Who thinks they can Coach this obese man into running a sub 4:00 marathon by November?

Noone could easily accomplish this coaching feat.

Not sure who else I would recommend.

I'm kidding about the "get me to love running" part btw...I know that part is up to me.

You will be suprised by how quickly everything will come back. Continue on your schedule and focus on losing weight in the next few months while the training is less intense. Once you are healthy again and start a good marathon buildup

If you are running at a 9-10min/mi pace on 20mpw right now, I don't see 3:59:59 by November as being a huge stretch.

Your history of a competitive runner shows that your body will likely adapt quickly to the new workout routine.

I'll leave the coaching to someone else, but for now, just work on increasing mileage. I'd be willing to bet that even while increasing weekly mileage you will find that all of your runs will get gradually faster overtime.

I think you can do it easily enough. One of the cruel realities of running is that it is very talent based. The good news for you is that based on your old times you do have running talent. You are also relatively young at 26.

Basically you need to increase the mileage you run while remaining healthy. Build up your mileage slowly. If you can get your mileage up to say 35 miles a week, then increase the length of your long run. Then once your body can handle that, add one speed session a week and you will be fine.

As far as your diet goes, trying to eat clean everyday is not going to work for 99.5% of the population. They might last a few days or a week and then that plan is going straight into the garbage can. What I do with my clients is have them eat clean one day a week and then try to expand that into two days a week and then build from there. You can eat properly one day a week. Once that becomes routine, try to add in another day.

You have seven months to prepare. I have no doubt you can go sub-4. Set your goal as breaking 4. Try to get in a few races like 10ks or half-marathons before the marathon to gauge your fitness and then re-evaluate your goal.

Good luck!

Don't run a marathon until November 2016.

There IS one possibility wrote:

Noone could easily accomplish this coaching feat.

Can we have the phone number for Noone?

Where does Noone, live?

Even after seven years? It's really sad how I let it go that quickly. Everyone else I know who is an "ex-runner" looks almost the same as they did when they ran and can pick it right back up.

I have heard people talk about "lifetime miles". Supposedly, if someone used to run high mileage (I ran about 70-80 mpw in college) the mileage is somewhere in the person no matter what, so to speak. Is this true? It sounds made up to me.

ZerotoMarathon wrote:

The big question: Is running a 3:59:59 marathon possible for me by November?

This fascinates me. Why a marathon?

Did you also go directly from 8th grade to Grad school?

Are you trying to get healthy and run again, or draw some clown attention to yourself?

I don't think that 3:59:59 is a bad goal. It seems quiet doable. At the same time it seems like something worth doing (it isn't walking). If you can go under 4:00:00 this year then you can shoot for under 3:30 next year and that is pretty good running (in spite of what the LRC crowd will tell you).

What you have going for you:

1) Youth. You are only 26 years old. You should be able to improve pretty rapidly at that age and handle moderate training without a lot of setbacks. It is MUCH harder at 46, trust me on this.

2) Talent. Again, ignoring the usual LRC crowd, you essentially hit 10:00 for 2 miles. That's pretty good. You have above average talent for sure.

What is working against you:

1) Your weight. 230 lbs is a lot to be lugging around both in training and on race day. The good news is that you've already lost 30 lbs and you have time to lose substantially more.

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So, here's the plan, Stan.

1) Up your mileage slowly. maybe 25 miles per week in April, 30 in May and June.

2) Don't worry about pace - 10 minute miles is fine

3) Don't add any speed work until you have three months of jogging done without significant injury issues

4) Try lifting some. You know you want to have a developed upper body and non-twiggy legs. Go for it. It will only help you mentally and with dropping the fat pounds (muscle burns calories).

5) Cut down on grains, potatos and the like. Eat mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats. Do not count calories. Do not starve yourself.

6) You should be able to lose 5 lbs every month for the next several months without doing anything more than the above. I expect you will be at 215 by the end of June if you are consistent with all of the above

7) Once you have three months jogging AND are below 215 add in some speed work. Simplest thing is to start with short sprints. Even 30 meters is fine. Just wake up your muscles and remind them that there is such as thing as moving faster than a slow jog.

8) Check back with me once you've accomplished the above. No worries - you WILL break 4:00 in November.

Older guy wrote:

ZerotoMarathon wrote:

The big question: Is running a 3:59:59 marathon possible for me by November?

This fascinates me. Why a marathon?

Did you also go directly from 8th grade to Grad school?

Are you trying to get healthy and run again, or draw some clown attention to yourself?

I don't fully understand the question. Why a marathon? I deeply regret not going for a marathon right after I quit running in college. While I was a competitive runner, that's all I really wanted to do, but my coaches wouldn't let me. I have always been a strength runner and NOT a speed runner.

Did I go directly from 8th grade to grad school? I don't understand what you mean.

I am doing it to be healthy and run again....attempting a marathon is not funny.

The question is not really whether you can do it. The question is whether you can do it without getting hurt. Your prior talent means that a sub 4 marathon is very doable with a decent training cycle to get ready. But I have seen this story play out a number of times and it usually ends up with a pretty bad injury. It is one thing to start stressing your joints with all that running and try to acclimate in a fairly short time period. It is another to do it overweight.

