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Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM
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Hello All,

I am new to the forum. I have been debating on completing a full marathon 4 weeks prior to the CDA70.3. Last year was my first year doing triathlons and I did the CDA Full IM, and was back to running half marathons within a few weeks, boasting 2 personal records on two seperate half marathons a few weeks after IronMan. In other words, I felt pretty good to run again after the full IM.

Is it a bad idea to do a full marathon prior to a half IM? I won't be racing the marathon, just taking it easy. All responses are welcome.
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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How much are you running now?

>60 miles per week...maybe

<40 miles per week...your HIM will likely suffer.
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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Depends on where your fitness is, but the real 'issue' would be with disruption to your training schedule. Any soreness will be long gone after 4 weeks, but within that 4 weeks you'll be missing time on some hard biking. You can boost your swim time and run fitness shouldn't diminish much.

I'm a year round trainer type, did la marathon this year then Oceanside 2 weeks later. I was just doing the marathon for fun but of course you feel good, start pushing and soon you're chasing a pr and pound the quads real good. I just used post marathon time as a longer taper and felt good going into Oceanside.

What I found though was my run fitness hadn't snapped all the way back and had an ok run, same time as last year but broke 5 hrs and prd the course...just paid for it with quad and foot pain for a week after.
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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jrandolph wrote:
Is it a bad idea to do a full marathon prior to a half IM? I won't be racing the marathon, just taking it easy.

Hope not. I have a 70.3 just 3 weeks after Big Sur. Hoping I bounce back quickly. Not racing Big Sur, just taking it easy w/ my wife. Hoping to have a decent showing at the 70.3
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [anthonypat] [ In reply to ]
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Thank you both. I do not run much, but I bike a lot. My running schedule is one long run a week 15-20 miles (or race a half marathon), then have a couple small runs after biking anywhere from 2 miles to 6 miles incorporating some speed work. I am not sure if that helps with the analysis. If I ran the marathon, then I probably would just bike and swim the first two weeks after.
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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After the 20 miler could you run alright a couple of days after?

Waving the caution flag... I had a 70.3 scheduled 6 weeks after a marathon, training was going pretty well, beginning to feel good but then tore my glute medius.

Ended up missing the 70.3 & an upcoming 10K, hoping to be ready for a sprint tri in a month or so.
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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jrandolph wrote:
[/quote]Hello All,

I am new to the forum. I have been debating on completing a full marathon 4 weeks prior to the CDA70.3. Last year was my first year doing triathlons and I did the CDA Full IM, and was back to running half marathons within a few weeks, boasting 2 personal records on two seperate half marathons a few weeks after IronMan. In other words, I felt pretty good to run again after the full IM.

Is it a bad idea to do a full marathon prior to a half IM? I won't be racing the marathon, just taking it easy. All responses are welcome.[/quote]


given the amount you are running....i think, if you are goiung to do it, you need to stick to yourguns and take it easy. be prepared to walk even.
if you goal was to race it then i would have very different advice.

why do you want to do it?...seems like an ineffective use of time.
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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From your description of your running:

If you have been doing 20 milers for 6-8 weeks (even with your relatively low milage) then you would probably get away with it. If you have been doing mainly 15 milers, which are much different than 20's, your HIM will suffer more.

I almost error on the side of under-training than over-training.
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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It's a terrible idea.
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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jrandolph wrote:
Hello All,

I am new to the forum. I have been debating on completing a full marathon 4 weeks prior to the CDA70.3. Last year was my first year doing triathlons and I did the CDA Full IM, and was back to running half marathons within a few weeks, boasting 2 personal records on two seperate half marathons a few weeks after IronMan. In other words, I felt pretty good to run again after the full IM.

Is it a bad idea to do a full marathon prior to a half IM? I won't be racing the marathon, just taking it easy. All responses are welcome.

What do you mean by "bad idea?"
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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Hi jrandolph,

How important is the 70.3 to you? Because if it is very important to you, thrn I would advise against doing the marathon 4 weeks prior. I know you said you were going to to do the marathon easy. But if you're like me, I start with that intention but end up racing the marathon anyway.

At the end of the day, its your decision, and I'm sure you'll be OK.

Good Luck!

An age group triathlete just like you.
TopTriGear - https://www.toptrigear.com
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Re: Full Marathon 4 weeks prior to Half IM [jrandolph] [ In reply to ]
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Agree with what a few others have said about the importance of the 70.3. If that is more important than doing a marathon 4 weeks out is a bad idea. If the marathon is more important then it is ok. A marathon is not close to the pain/soreness of an IM in my opinion. It kills your legs if you run it hard. If you just do it for fun it might not hurt as much but there is no pain like the week after a marathon!

Even without the discomfort of the next few weeks your 70.3 training will suffer if you taper for the marathon since you are losing a lot of training 6 weeks out from the 70.3. But again, it just depends on what your goals for each race are.

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