Training for a marathon

[jameslavor]

Right now I am training for the Philly Marathon. I am training by running 4-5 miles at an 8 min pace and 6-8 miles at 9 1/2 min pace, and 13 miles once a week. Is this a good plan of attack providing that the race is a little over a month away.

[rbuchman]

So you are doing one 5 miler, one 7 miler and one 13 miler / week. That should be okay. Depending on your goal you might want to up the pace a little bit.
How long have you been training?

I ran the Cincy marathon a few years back and I trained with a 5 miler on Wednesday a ~10-14 miler on Sunday with wieghts the other days for a little over 2 months. I ran a 3:42 (about 8.5 min/mile)

If it fits in your life style try to incorporate other non impact cardio. I.e. I used to cycle for transportation 10-20 minutes at a time 3-4 times a day. You might also want to mix it up now and then i.e. add a fast (6.5-7 min pace) 2 -3 mile run. In my opinion there are three parts to completeing a marathon, muscle edurance, cardio endurance and joints. Take care of our joints and I like the idea of training your heart and legs with a little different training (HIIT on an eliptical) every now and then. Not sure if this paragraph is scientifically based but just my $0.02.

Visit www.runnersworld.com.

Click TRAINING, then TRAINING PLANS, then look at several of the training plans posted. There are a couple that marathon-specific.

Most marathon training workouts include one long & slow run per week. That distance normally increases as you get closer to the marathon date. In your case, the 13-miler is your long & slow run. It doesn't appear to be long enough using conventional marathon training ideas.

Jeff Galloway's training workouts for marathon training incorporate the run-walk-run protocol. Run for say 5 minutes, then walk for 1 minute and continue. Using this method, Jeff advocates covering a greater distance than if you just ran on your long & slow run day. This method might work for you since I really believe your long & slow run day needs to cover a greater distance.

I've never ran a marathon, only a 30k many years ago. But I talk to people regularly who are training for marathons and I know what type of training they are doing.

Good luck.

[jameslavor]

well I have been training for about a month now...I have been running for about 10 months now on a consistant bases. How i started was to lose weight by running a 5k and after the 5k I decided to run longer like 6 miles to lose weight faster. Now I have lost 65 pounds and am down to 230ibs and Feel that this training will get the remaining 20 pounds or so as well as get my heart in peak condition. I am 28yrs old.

So, should I increase the long run i mile per week until the race

[rbuchman]

At 230 your joints might be a concern so staying healthy is as important as training. Make sure you have good shoes (they are not good for running long before they are not good for hanging out in)

[sooner_ed]

Cursor, please delete my response. Thanks.

[jameslavor]

I understand what you are sayin...my knees are holding up ver well, its my feet where I am having some trouble. My ankles are doing well and my hips have never been a problem. I try to get good use out of running shoes, say like a 6-8 weeks.