Hi I am a former runner, now back into the sport. I have been running 4-5 days/week for the past 2 months and my long run is now 6 miles. I alternate between outdoors and on the treadmill usually at about a 9 minute/mile pace. I live in the boston area and would like to run in the boston 1/2 marathon at the end of this month. Do you think that it is feasable for me to be trained for the half in 4 weeks?
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Half Marathon in 4 weeks?
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Posted 7 months ago #
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I am not a certified coach... just a certifiable athlete... I've done some really really stupid things in my life. So take this comment for what it's worth (probably not much).
It seems to me that if you're running 4-5 days a week and you are comfortable running 6 miles, then you probably can finish a half marathon. I'm not sure that you'll find a training plan that would be consistent with your scenario, because most (ALL) plans are designed to "slowly" ramp you to your goal distance.
The biggest risk you have is injury... related to some hidden aspect of your conditioning that's not ready for the distance you need to finish. The common rule of thumb to prevent injury is to add no more than 10% per week in distance or time or effort. But in your case, you can't get to 13.1 miles if you do that.
If you are really dedicated to doing this race, and you are aware of the increased probability of injury, possible serious injury (stress fractures can take 3-6 months to recover from), and you still really want to do this... Then I think you should try to ramp 2 miles per week between now and the race.
So, assuming you can run 8 miles this week, then 10 next, then 12 the next week... And you have not injured yourself in the process, then you'd probably be ready to run your half marathon.
Mind you, this isn't going to be easy, and it's unlikely you'll be setting any personal records (unless, of course, this is your first ever half marathon, in which case it is a PR by definition)... And I do think there is a lot of possibility that you might injure yourself. But that probably wouldn't stop me... because I am a little nuts. :)
Posted 7 months ago #
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