OT Any Marathon Runners?

[luv2cheer92]

I'm up to 4 miles at best right now, about an 8:30-9 minute pace... I would definitely like to cut that down, but I will take any improvements I can get. Everyone says just aim for finishing your first half, so if my time is crappy, I won't be that upset lol

Oh yes definitely, I'm super super slow in longer runs (like 11:00-11:30 miles for anything over 8 miles) but that is already over a minute faster per mile than I was in April. I'm really competitive and I was so frustrated knowing that during my first half marathon people were finishing as I was getting to the 10K mark. But everyone has to start somewhere!

 

[ShoWStoppeR]

I've done one half, I'm doing another this weekend. In January I'm being ridiculous and doing Disneys Goofy Challenge which is a half marathon on Saturday and a full the next day. Yea, I'm crazy. I still think I'm a beginner, but if you have any questions I can try and answer them. I did the Nike Women's Half in DC as my first and I loved it!

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So instead of making a new thread I figured I would just post here. I'm about 2 months out from my marathon (it's the end of February) and I'm up to 9 miles. But I noticed my pace isn't getting any better and actually starting to drop. Right now my schedule is short "timed" runs Tues/Thurs (3-4 miles), cross train Monday and Wednesday (I normally swim or cycle), yoga Friday, off Saturday, and long run sunday. My long runs have been adding a mile every week, except last week it dropped to 7 but back up to 10 this week. I also started lifting again in there, days depend on my schedule and what else I decide to do that day. Do you have any suggestions for changes? Or do you think what I'm doing is working?
Also, do you run with music? I can't run without it, the sound of my breathing and footsteps would drive me to insanity. I have been listening to pandora while I run, but it's been killing my phone and racking up my data. I was going to see if you have a playlist or any song suggestions to start building a playlist? I just like anything upbeat... and loud lol I listen to bleed it out, caked up, and hip hop and pop power hour pandora stations now if that gives you an idea of what kind of music I listen to.

 

[luv2cheer92]

So instead of making a new thread I figured I would just post here. I'm about 2 months out from my marathon (it's the end of February) and I'm up to 9 miles. But I noticed my pace isn't getting any better and actually starting to drop. Right now my schedule is short "timed" runs Tues/Thurs (3-4 miles), cross train Monday and Wednesday (I normally swim or cycle), yoga Friday, off Saturday, and long run sunday. My long runs have been adding a mile every week, except last week it dropped to 7 but back up to 10 this week. I also started lifting again in there, days depend on my schedule and what else I decide to do that day. Do you have any suggestions for changes? Or do you think what I'm doing is working?
Also, do you run with music? I can't run without it, the sound of my breathing and footsteps would drive me to insanity. I have been listening to pandora while I run, but it's been killing my phone and racking up my data. I was going to see if you have a playlist or any song suggestions to start building a playlist? I just like anything upbeat... and loud lol I listen to bleed it out, caked up, and hip hop and pop power hour pandora stations now if that gives you an idea of what kind of music I listen to.

It's pretty normal for your pace to drop as you go further. Exaggerated example but you aren't going to be able to run your fastest mile pace for 10 miles. There's various websites (McMillan Running - Calculator you can go to that will calculate what you're expected pace is based on a shorter distance time. Example my fastest 10K time is 1:08 (10:57 pace) and it says that my projected 1/2 time would be 2:31 (11:34 pace) based on that. What you are doing is almost exactly what I'm doing, but I'm definitely not an expert so I may not have perfect advice lol. Another thing that I started doing though to make me faster was to add liberal walking breaks doing intervals. You may not have this problem but I struggled to continuously run once I got to higher miles, but once I started adding some walking breaks I actually dropped my overall pace about 1 minute/mile. I have breathing issues so this worked really well for me as I'm probably trying to add miles too quickly and my lungs can't keep up with my legs haha. I plan on working on straight running with no breaks once I finish this marathon in January though.
And yes I have to listen to music, it keeps my mind off physically running. I listen to mostly hip hop but I throw in some cheer music too since it's usually pretty upbeat. I also have a lot of Disney on my playlist right now to use as motivation since I'm doing the Disney World Marathon, but that's not usually on there haha
You are definitely on the right track being up to 9 miles. Getting past 8 was the hardest for me and once I passed that the miles seemed to be much easier to add on.

 

[gofriars610]

@luv2cheer92 yooo can we do a half together at some point? (assuming you still have functional legs post-Goofy) The furthest I've run is a 12k (7.54 miles), but I really want to work up to the 1/2. I'm doing the GW Parkway 10-Miler in late April, but I kind of want to get my first half out of the way before that. Judging from your posts here we run at a similar pace (you're slightly faster than I am) and I'm terrified to go at it alone.

 

[luv2cheer92]

@luv2cheer92 yooo can we do a half together at some point? (assuming you still have functional legs post-Goofy) The furthest I've run is a 12k (7.54 miles), but I really want to work up to the 1/2. I'm doing the GW Parkway 10-Miler in late April, but I kind of want to get my first half out of the way before that. Judging from your posts here we run at a similar pace (you're slightly faster than I am) and I'm terrified to go at it alone.

Haha yes I would love to! I'll probably need a good month or two to recover from that. I'm not sure how many there are around here in the spring especially with Nike Women's moving to another city, still really upset about that since that was my first 1/2. I signed up for the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in mid-April so that may or may not happen. I won't be in the area anymore after May since I'll be on my clinical rotations for a year, but any time before that should be ok!

 

[gofriars610]

Haha yes I would love to! I'll probably need a good month or two to recover from that. I'm not sure how many there are around here in the spring especially with Nike Women's moving to another city, still really upset about that since that was my first 1/2. I signed up for the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in mid-April so that may or may not happen. I won't be in the area anymore after May since I'll be on my clinical rotations for a year, but any time before that should be ok!

soo....March? I'll text you.