ski slopes and other climbing challenges. That's good on weekends. From my front door, I typically either just go on pavement, or run a few blocks to a park that has some fairly gentle but narrow foot paths.

I prefer running on pavement.
I get up early and run three miles every morning.

I'm not a marathon runner, but I have run in the San Francisco Marathon
and the Bay-to-Breakers.

I ran on the same track, on the same night, as Tommie Smith and Lee Evans.

I run dirt roads almost exclusively. I find that when I try to gradually bring Pavement into my routine my knees start killing me in pain.

Properly fitted running shoes with the correct roll/pronation can really negate knee, hip and other problems. Most runners will know this but a tip for those not in the know, if you want to get into it properly, dont just buy a pair of nikes off the shelf, go to a proper running shop and get fitted!

I did 5k's tonight. First run since before the kid showed up 7weeks ago. Break myself back into it gently

Yep I've been getting fitted properly for the last 5 years. Even to the point they video my feet as I run to see how they hit the ground, as part of the fitting.

Something about running on asphalt just gets my knees going. It's really noticeable when I do 10 miles or so and part of the longer run is done on pavement.

Bump.

Lack of updates but I haven't given up on this. I'm still running 2-3 times per week, even though neither my mileage or speed have increased significantly. I have begun going to a running club on Tuesday evenings where they do HIIT type work. That's the "beginners" night, meaning that most of the people there are very unfit, but there are enough faster people to challenge me, and I don't want to go to the more advanced sessions since then I'll get roped in to joining the club and so forth.

I ran my first race of the year this weekend, a 15K run. It's been a shitty running year, and it showed. I only picked up regular training again about 3 weeks ago, and of course, in 3 weeks, you don't get back what you lost over the course of a year. At first, I was 15 minutes behind last year's time and I was beat at the end. Last sunday, I managed to get it down to a little under 6 minutes behind last year's schedule, but it still feels wrong to be slower. Of course, it's just a sign that you don't get anything for nothing where running is concerned. I've signed up for a half marathon in March in The Hague, hopefully I'll be able to run that in under 2 hours again.

Try running in rubber chest-waders (like for trout fisherman/duck hunters) filled with water. It will make running in normal running shoes seem like child's play! Just don't take credit for my awesome training technique.

That's actually a pretty good idea. I don't know how well it translates for a marathon, but in obstacle course racing, which is what I do, training often involves running (or climbing) with weight. Partly that is for building strength and endurance, but it is also a technique for making race conditions less difficult compared to training. I'm not a speed guy, though, so much as an endurance guy, so results may vary.

About twenty years ago during one period when I lived "on post" I ran about 2 miles to work in my BDU's (camo work fatigues) and heavy combat boots an hour or so after I did PT with my unit. I was trying to get a better run time on my PT test to improve my chances for promotion.
And yes, it made running in normal running shoes much easier.

Have any of you guys got any of these GPS running watches? Tracks your distance, pace, times, calories, heart rate etc and can let you know if you are not running to your usual goals? Download all your stats on computer?

I've only been back hitting it quite seriously for a few months but thinking about picking one of these up. I use my golf garmin all the time, and can see how useful these might be.

My wife has a Garmin watch that I like to borrow...I used to carry around my handheld GPS unit until I lost it. These days I use my phone for the after-run (or cycle) analysis. To me the best thing about a watch is that it helps with pacing, and I've never gotten into the habit of needing that for every run.

I have a Nike watch, it's kind of cool, probably not crucial, though.

Yeah, I'm a gadget guy The moment I could run a 10K, I got myself a Garmin Forerunner 610. Unfortunately,I've had a lot of trouble with it - battery trouble, chest strap trouble, wristband trouble.. I do think they ironed out most of those problems with the new 610 version, I have the old one with the steel back (which can actually stain on your wrist, for some people). I think they also use a new strap for that, but it took years of them to do that after releasing the first version, so I am out of luck. These days, if I run a half marathon or further, I am lucky if my watch lasts that long without resetting and losing all my data. Since my current max distance is the 10 miler I ran this weekend, I am approaching that problem again, and if it hasn't changed (and I don't know why it would have) I will get a new watch, but I'm not sure which one to get. My sister recently got a TomTom Cardio and she loves it, although apparently it doesn't let you view the stats after completing a run, it's then saved and has to be uploaded to be viewed. With my Garmin, I can check the details of every run I saved on my watch. A fun feature when you're away from home, e.g. for a race, but not necessary.

