Hey guys,
I'm currently in the process of increasing my fitness, with the goal of running the brighton marathon (April 19th) and also getting fitter to play some semi-competitive football.

I have never really been a big runner, occasionally jogging for general fitness. That used to be about 3 miles completely out of breath in around 30 minutes. I have been running about 3 times a week for the past month and a half, and have improved massively in this time. At the moment I am trying to run a long distance (for me: 6 miles- this is the furthest I have ever ran), and a short distance in between (3 miles, at a much quicker pace than I ever used to be able to):

Day 1: 6 Miles
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: 3 Miles (faster pace)
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: 6 Miles

The six mile jogs feel great, and at a reasonable pace. The point of the thread is, that at this point, I am unsure about the best way to proceed! I am all about efficiency

I realise there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum at my finger tips, however it is so hard to find specific information that is suitable for me. If there are any good threads for me to read, point me in that direction!!

if all you want fitness for football start track training or start racing 5k-10k races. marathon training is completely pointless for football and it is a very big commitment. it would ruin any football training since you wont have fresh legs to train. you would also risk injury.

what you can actually do in a few months may get you round eventually but i am not convinced that it will properly prepared you. to be honest with you i wont say that anyone is fit enough to run a marathon unless they have at least three years experience of long distance running. probably not what you want to here but you should be aware of the risks before you start. it is mainly overamateur novices that get injured marathon training, those of us that have done running for a while are a lot more adapted to the physical stresses of running, but even then the injury risk of marathon training is still very high. i'd rather stick to my cross country, trail running + track races, pretty rare to get injured running on soft surfaces like me. long distance road running gets you injured and once it has happened to you you'll be more wary of it, trust me. that's my running warning done, not what you want to hear, but i think it needs to be said.

hmm thanks Revenged, given me something to seriously think about. 26.1 miles is a heck of a long way, even increasing a mile every two weeks is very much pushing it. I'll definetly take that on board!

Do you think with my current progress I would be able to run the Swansea Bay 10k on 27th September? If so how would you recommend I train?

if you are doing football on top of the running i'd just stick to what you are doing for the next three weeks then have one easy week before the race. you should be fine.

April the 19th is a long way off. If you commit to some sensible training and build up easily I would say it's certainly possible for you to run a marathon. Be sensible though, there is no doubt that you can injure yourself very quickly if doing too much too soon.

As revenged says, get some races under your belt and see how you feel and if you want to progress.

The commitment to running a marathon is big, no denying that. The time you'll sepnd training varies but can be significant. You dont believe me I'll let you speak to my wife!! Not sure if your married or got kids but juggling all that with work as not easy.

Am not saying it's not worth it though!

I would be agree with Revenged about the combination of footie and 5k-10km races - it would be a good place to start and would help get some races under your belt. I don't think you could be "semi-competitive" in football and do the training for the full marathon at the same time.

If you are really eager to run the full marathon distance, I would also advise taking longer to build up to the mileage - it might be worthwhile looking into marathons later in the year.

unless you really want to do long distance i would not bother with these distances for football as it is mostly speed so you need more sprint sessions and maybe throw in a distance once or twice a week just my opinion

If you want to run a marathon, I wouldn't bother with speed, concentrate on gradually increasing your long run. The endurance will help your football, you won't peg out in the second half. You haven't really got time to run a good Brighton, how about Abingdon in October?

John

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