Edinburgh Marathon 2013

Ok, so i'm well aware that i'm 43 weeks out from the Edinburgh Marathon 2013, but since i've never run a Marathon before I thought i'd go about starting my training now.

I've seen most of the advice is to just "build a base" and then follow one of the many 12, 16 or 18 week plans leading upto the Marathon but I was wondering if it is ok to be a bit more structured and do something like the Hal Higdon 1/2 marathon novice training now for 12 weeks, followed by the intermediate 1/2 marathon plan and then following a week off i'd go into an 18 week marathon plan.

Would that be ok to do or is there a far more sensible way to go about building a solid foundation before entering marathon training?

Any help would be greatly apprecaited.

Richard,

Before anyone can really advise, what is your current base?  Can you run 2 miles, 5 miles etc?  What pace are you at?  How old are you?

Jumping from novice 1/2 to intermediate 1/2 might not be a good idea depending upon your current fitness levels.  It would take some people a year or much longer of training to develop that much.  Personally, I would look at the plans, start with the beginner 1/2 plan but also look carefully at how it will slot in with a full, perhaps longer term, marathon plan.  Most importantly, don't increase your mileage by 10% per week.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Many thanks for your reply.

I'm 30 years old.

Any base I had has probably gone, I haven't done more than a sporadic run in the past 18 months. I was running 40 miles per week back in April 2011 (think I ran upto around 18 miles) and could probably go out and run 10 miles today at around 8 min/mile pace but i'm sure it would be a big struggle and I obviously wouldn't try from a standing start.

I thought with going with consecutive 1/2 marathon plans that it would be good to increase my mileage slowly, drop back down for a few weeks at the start of the new plan and thus give my body a very gradual increase in workload over the next 6 months or so and hance reduce any chance of overtraining or burnout while building a reasonable base.

I think the fitness will come back reasonably quickly but i'm just not sure the best way of going about it so far out from the targeted race.

asics website has a 6 month training plan

I was going to suggest the Asics page too- I'm using it to get ready for London 2013

Good luck!

I'm using Asics 0 to Marathon in 22 weeks, i'll tell you 10 weeks today if it worked

Thanks everyone for the replies. The Asics website seems like quite a good system so may give it a shot.

Thanks again!