From 0 to a Marathon in 22 weeks.

bootrunk - firstly, congrats on where you've got to which is a VERY long way. I think you need to give your leg a proper rest of at least a week and maybe do some swimming in the meantime to keep your fitness.

Also, what sort of intensity do you run at ? And how has your mileage increased over the past few months ? It seems to me as though you are having some big increases in your long run ie you jump from 5k to 7k ( ~40% ), then 7k to 10k ( ~40% ) then 10k to 10 miles ( ~60% ). These are big increases that will put a strain on your body when you consider it's generally accepted that 10% is a safe increment.

Maybe you should go back to the sort of mileage before you got injured and start from there after a rest and increase slowly. As for the marathon, don't worry about the time and if you have to walk some of it so be it - better that than injure yourself.  

Good Luck

Thanks for the encouragement.

Yeah the jumps are occasionally a bit over the 10% I think I need to train more often, but slightly shorter distances giving me a longer overall amount of time on my meet but with less pressure on the individual runs.

It's juggling it all around and fitting everything into having a life outside running as well.  I think it's only 84 days to my first marathon so once my thigh is going again I just need to accept I have to ditch some other things as I really need to put a bit more low intensity running in.  I think less worry about speed more about just getting some slow miles under my belt so I am confident I can plod around the 26 miles.

I'm sort of following you, a couple of years younger - 74 days till my 1st marathon (Chester) and I jumped up the miles too quickly.  I started June 16th and last Saturday did a LSR of 17 miles (after 15.6 the week before and 2 13.1 milers the 2 weeks before that).  This week I've had to have 3 days off so far from achy legs/knees/calves etc..

I'm in week 6 of training and only just realised what "easy" means - it means very. very slow - which takes more time, which means less of a life.  But I agree, it's less about speed and more getting slow miles into your legs.

Keep it up, recover properly before ramping up the miles again and good luck!

I've loved reading this inspirational thread thanks booktrunk. I am training for marathon liverpool 14th october and losing weight and just upto10miles I never thought I could do it but have kept plugging away.

Well done Rachel. 

We can feel each others pain and excitement on the 14th

Did 8k last night 5k tonight, 5k Saturday and 12k Sunday.  Then the Sundays are always 16k (10 miles or longer) so last lazyish week for me. 

The leg is holding up ok at the moment, so fingers crossed I will just be able to keep on plodding.  I'm slower then some things say I should be to even get around in 6 hours, but the plan i'm on say 5h 30ish and i'm going faster then the speeds it's telling me to do now, so it's got me to this stage so I cannot give up on it now, just keep plodding along with it.

Downloaded all sorts of programs but i'm still with my original one from asics.co.uk just seems to be working well for me.

Steph

rachelhen - well done and good luck

booktrunk - i'm sure if you take it easy your injury will hold up and the stronger you get the less chance of it recurring. Good to hear you are making progress. The great thing about running is that as you gradually get fitter you can do more and it becomes that much more enjoyable.

WELL............................

How did I do this week.  I was meant to do more in the middle of the week then i did but just felt a bit underpar in the week.. So 5km and 8km should have done a bit more.

But today, Sunday the 12th of August.  I managed to run 20 km.  How good is that considering on the 1st of May about 100 days ago i couldn't run 50 yards.

So i looked on the scales today and just edged into the 11st category... 11st 13.8 when I started my diet on 21st of March this year i was 15st 8lbs. 

So i bet you can imagine just how bloody good i feel tonight being able to do that.

Oh.... It's amazing after my 20km run today my dog wanted to lick me non-stop and when i felt my skin i realised it was totally covered in Salt.  I must have sweated so much my skin was encrusted with salt.  I felt like a pile of poo for 5 minutes, had a 2 minute lay down on the bed and that got me back together, thankfully I had a diet coke a cold shower, and a egg and bacon sandwich, I felt graet after that

I took about 10 jelly babies with me and popped one each km from 5 km onwards until i ran out.  I wish that I had a bigger pocket

Slightly stiff now ok bloody stiff when I walk up stairs but well on the way to recovery.  So 9 weeks to go and i can do 20 of the 42.2ish km.

I have to confess I have a problem I am to slow I just cannot get myself much quicker and if i do the marathon takes 1.3 x half thing i'm screwed with a strict 6 hour cut off.  But I will get that bit faster I hope .... and I think at my speed i'm also hoping there will be less of a drop off.

One really hard thing was my brain.  About 12.5 or 13k in I had this insane 5 minute section where I just felt emotionally crap.  I was saying to myself it's stupid you are useless and cannot do the marathon, 7h yes, 6 no.  Your just wasting your time so stop now.  Just walk home and give up. lie and say you have an injury just STOP.  I felt awful in my own skull, but thankfully it was only for a few minutes, and i got my head around it and just kicked myself metaphorically and just got my arse back into gear and kept going.

I'm lousy at this running lark, but i'm not a quitter.  I guess someone will wave at me 24 or 25 miles into the marathon saying sorry your time is up... But, if that happens then so be it.  I'm not darn well quitting, and i'm going to give it everything that i've got over the next 9 weeks.

Steph

Hi booktrunk,

Just wanted to say how fantastic you are doing, from where you have come from to where you are now is very inspirational - and the kick up the backside that I need 

I am currently planning on doing a HM next spring (not sure which) and a full marathon next autumn but am now toying with the idea of doing the full marathon sooner, thanks to your thread!

Keep up the good work.

Thanks Lisa

Good luck on your training.  You are probably taking a much more sensible approach doing the half first then a full i'm a bit mad going for it like this.

It's great knowing that you can just do it. There is no-one to beat but yourself, The more I train the more i believe it's a challenge in the mind a lot of the time rather than the physical side.

For me it's getting through the mental barrier of I cannot be bothered, or it's to hot, or it's raining, or i've done half the distance and i'm tired, can't i just stop now.

The physical stuff is there of course, and the first month to six weeks. I didn't have a day without pain, but over time that does disappear, now I can run 10k and within minutes of finishing i'm back to normal.  So the body adapts, I think the brain takes longer to adapt then the body does.

I have a countdown clock on my laptop and it says 54 Days 22 hours and x minutes to go.  I am having days where I am starting to get excited and nervous about it. 

I'm also having days where I am thinking what next... Once I've done it where do I go from here. I wonder what others do after their first marathon.  How many swear never again, compared to those that then do two plus a year from then on!!  Fun and games, and i've got all this ahead of me.

Oh... Weight wise, the diet and running are doing fantastic.  I've now lost 51 lbs at my last weigh in (last wednesday, and look like loosing another 1 or 2 lbs this week) I cannot believe I am the same person that started dieting in March this year and running in May.

Good luck on your 15 miler today. Just think of how fantastice you will feel when you arrive back home knowing that you have just run that distance.

I am still trying to decide which HM to do next spring

Great thread, well done, you seem to be on track for a great day, Have you tried drinking high5 sports drink on your runs, as this is what they will be providing on the day every 5k, try it now as it might not be palatable to you and you dont want to find this out on race day. Now you are on longer runs do you have walking breaks,maybe 1 min every 10, this works well for me, just freshens your legs up a bit without losing much time, I plod about 10 min miles and walking at a brisk pace only loses me 60metres each time but makes me feel much better. Some of your posts mention speed, have you tried once a week doing a short run and during it run as fast as is comfortable for 50 yards a few times during the middle section of it.

Also your insane 5 minutes, expect that on the day as well, I always have that around about 20 miles, you get over it, the emotions make this distance the thing that makes the finish line one of the best feelings in the world.