training for a full marathon in 4-6 weeks

hi!

so i just turned 19 years old a few days ago, i stopped running this year cause i entered university......couldn't find the time.

i've always been a runner though.

i even entered the sydney morning herald half marathon a couple of months ago...i completed it with no training at all, i only did 2 runs this year before the half marathon.

i decided i wanted to do the montreal full marathon which is on september 13th. i decided i will start training when i come back to canada in august....i won't be working, so i'll just be training for 4 weeks straight till i go back to university. i know in september i won't be running/training as hard though.

anyways, what are your thoughts? any advice or tips? what food should i be eating? what exercises other than running should i be doing?

thaaaanks

how much running are you planning to do in the last 4-6 weeks?  how much running have you been doing since the half marathon?  Are you aware of how stress fractures and other injuries happen to people who increase training too rapidly?

gez, I can't image doing a half with no training at all. what was your time on that one?

In my opinion your setting yourself up for injuries. 26.2miles of running on barely any training is nothing to sneeze at. 4 weeks is not enough training time. Yes, maybe you will be lucky and be able to complete it like you did with the half, but are you wanting to do runs in the future? it's not something i'd risk.

And maybe your university is different than mine was, but i've never had more free time than I did when I was in college.  Wait until you have a full time job and some graduate coursework and a spouse and some babies to look after!

danielle... i'm planning on doing as much running as i can, at least 5 times a week! i havent been doing any running or working out since the half marathon. right now i'll be able to run 10 kilometres no problem.

and i got tons of work, i'm trying to get into one of the best business schools in canada next year...i got a full-time job right now in sydney australia...during the school i'm spending alot of my time volunteering for a few organizations...i'm pretty busy.

silverbuttefly... my time was 117 minutes, complete crap to me...i didnt push myself hard enough, i finished the race find....was barely tired. after the race i walked another 7 kilometres home.

I'm not trying to be an ass but what you want to do is just plain stupid.  I've run fulls & halfs and I was stupid enough to end up with a stress fracture, but even I never would have tried to train for a full in 6 weeks.  Its really just a bad idea.

What's your baseline conditioning?

My crazy ass sister did Ironman 3 months after having a baby and six weeks after running a marathon, with no training.  It's doable, but its nuts :-)  Some people are just like that...  easily able to pick up where they left off...

I think the key is to keep a conditioning baseline.

This just really got my attention because I've been thinking something similar (about the Montreal marathon, even!!!) I've run the Montreal 1/2 for the past 2 years. With some training, but not necessarily a "half marathon training program". I've taken much of the past year off because I was worried about getting a stress fracture in one of my feet after the 1/2 last year. Now I'm trying to decide whether or not to do the 1/2 again... or even shoot for the whole thing. I ran the 1/2 fairly quick, but wouldn't be trying to do anything other than just finish the marathon.

 

So i'm interested in continuing to see comments as they come in...

I too am one of those people that has always been able to just throw on some sneakers and run a race with minimal training and I agree that the key is keeping a conditioning baseline to an extent... Doing this once probably won't cause too much damage, but doing it a few times a year would no matter what fitness you start at.  I trained wrong (too hard & too quickly), but I never tried to train for a marathon in 4 weeks after basically no working out for months because I was too busy - she says in her original post that she basically doesn't work out at all.

Well, first off...I'm jealous!!!!  I have been training now for over a year.  I started by just "running" for exercise but now I'm 10 weeks into a 16 week marathon program.  Last weekend I ran 18 miles.  18 MILES!  That's huge for me! 

If I look at my calender, September 13th is 8 weeks away (counting this week).  Runnersworld has waht they call SmartCoach.  You can put in all your info and it will spit you out a program.  Try it...and stick to it!

Good luck!

I think you should slow down and do the marathon when you have time to respect the distance with a full training plan.  The marathon will always be there - what's the point of risking injury for what is going to end up being a crappy time for you? 

You'll learn to budget your time if you love to run enough.  When I was in graduate school, I worked 50 hours a week, took classes 4 nights a week, and then I would come home and run for 30 minutes at 9:45PM just because I loved to run.  I studied all weekend and my study breaks included a quick run once or twice a day.   I still work full time, and ran 40 miles last week.  This is how most of the world does it.

I don't mean to sound harsh, I'm sure this would all sound a lot nicer if we were chatting face to face. 

Original Post by pattskis:


silverbuttefly... my time was 117 minutes, complete crap to me...i didnt push myself hard enough, i finished the race find....was barely tired. after the race i walked another 7 kilometres home.

 

I'm close to ur age, 22, and height, 5'0 (i like to blame that on a shorter stride) and im only dreaming of completing the half in less then 2 hours. you go on no training at all and do it in 1h 57 min. I've been training for my half that's at the end of sept (Torontocity Waterfont Marathon) since pretty much april when the first plan was 10k. i dont even know if i will meet my goal lol. im jealous, not going to lie, but i am happy knowing im training proper, increasing my long runs by 1k a week so not even 10% and wont have some crazy stress fracture for overdoing it. bah, this world is not fair.