Dear Friends

Thanks to all of you who replied to my last post and am grateful. AS you know I am a beginner and am 64 plus years younger. I need to know the following.

1. At the moment I am running 8 miles three times a week and every Sunday I walk 5 miles at medium paces in the mornings. I want to run 9 miles next week and keep increasing one mile once a week. Am I going to do too much. I Intend to do half a marathon in Feb.07 and need to reach a Taget of 14 miles.
2. My Target time for half a Marathon is between 2.5 to 2.75hrs.
3. If I am able to do this than what proportion of weekly mileage should I increase without getting injured?! As I want to do the Flora Marathon.
4. I was unlucky and did not get an entry, but intend to speak to few of my friends/and community leaders and hope to raise £1500 for the charity to get a place.

AS said previously, I do Yoga and Pranayams and walking and this does keep me in good health. should I do any thing besides these!!! Weight training to build up my strength and stamina?
WISH YOU ALL MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR AND GOOD HEALTH.
Dhiru

Dear All

I would be grateful for your sugggestions for my previous post which is as under:

Regards
Dhiru

Dear Friends

Thanks to all of you who replied to my last post and am grateful. AS you know I am a beginner and am 64 plus years younger. I need to know the following.

1. At the moment I am running 8 miles three times a week and every Sunday I walk 5 miles at medium paces in the mornings. I want to run 9 miles next week and keep increasing one mile once a week. Am I going to do too much. I Intend to do half a marathon in Feb.07 and need to reach a Taget of 14 miles.
2. My Target time for half a Marathon is between 2.5 to 2.75hrs.
3. If I am able to do this than what proportion of weekly mileage should I increase without getting injured?! As I want to do the Flora Marathon.
4. I was unlucky and did not get an entry, but intend to speak to few of my friends/and community leaders and hope to raise £1500 for the charity to get a place.

AS said previously, I do Yoga and Pranayams and walking and this does keep me in good health. should I do any thing besides these!!! Weight training to build up my strength and stamina?
WISH YOU ALL MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR AND GOOD HEALTH.
Dhiru

Hi,
I would suggest that you vary your runs and don't just do 3 8 milers a week. Doing the same thing each time will lead to boredom if nothing else.
You should aim for 3 "quality" sessions a week:-
1. Speed/hill work....time on session about 30 mins say with warm up and cool down of 10 mins each
2. Mid week mid distance tempo run...your 8 miler for now increasing as the marathon gets closer.
3.The long but slow Sunday run....you should be able to do 9 miles by now and increase by 10% max per week. A half marathon in Feb should be no problem.

If you can fit in another run each week that would be great. It would only need to be an easy 5 miler.

10% rule applies....do no more than 10% above what you ran last week and no more than 10% more on the long run...ie last week you did say 20 miles in total so this week you do 22miles. Last week your long run was say 10 miles this week it's 11 miles.

Hope this helps for now!

Hi Dhiru

FIRST AND FOREMOST, GOOD LUCK!

Then (for what it's worth) here's my answers:

1. I'd vary the running a little more - do one longer run each week and keep the other runs around the one hour mark.... For variety you can also try adding in some tempo, interval, hill and other types of sessions (don't laugh - everyone can experiment with their running whatever the speed!)
2. That's plenty fast enough - you'll have plenty of company! Remember that when you are training, you don't have to run as fast as when you are racing.
3. The general rule seems to be around 10% per week - but people should also listen to their own bodies so don't think you have to increase this much! Also.... people often advise rest weeks where you run much less... If you get this right, you can enjoy training and not get injured.
4. Good luck raising the money!

And a blatant plug.... if you want some more racing experience... if you want some variety in your running and can make it to South West London on a Saturday morning... then come join in a free 5km race at www.bptt.net :-)