Advice for a fat ex-runner's 1st marathon-READ ME and HELP!!!

You don't need to get too cute. You only have 4 months. Try to run at least 4 or 5 days a week, get in a handful of long runs, and you'll be fine. If you have some ambitious goal time in mind, then you'll have to get fancier but will also risk injury. Put some miles in, drop 20 pounds and see how it goes. At this point, you don't need a watch, fancy speed or hill workouts, or any of that shitt.

fat guy running a marathon???? wrote:

I'm not going to be an a$$hole and ask if I can do it...I'm pretty sure I can. My question is this, how would you guys START a training program(ie successive long runs, hills, maybe a tiny bit of speed) so that I don't hurt myself

putting aside the wisdom of doing it, i would concentrate on the long run. take you longest run recently and add a mile to it every week till you get to 10 or 12. then i would hold there a week or so and then increase to long runs of 14, 16, 14, 16, 18, 14, 20, 16, 14, 10 and race. if you can do that, you can finish the marathon and not kill yourself.

i would do no speed work at all. i think it only adds to your chance of hurting yourself and the benefits in a marathon will be minimal to non-existent for you.

i would try and run 2or 3 other times a week with a short recovery run after the long run and a medium longer run of about 6-8 miles.

i see your goal as to finish and not die. the key is the long runs, no amount of 5 mile runs will replace them. your other goal will be to avoid getting injured and so ramping up you miles with a long run is exactly what can do that. if you can work up to a 10 mile long run and hold that for a few weeks before moving on. time to do this is short however.

good luck.

If Oprah can do it, you probably can too.

Let's see... August, September, October, November... perfect! See link.

Thanks for the advice guys. I am sitting at my desk in the middle of a food coma, with two greasy slices of pepperoni sitting in my stomach(my other goal was to make the professional eating circuit...but this one might be a bit healthier) and I know I need to cut that out as well.

Do you guys think strides and stretching will be valuable as well; I've heard diff things about what to do for a marathon.

What about lactate threshold runs later on once my base is there...is there a benefit to this at this distance, or should I focus on 100% aerobic training?

Or later on repeat milers at race pace or slightly faster?

As more of a speed dude(if you can call a 2:03 800 speed) back in the day, I do like to run fast-and normally get bored running slow.

"If Oprah can do it, you probably can too."

Man, I never thought I would be compared to that sexy mama(or I was hoping to be financially compared to her...lol that will never happen). But if Oprah can run 4 hours and shes a fat bastard...I've gotta be able to do it too!

Thanks again!!!!!!

fat guy running a marathon???? wrote:

Do you guys think strides and stretching will be valuable as well; I've heard diff things about what to do for a marathon.

What about lactate threshold runs later on once my base is there...is there a benefit to this at this distance, or should I focus on 100% aerobic training?

Or later on repeat milers at race pace or slightly faster?

my opinion is that none of that will help and it will increase the chance of injury. if you have not run 10 miles in a long time, you will be in for a surprise at how hard it is. and 16 is harder still. not to mention that after you have run 16, you are still another 10 miles plus from the end of the race.

the long runs will take a huge toll on your body and if you are starting from scratch. more than anything you need base miles. and base comes before speed work. you barely have time for base building.

if you want to do a few strides, fine. stretching, great. but i think speed work wont do any good for you.

it may be a sin to say it here, but i think you might even want to incorporate some walk breaks in your long runs. the goal is to finish on your feet feeling good. you dont have a whole lot of time to prep to do that.

long runs and injury avoidance are what you should be thinking if you want to make it to the starting line.

Alright, I felt compelled to give some sincere opinions to balance out the Oprah crack. Er, the crack about Oprah.

Strides? Sure, they're almost always good during any phase of training for almost anyone.

Stretching? Different people seem to have widely varying needs. You should have some idea what worked for you in the past. Of course you're older and chubbier now, for whatever affect that has. I'll suggest this: you'll be doing more slower miles, which means less range of motion, which I suspect means more need for postrun stretching.

Once your base is there? Dude, four months starting from zero plus a beer gut, you barely have time to build a partial, mini, better-than-nothing base. It's not like by week three you can say "aha, there's a solid base; now it's time to add strength then speed then taper."

Threshold? My suggestion, especially considering your very limited time frame and starting point, is to kill two bird with one stone - focus entirely on marathon pace runs. Opinions vary but mine is that substantial MP runs are at least in the same ballpark for working on your threshold as faster "hour race pace" work or whatever. And they'll acclimate you, physically and mentally, to the pace.

Of course that begs some questions, like what's MP for someone with no recent PRs or workouts or even base mileage; and will your actual race pace be much or any faster than your daily training pace anyway? I dunno how to answer these but suggest generally that you consider longer, slower "tempos" and not these "20 minutes at 60 minute pace." The longer tempos have more relevance for the longer race. I'm thinking more like 40 to 80 minutes of a good solid effort, but well shy of all-out.

Repeat miles? IMO only if they don't significantly detract from your more important training goals: total volume, long runs, long moderate tempos. Again, you don't have a lot of time and you're not going in with any kind of fitness; you've got to prioritize and make some hard choices. You can't do it all this time out.

Hills, though. Don't avoid hills! I wouldn't worry about hard hill repeats - you might be begging for injury trying them at this stage - but if you can consistently cover some nonflat topography on your daily runs and tempos, they'll help. On your recovery days (I gotta think you *will* need some, after long runs if nothing else) keep it easy effort and flat though.

If it makes you feel better, you should know, Oprah's time wasn't exactly a 4 hour marathon it was a 4:29.20 marathon.

You should be able to do it as long as you put down the pizza and start running.

juse lose weight so you won't be a fat ass anymore

affect -> effect

fat ppl are stupid wrote:

juse lose weight so you won't be a fat ass anymore

The guy says he's 6-3 195. Only here on this board would that be considered a fat ass.