I have only be doing tri’s for the past year plus a few months. I am 41 and have a 4 month old at home. For some strange reason I decided to start training for a marathon in February. Prior to this my longest run ever was 9 miles (and 2 years ago 4 miles was my distance record). Now that I have done runs up to 15 miles (at about a 10 min/mile pace, marathon goal time 4:00) I find that those long runs are really taxing. I do like the 8-10 mile range runs so I am thinking about reducing my goal to a 1/2 marathon.
I am slightly torn by this decision but I think part of it is coming from reading posts on this site concerning how to approach the sport of triathlon. I don’t want to do a marathon so I can say that I am now as good as Oparah who has done a marathon. I want to do a marathon to assess my likelihood of going Iron distance in about 3 years.
With all that rambling in mind, what sort of long day distance (or time) would be good for 1/2 marathon distance training?
FWIW, I don’t think a full marathon is “too long” for you. When I did my one and only marathon, I definitely felt that runs started to hurt after 15 or so miles. I also did all sorts of things wrong during training, like taking 2 weeks totally off, but still finished the race with (sort of) a smile on my face. I was pretty slow though…
I’m not sure about your specific question, as I’ve never trained specifically for a 1/2. You’ve certainly done enough to finish one.
If you’ve run up to 15 miles you are all set to go the half-marathon distance. Keep one long run per week at either a minimum of 11 miles or 1:30 hr time. What may help is to do a second shorter run during the week involving mile repeats slightly faster than your goal half pace on 1-2 minutes rest, or 30 to 45 minutes continous at your goal half pace.
For example, warm up 2miles, 6 x 1mile at just under half pace (or descend to under half pace for last 2), cool down 1 mile for 9 miles; or jog easy 2 miles, run between 3-6 at goal pace (or again build into goal pace), cool down 1-2 miles.
These are just a couple ideas, consistent running throughout the week is also key (4-6x). Even just 3 mile jogs with drills or strides on easy days.
I don’t think that a marathon is too long if you have the time to continue training with your child at home. If you can run 15, you can run 20; it’s really not much harder running the last 5 miles. It’s a great deal more difficult going from 4 miles as a longest run to running 15 miles as a longest run. That’s quadrupling your distance. Adding another 5 miles in training is only adding another 33% to your current long run. Child’s play by comparison with what you’ve already done. I’m entirely serious about this; you have already done the hardest part of your training. Don’t give up now.
If you can run 20 in training, you can run the marathon on race day. You could probably run a marathon in about two months. For example, use this schedule: if you ran 15 last weekend, you can run 16 this weekend, run 12 the next, 18 and 19 the two weekends after that, drop back down to 12 for one week, run 20 the weekend after that, taper down and run a marathon two weeks after running 20. This assumes you are running another 15 or so miles a mile with the long runs on weekends.
If you can run 15 miles now, you can obviously run 13.1 miles in a race so you could do that just about anytime that you wanted to do it.
Luc Van Lierde never ran a marathon before he did an ironman. For most people I don’t think it is necessary. They are definitely hard on the body. I would disagree with what has been said before, there is a huge difference between 15miles and a marathon. That last 10k hurts, a lot. Recovery time after a marathon is long. The risk of injury increases a lot too. If your IM is 3 years away take your time now, work up to it slowly.
Recovery is definitely one of my concerns. I am registered for Wildflower Oly so I don’t want to start the season underprepared for the dreaded hill that awaits me at the bike start due to an extended rest after the marathon.