Marathon during Ironman Training
3331
Member
1318 days
RV posted 2 years ago.
I am also doing IMWI this year - I am doing a marathon this Saturday (Trailbreaker) and then one in Madison (Mad City) the end of May. Then that'll be it for marathons until late fall. I am just working them into my training schedule. Not going to go terribly hard as I don't want to trash the legs for Tri training. I am looking at these as just long training sessions. See ya at IMWI!
RV
It takes a long time to get good. - Scott Molina
Slow is smooth; smooth is fast. - Rich Strauss
66
Member
1122 days
xt4 posted 2 years ago.
Hi Ryan - my $.02 - I wouldn't. The recovery necessary from even an "easy" marathon would interfere with your IM training, and if you pushed the recovery you'd certainly risk injury or overtraining. If you've done marathons in the past, then you have the "mental advantage" of knowing you can do it, and during this stage I think you'd be wise to limit your long runs to under 2.5 hours - the risk/reward ratio of any longer than that just doesn't make sense with IM training. In short - running a marathon will do essentially nothing for your IM performance (assuming your have sound run training underway as it is, which probably you do), and presents all kinds of potential for problems. You're wiser to spend the time on long bike rides, followed with shorter runs just off the bike.
I'm doing IMWI as well, and did a marathon last September just so I was familiar with what it was like. I am doing a Half marathon this spring, to kind of round out my base training and practice some nutritional strategies, and then I have a Half IM in early June. Those will be my longest races of the year before IMWI. Everything else is shorter races - sprint and Olympic - and long training. Like you, this is my first IM, and I know some veterans will throw in an additional Half marathon and Half IM or two, but even Peter Reid would avoid a marathon, I think -
Good luck!
1481
Member
1312 days
brittda posted 2 years ago.
I did 2 personally as trainign runs. I know Beads did as well. If you take it as a training run and dont kill yourself you will not have any problems. Hello, juse did a 23 miler Saturday( pratically a marathon) and am up and runnign today.
146
Member
1202 days
VTIRON posted 2 years ago.
You are young and an April/May marathon should have little impact on your Sept. IM. With that said, you need to take some serious downtime after the marathon to heal the body and rest the mind for the training that awaits you.
If your goal is IM keep your eye on that prize. The previous marathon experience is indicative of your general fitness and coupled with your age, run the marathon and have fun.
91
Member
920 days
runpuddrun posted 2 years ago.
I've always heard that its best to train for and complete a fall marathon the year previous to your IM. That would build the great running base and confidence that is necessary to run a good IM mary.
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift."
"Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it."
"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts."
"Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,' and I just took off."
"I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it." -Steve Prefontaine
325
Member
1599 days
jeslol posted 2 years ago.
I have no personal experience to share, but everything I've read says don't do it. The recovery is too long and counterproductive.
943
Member
1109 days
PJT posted 2 years ago.
I did my first one as a training run in January. Knowing now how long it took me to recover, I'm not scheduling one between now and IMWI (also my first). But that's just me. If you've never done one before and need the mental assurance, then do it soon, but, as vets have been pointing out elsewhere in this forum, you'll probably be walking some during your first IM anyways.
Like xt4, I'm doing a half-iron in June and maybe a half-mary in April and just Sprints and Olys the rest of the time.
And RV-- good luck at Trailbreaker this weekend! I hope you get the same weather we had yesterday.
699
Member
1165 days
Blitz posted 2 years ago.
brittda wrote:
I did 2 personally as trainign runs. I know Beads did as well. If you take it as a training run and dont kill yourself you will not have any problems. Hello, juse did a 23 miler Saturday( pratically a marathon) and am up and runnign today.
yeah but didn't Beads have problems afterwards? Had to ice his knees. This is a big question in our home right now. I guess it belongs to the cutting edge craziness of Ironman extremes.
Who needs a man when you have a Kuota Kalibur to wrap your legs around.
1481
Member
1312 days
brittda posted 2 years ago.
Blitz wrote:
yeah but didn't Beads have problems afterwards? Had to ice his knees. This is a big question in our home right now. I guess it belongs to the cutting edge craziness of Ironman extremes.
not sure. I personally did not, and will definately do it again for my next one. I am not THAT fast any hoo so its not like I was out setting a world record. Think I did like a 4:30 in the one I did in MAy, but was still able to continue training that next week. I just took it slow and used it as a training run with drinks I didn't have to carry eheheheh.
2709
Member
1274 days
Anton posted 2 years ago.
I weigh in on the side of ..."Yeah,sure go ahead." Relax and have fun and use them as many others do...Long, catered training runs. Don't use them as races to set a PR.
xT4 is right however...you do run a risk of injury or damage..but you do that on any long run. It is early enough it should be ..ok. Make sure you are listening to your body,and do allow for recover time. I have met folks who run the Mary ok then tear themselves up the next weekend on some long bike hammerfest..and wonder why they end up injured.
