Sat on the sofa on Sunday morning watching the Great North Run, I felt a bit inspired and sent a few mates a message about taking on a marathon next year. Now I've always said I would never do a marathon but for reasons unknown I now find myself ready and willing to attempt the challenge.
But I'm not a runner, I'm more of a cyclist so this will be a challenge. Not sure which race yet either. Might be as simple as Brighton or might see if Paris could work. Part of the reason for doing this is that I think I can be better at cycling and running if I lose weight and I find it easier to lose weight with focus on an event and training plan so will be monitoring weight etc as well.
ANY ADVICE ALONG THE WAY WOULD BE GREATLY RECEIVED!
I've done a couple of half-marathons before (brighton half as training for Antwerp 70.3) and have always ended up with totally shot quads so a re-assessment of technique (bit of an overstriding plodder) is probably needed as well along with a lot more fitness and weight loss. I'm going to attempt the half-marathon challenge for October to March as well which hopefully should provide some idea of progress etc. Then there's Windsor OD on the cards next year as well and hopefully a couple of other good races.
My time in brighton half was 1:45 which I was pleased with at the time but think with proper focus, weight loss and better technique I could run quicker and hopefully with less quad pain which could set me up well for a marathon.
Two things now concern me:
1. How do I go about training for a marathon? Long slow runs with some faster work towards the race? Do i have time to make Maffetone work?
2. What should my objective be? A specific time or focus on completing the marathon?
As an objective, I would like to run 3:30 for the marathon. I have no idea if this is realistic given what has gone before or whether it might be too achievable with the correct focus on training but this is going to be my starting point. I've heard a target marathon time is 2 x a half marathon time plus 20 mins so hopefully the 3:30 is a good target!
PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME IF THIS IS WAY WIDE OF THE MARK!!!
Here are my stats as of this morning:
Weight: 94kgs
BMI: 26.6
Resting HR: 58bpm (when most recently recorded a couple of weeks ago)
Done a couple of runs on the way to work for the past couple of mornings, same time (5:20am) same route, same outcome:
distance 3.9km
time: 21:00
ave HR: 170
ave pace: 5:25/km
So this is my starting point!! Here goes!