marathon
I just completed ironman louisvlle but did it in 17hrs and 50 minutes, even though i did not make the 17 hours i am happy to complete that distance for the first time, I had serious cramping in the legs in the bike and run, my question is would i be ok to do a marathon nov 6th, in 2 months.
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if your legs feel good after two weeks out, I think you would be good to run 90 minutes as a long run and build weekly long run time by 15 minutes from there.
you might want to post your question to the coaches on the macro thread also.
My inital thought is go for it, just give yourself plenty of time to recover first before starting to train for the marathon. Just be aware that you will probably want to wait to start the OS until January if you do this.
A few questions:
Have you run an open marathon before?
How far were your longest runs during the IM build?
Any injuries during IM build?
What other races are you doing for the rest of the year and early next year?
Mike, I'm going to try to keep this all in one place so that others can follow along or read it in the future.
I received your response...
"i have never done a marathon except for this past week, longest run was 2.5 hours ( 13.5 miles ), never been injured during a run and have no other races planned until next year IM"
As long as you are doing the marathon because you want to, go for it. There is no need to do one to get faster at IM. In fact, I bet for most people a open marathon actually limits you ironman performs as there are better ways you could spend that time. However, keep in mind it will SIGNIFICANTLY impact your OS. In fact, I would HIGHLY recomend that if you are going to do a Nov. marathon, you do not start the OS until January.
I have run many marathons, some with intentions to PR, one as a pace leader and others just to enjoy. Even with all of the running I do they still take a toll on my body and it is very hard to do quality bike workouts while building up for and recovering from a marathon. Instead during a marathon focus period I would use swimming and cycling as cross training and for recovery. In otherwords, I don't recomend the EN OS type bike workouts while training for the marathon.
An open marathon is a completely different beast then an IM and in many ways I feel marathon training and racing is harder than IM. Sure it takes less time, but the run volume beats up your body more and the actual marathon can be significantly harder on your body then an IM.
Just my 0.02 ... FWIW, I don't always take my own advice, but I do know the opportunity cost of running a marathon and some times I decide it is worth it to me for whatever reason.
I have nowhere near the experience with marathon running that Matt A has. But I agree that my legs were much worse after a straight marathon than any of the 3 IMs I have completed.
Matt’s point that marathon training is that it is a significant pounding to the body.
If you don’t already you may want to look at the run walk strategy for all of your long runs and your race day. Jeff Galloway has put thousands of people through marathon training with this approach. He and Olympic coach Bobby McGee both are convinced that most people can actually run a faster marathon with this approach than constant running.
Good luck.
Matt