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" - Vincent Van Gogh
My Blog: http://anton.trifuel.net
4441
Member
1632 days
beads1985 posted 2 years ago.
brittda wrote:
I did 2 personally as training runs. I know Beads did as well. If you take it as a training run and dont kill yourself you will not have any problems. Hello, juse did a 23 miler Saturday( pratically a marathon) and am up and runnign today.
Blitz wrote:
yeah but didn't Beads have problems afterwards? Had to ice his knees. This is a big question in our home right now. I guess it belongs to the cutting edge craziness of Ironman extremes.
brittda wrote:
not sure. I personally did not, and will definately do it again for my next one. I am not THAT fast any hoo so its not like I was out setting a world record. Think I did like a 4:30 in the one I did in MAy, but was still able to continue training that next week. I just took it slow and used it as a training run with drinks I didn't have to carry eheheheh.
My ears were ringing.
In 2005, I did a marathon in January(Disney), one in April, and then one Early October. The last was 4 weeks out from IM Florida.
I took it easy and made the last one a catered traing run. It might have been too close but I felt OK when I was done IM.
When I did Disney this year I was doing the Goofy Challenge and I was icing up my ankle. I didn't realize at the time I had a sprained ankle from a week before.
I train pretty much all year round. I do minimal biking and swimming during the winter, and keep up my running.
I will get into a training plan for an Iron Distance in the end of September. I will do more training and slowly build up. This year I will do another marathon in April, and do my next one after ChesapeakeMan.
My body is pretty used to running. I have no problem recovering now. A marathon can be a good catered training run if you don't go all out. :D
''Nothing to it, but to do it''
http://beads1985.trifuel.net/
478
Member
1380 days
kona_expat posted 2 years ago.
Read this, pretty much sums it up: http://runnersweb.com/running/rw_news_frameset.html?http://runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20060206_THS_Marathon_Ironman.html
(yes that's one URL)
Net net, especially if it's your first IM, I wouldn't plan for an open marathon unless it's >8 months before the IM race. If you're racing summer or fall IM, the best time for an open marathon is the previous fall.
The marathon part of an IM is not like what you experience in an open marathon. It is more about gutting it out mentally than anything else. Plus, unless you have several IM's under your belt, you'll be lucky to get within 20% of your open marathon time during an IM.
Especially for your first IM, and I firmly believe this for any IM, you will gain more by developing extremely strong muscular endurance on the bike than you will by running open marathons in training. Because if you can't bike strongly in the IM at a pace that will allow you to unleash whatever sort of run fitness you have, it doesn't really matter how much running you did in training.
Some marathon training programs and most good IM training programs do not require nor recommend long runs over 2.5 hours. Why? Because after that point, the damage you are doing will require so much recovery time that it eats into your ability to complete quality training. Now, for sake of example, there will be 3 or 4 weeks during my IM build where I will do 2 long runs in a week, of 1:45-2:15 in duration.
To run successfully in an IM you need to build "bulletproof" legs. Beginning in the fall, you should be doing a regular 1:30 long run, and you start lengthening that about 4-5 months out. If you can consistently put in 30+ running miles per week, with transition runs off your long rides once they are 4+ hours, AND you are running 4-6x per week, you stand a real good chance of having a decent IM marathon.
YMMV
58
Member
1150 days
Ryan posted 2 years ago.
Thanks for all for the feedback. It seems that it is somewhat agreed that I should not attempt the Marathon. I did run the Detroit Marathon last October, for which I did pretty well considering I was not in the best of shape. I was happy. Most likely I will not attempt one this spring, plus I can save the extra $$ and just run a long distance on my own.
See you all in Wisconsin. Best of luck in all the training.
Forza Nerazzurri
180
Member
1226 days
trigirl97 posted 2 years ago.
Hmm, this is an interesting and timely thread for me. I am shooting for CdA next June and have been tossing around whether I want to do the Dallas marathon in December. That would be ~6 months out from CdA.
I don't really feel like I 'should' since I have completed one (last year) and know what that's like. I guess more than anything, I just thought it would be good training for IM?
But this thread has made me reconsider. I plan to officially 'kick off' my IM training in November so thinking a little more clearly about it now, maybe a December full marathon isn't such a great idea. :confused:
"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go." ~T.S. Eliot
trigirl97.blogspot.com
I am in the process of training for Ironman Wisconsin (1st time) this Sept. My training is going pretty well so far, starting to get into it and putting in some decent times/distances. I am wondering if I should run a Marathon race sometime this spring. There are a couple in the Midwest that im interested in either in April or May. I have already done about 5 marathons before, but always in the Fall, never during Triathlon season.
Any advice on running marathons during your Ironman training? I am wondering if I should attempt one at all this spring.
Forza Nerazzurri