I am going to run in the Marshall Marathon on Nov. 1st. My first full marathon! I am running for a foundation called Alex's Lemonade Stand, supporting childhood cancer. Please help me raise money to support my cause!
http://www.alexslemonade.org/stands/18063

I think those totals are his weekly totals, not his per run totals, though, at times I know he tries to run longer distances on a specific run. I'm not sure if he has ever run a full marathon distance though.

Wow, it sounds like there is a lot to the sport of running that I have no clue about. MAF and BPM - heart rates and metabolizing - I just stretch and take off jogging at a pace that allows me to keep going - which is pretty slow sadly.

I can barely fathom being able to run 25-30 miles per week. Did he mean he runs that over the course of a whole week or each time he runs he does that much?

I noticed Garmin sells a GPS enabled personal trainer that looks very cool. It monitors heart-rate and makes tracking your performance more entertaining I guess. I would like to try using one of those to see if it inspires me. :)

How big do the relay teams need to be? I know of a couple guys who might do this with me.

Another co-worker has been training to run a marathon for a while and here is his advice:


This is the program that I have been using. Before I started this I was running all of my workouts way too fast which means that I was not developing my aerobic capabilities very well. Consequently, I was metabolizing glucose but not metabolizing fat. That's kind of like trying to drive a car 50 miles on pint of gasoline. Since I started this program, I have reduced my per mile time by approx 3:30 while running strictly at MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function) pace which, for me, is a very low heart rate of 127 bpm. As I continue to run strictly at MAF, I hope to get my pace down by about another 1:30 by July (which will be a 10:00 per mile MAF pace). That should translate to a marathon race pace of about 9:00 per mile which, hopefully, will allow me to run a marathon in under four hours. I will warn you though, that running at MAF is brutally slow and almost demoralizing if you have been used to running at a faster anaerobic pace. And you have to run at least 25 to 30 miles a week to get much benefit out of the program.

http://www.rrca.org/resources/articles/slowdown...

Also, here is the program that I used when I first started running. Once I got through this, I started increasing my mileage about 10 percent per week until I got up to about 25 miles per week. Again, I cannot emphasize enough, if you want to build the capability to run long distances without injury and without hitting the wall, you have to slow down.

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-2...

I like using a heart rate monitor which I started using in January. I use a Polar RS200SD but there are all kinds of them on the market and the prices run the gamut from very cheap to outrageously expensive. But, if you don't want the expense, just run at a pace at which you can carry on a conversation while running. They say that if you can run and recite the Gettysburg Address without have to gasp for air, then you are running at the right pace. Over time, as your aerobic system develops, you will be running faster but still at a conversation pace.

I think it would be great to be able to say you ran in a marathon. It sounds like such a big endeavor. I will have to continually assess my ability as the summer progresses to see if I can keep running farther than 3.1 miles. 3.1 is not much compared to 26.2 -- that is like running 7 or 8 consecutive 5K races.

A couple of my co-workers do marathons (both in their late 40's or early 50's) and neither had ever run a marathon before. One runs daily but he just jogs slowly.. The other doesn't run much and the marathon is a tough race for him.


Another, mid 20's co-worker, has run 2 half marathons this year (only time he has run at all) and he has finished in around 2 hours both times.

You can do it!

Egad! I just signed up yesterday to run in the WV 5K Championship in Huntington. Now I don't know if I'm up for this guys! Sheesh. 26.2 miles. I don't know anything about running in a marathon, but it sounds cool. So what, you just take off at see everybody later in a couple of days? :) Could I realistically go from barely being able to do 5K in less than 25 minutes to completing 26.2 miles by November of this year? Somebody will really have to talk me into this one -- but, that fleece does sound nice.