Disregarding features one watch has and the other hasn't: I love checking the stats. My heartrate not only helps me stay in the zone and not burn myself out, it also helps me run faster: by learning to run slower, you teach yourself to run with a lower heartrate - eventually ending up running faster with a much lower heartrate than before. Or so they say. Doing interval training is also a lot easier: you define the intervals you want to run, and then just follow your watch's instructions. And yes, a lot of that, maybe even all of it, can be done by a mobile app. Apps can even connect to a heartrate cheststrap, so it is not necessary to get a watch - but it is a lot of fun. Try checking your phone for your progress while running...
It makes you more familiar with how your body reacts to what you do while running, it gives you speed, and if you run around exploring from time to time, you will be able to check where the hell you went (afterwards, that is). Not recommended though, unless you know you can take in the extra few miles if you get lost.

The websites these watches connect to are great as well: I love strava, with its challenges, friends-features and details - but, again, Strava is available as an app as well. Perhaps just try using one of those apps first? You can even get a cheststrap with that for heartrate monitoring, but since these things are not cheap, you might end up having to buy another one when you buy your watch, as they are often not compatible between watches/phones.

For me, while the watch has a lot of functions I rarely use, what I use most is simply heartrate, average heartrate, pace, average pace, and distance and time.
The extras include the already mentioned interval workout, and a feature called 'virtual partner' or 'virtual race', where you can upload a specific race you ran earlier, and then race against yourself. E.g. the race I ran this month, I also did last year, and the year before. I could have uploaded the data to my watch, and then could have seen 2 icons of runners, showing which of us was ahead exactly on that part of the course. Fun, perhaps, but a feature I've probably only used twice in the three years I've had this watch.

If you are thinking of getting a watch: check http://www.dcrainmaker.com/ for the best and moest extensive tests of all kinds of running gadgets.

I use a phone app called MapMyRun which does some of that stuff. A watch would be better though, I'd think. How pricey are they?

The cheap ones seem to be coming in around £65. Ones that do most of what you need in the £100 - £130 bracket, and the all singing all dancing badboys can go right up to £300 from what I've seen.

The one issue I have with my watch is that I have to plug it in to a computer to upload the data. The phone based apps avoid that, but are otherwise less useful. The watch is more comfortable, easier to read mid-run (I like to see elapsed time and distance), and more rugged. If you can find a watch that pairs by blue tooth with your phone, that would probably be better than other options in my opinion.

The newer, more expensive garmins appear to automatically upload your stats via bluetooth

20km this morning. Approximately 2 hours but quite a bit of it was across hills. My legs are in bits!

Rockin' it!

So, Belfast marathon is Monday 4th May and it looks at this stage like that is my goal.

Since Christmas I've been doing:

• Interval training on Tuesday nights - this consists of repeated 400 metre runs with a little rest in-between, and some longer runs up to one mile.
• Moderate run on Thursay/Friday evening - usually around 8km, not too challenging, but I try to run it quickly.
• Long run on Sunday morning - 20km or so, often much of it on mountain/hill. Very challenging.

I'm definitely feeling faster at this stage. Yesterday was 18.6km on flat terrain in 1 hour 40 minutes. I realise that it's easier said than done but that pace would be 3 hours 45 minutes over a full marathon, which I'd be happy with.

Sounds good! I only got back into regular runs on the 13th, but been at it 3 times a week. Did a slow 19.4km yesterday, which felt great. As for your May marathon plans, I presume you will increase the mileage a bit more on your long runs in the coming months? I've read a lot of marathon plans that include at least a few (2 or 3) 30-35km runs and some more 25km runs.
As for your marathon time - I've got an app for that It's called 'Pace Converter' (surprise!) for Android. It lets you enter two of these three: distance, pace, time, and then offers predictions using on of two models: the Riegel model predictions and the Cameron model predictions. According to the Riegel, your marathon time could be 4:05:42, the Cameron predicts 4:03:02.
These predictions are a bit more realistic than just extrapolating your 18.6km time. That said, you ran 5:23/km, which sounds like you're in good shape! But of course, it's not just speed - it's mostly about duration, I think. Right before I crashed at my 30km run last year, I ran a 15km run at 5:20/km, so I was doing great myself. But running straight for 3hours just kicked me in the teeth. I couldn't imagine holding on another hour. So just from my experience, I'd say: paying attention to speed it great, but attention to duration is far more important. As I think I said before, my priorities are always: R-D-S - regularity, distance, speed, in that order.
Anyway, just my 2 cents! Keep the updates coming! Love reading about running

Yes, the plan is to get up to 35km on the long run over the next three months. I don't think I'm there yet because I'm pretty tired after the 20km runs!

Sounds like a useful app - my aim is under 4 hours so from what you're saying hopefully I'm not too far away!