RaceReady News

Question: I am planning on running my first marathon this fall 2008, what training tips, race day tips, etc. do you have for a novice to this type of race. I have only done 5k's and my fastest 5k (so far) is 24:02 (I'm a 33 yr old woman). I am using McMillan running time estimates for training and I am running 3 days a week with 2 days of weight training as cross training. Will this work okay? Shanan

Answer: I would recommend entering a 1/2 marathon race if you can before your marathon this fall. That would give you some experience at racing at a long distance; so you can practice drinking water at the water stops, taking your energy gels, pacing yourself within the crowd of other runners, etc. I also think a goal for most fiirst time marathoners should be to finish the race, without any specific time goal. That being said, I think your 3 days of running and 2 days of cross training is OK. You might benefit from trying 4 days of running and 1 day of cross training for a few weeks, and see how your body holds up. When I was training for competitive marathons, I found that I ran my best marathons when I could run high mileage, but only to the point that I wasn't breaking down and overdoing it. I hope this helps, and I wish you success this fall.
Mary

Posted by mary button at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Name: Phil

Question: My last long run (20 miles) in marathon training can be done in a race; should I try to run it at my planned marathon pace (8:00/mile), or should I run it more slowly? I don't want to use up energy needed for the marathon, but I also want to get my body used to running marathon pace.

Answer: My thoughts are that you should not run the entire 20 mile training run at race pace. I think you should wait until the marathon race to do that distance at goal race pace. However, I am a firm believer in incorporating some race-pace training in your long run. Often times, I would run a 1/2 marathon at race pace with 2 or 3 miles easy warm up and 2-3 miles easy cool down afterwards. Perhaps you can do this in your 20 miler: run the first 3 miles easy, followed by 14 miles at race pace, finishing with 3 miles easy. This will give you practice at running long at race pace, but not tire you out for your goal marathon.
Have a great marathon & I hope you achieve your goal!

Posted by mary button at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)