This is good advice.

I'd also ad, add biking, or stationary bike for general fitness, burning calories, and reducing impact. At your weight, it's possible you're going to have soreness issues, and risk tendon injury, and too much impact if you run too much too soon.

Don't run for miles.

I skipped running for a year or so while getting an advanced degree, and came back slow. I read an article about how the training effect only starts to take effect at 20 mins. So just for a mental goal, I started out running twenty minutes a day, that was doable, min soreness (get off concrete etc. if you can). Once I had managed that comfortably for a few weeks, I pushed it to 30 mins for a week, and then when I was feeling the gusto, pushed it with some effort to 40. You can see where I am going with this. Eventually, I pushed it to 60 mins, and then skipped ahead to 100mins. However, after 40 mins I would drive to a park and run exclusively on gravel trails. I've stated this before, I found running on gravel reduce the effects of impact / soreness by 40% over running on pavement or cement.

Good luck.

I think you can definitely get under 4. I think I'm a good example. I'm your height. I stopped running after high school and followed the same diet as you did until I was ~240 at 25. Then I got unhappy with how I looked and started running again in September 2007. By Thanksgiving of that year I ran 21:30 at a turkey trot after dropping about 30 pounds. I got under 200 by the end of December, and down to 170 by March 2008. The weight loss came from quitting drinking and eating as healthy as I could except for one day a week when I would give myself whatever I wanted (pizza, candy, whatever).

I had no idea what I was doing training wise as my team was pretty low key in high school and I wasn't following a training plan. But, I managed a 1:34 half marathon in March, 7 months after I started losing weight. I'm sure with organized training I could have done a bit better.

I think we're similar in terms of talent too, since I've improved to a mid 4:30's mile, low 16 5k, and mid 33 10k. So, anyway, that's one data point that says you shouldn't have much trouble as long as you stay focused on losing the weight.

The marathon was a good long-range goal for me, so I get why you want to go for one. I did one right after graduating college and it was pretty bad. Bad enough that I took 6 years before I ran another competitive race of any distance.

When I decided to get back into it I built slowly and followed the 10% rule pretty faithfully. Maxed out at 44 miles in one week before attempting the full 26 after 8 months of training. Lost close to 20 pounds (still some 40 pounds over my school running weight). Ran 3:35, with a bit of a positive split and was happy with the progress.

Hope that helps.

Sub 4 at 230 is easy enough. I ran 3:47 and 3:50 at 225 pounds 5'11" (of fat). I did it on virtually no training as well. For the 3:47, I ran a single 14 mile run as a long run in the 4 months leading up to it.

If you can manage to get up to 35 miles a week or so and stay there and stay healthy, then you will run sub 4.

This is not the same scenario, but in about 4 months my brother, who hadn't run regularly in 10+ years (but had done some off and on running) went from walk/jogging to a 1:46 half marathon. He was running about 20-25 miles a week once he got into it and was able to run. He was overweight, but you are carrying a lot more weight. A marathon is also more challenging than a half. That being said by November I think you can hit your goal. I was surprised where he was able to get with not that much training. It increases exponentially after you put in a month or two. If you can slug through the first month or two, sub 4 by November is reasonable in my opinion.

I'd say your chances look pretty good. There are plenty of marathon programs that train people from scratch in six months. You have the disadvantage of being overweight (although that's true for a lot of people starting from scratch) and the big, big advantage of having been a runner before.

No joke - most people would be *overjoyed* to be running 5 miles at 9-10 min/mile pace. That's a *goal* for most people.

I'd grab a Galloway (yes. I said He Who Must Not Be Named) or really any book with the words "Marathon" and "First" in the title and follow the plan. Avoid injury and you should be fine.

You are almost exactly like me 15 years ago. Ex -ok HS mid distance guy gotten fat from booze, laziness and bad eating. You have the advantage of having been a runner rather than a swimmer (though based on your times we were probably about the same talent-wise) and you have more time between starting running and your first marathon than I did (I had 9 months). You let yourself get a little fatter than I did but not by much. I made a bunch of stupid mistakes (like a lot) and still ran 3:57.

As for how to do it, lots of good advice above. I think you make sub-4 EASILY as long as you stay disciplined (ie don't quit or backslide to your old ways) and don't get seriously injured. Don't worry about speed at all. 9's are not fast, especially not for someone with a 5k background. Just build up mileage as much as you SENSIBLY can. Run long and slow and take a day off now and then. Consistency is way more important than being able to brag about a 70 mile week.

If you were 35 with 18 years out of the sport or if you were shooting for 3:30 you would probably need the advice from other posters. But 4 hrs for a 25 y/o should really not be that tough.

Oh yeah, if/when you quit quitting booze, do not let that be a reason/excuse to quit running. Would you be better off not drinking? Probably but you can still be an ok hobbyjogger even if you drink more than your doctor says he thinks you should and running will undo some of the damage you will do to yourself if you decide not to be a complete saint.