HI everybody

I am now retired and want to run a marathon. I am 64+ and have been training on my own for past 11 weeks. I can run to day for 35 minutes and cover up to 4 miles. I am a vegetarian and besides Pasta and Fruits and Jacket potatoes is there any thing else that I can add. Weight wise I only weigh 51KG. I have never run before but I do quite a bit of Yoga and Meditation to keep my self fit.

I personally have targeted to complete the half Marathon in three hours or so and Flora Marathon in 6 hours.

Please give me any tips that can help me not to give up as week by week I am feeling little bit down as I am not been able to cover more miles.

Some times I find it tough to go on but so far I have not given up.


Cheers


Flora

Firstly welcome to RF!

Secondly...............that's some task you've set yourself: beginner to marathon runner in about 5 months, assuming you mean you have a place in next year's FLM.

Thirdly... find yourself a local running, not athletic, club to join. It's the best way to keep motivated, injury free and you'll find others training for various races including FLM.

Finally make sure you have the correct running shoes for you....go to a running shop to be properly advised and fitted.

All the best!

Why not have a look at the training schedules that are on the net. Then you will know exactly what you should be doing week by week. They are very flexible and you can always repeat weeks if you have the time.

I am following Hal Higdon's half marathon novice schedule at the moment and am finding it really good.

http://www.halhigdon.com

Good luck and keep up the good work.

Jeanette

Welcome to the forum.

Your not doing much by half are you... Best of luck with all your training, this is a good forum for getting very good advice.

I like to also vary my food, I like to eat plenty of Veg, oven roasted is really nice and you can do lots of it so the left overs can be used in a pasta dish the next day.

I chop everthing up an put in the oven for 30 mins, then pour over a couple table spoons of olive oil and basalmic vinegar and put back in for 10 mins, taste great...

As you are vegetarian, you could eat this with quorn they do a great range as you probably already know. I am not vegetarian myself but if I want low fat options I will opt for the quorn.

first of all welcome to the forum, I'm sure you will get stacks of fantastic advise on here.
Unfortuantely im not a runner myself yet, but wanted to wish you good luck, and best wishes. hope everything goes to plan for you, but please dont over do it.

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Best wishes from Dawn

4 miles in 35 mins you are pretty quick for a beginner - if you want to run further run slower. Try and imagine you are holding a conversation with someone and run at a pace where it is comfortable to chat. Its best to build an endurance base first i.e. distance over speed. You do naturally get a little bit quicker as fitness improves. At 11/12 minutes per mile you should easily meet your time targets and thats much slower than you ran today.

With regards to your diet as a vegetarian your biggest challenge will be eating proteins for your muscles so lots of pulses, seeds, nuts, wholegrains etc and sweet potatoes make a nice changed to ordinary potatoes and they have a lower GI index.

Thanks for your reply. I started training in Sept.06 and since that I have build my run to 35 mins. None of my friends are keen to run but have managed to convert few of them to do yoga.

Thank you for your advice and I have looked in to your recomemdation at Hal Higdon's web site. Preety good.

Will let u know I get on.

Dhiru

Yoga is fantastic for stretching out those tight muscles but also good for strengthening as I've discovered recently.

Struggling a little with the salute to the sun particularly stepping my leg forward from downward facing dog not enough flexibility in the hips yet.