Going from OLY tri to marathon in 2 months... impossible?

Train to do what? Finish? Or be competitive? If the former, then you probably have enough time. In your 24mpw, how far is your long run? And, I would start increasing the mileage per week now, that gives you an extra 2 week jump on it. It won't hurt you for your Oly.

If you want to compete as opposed to finish, probably not going to happen. :-/

John

Impossible?  No.  Good idea?  Probably not.  Can't say for sure without knowing what your longest run to-date has been.

I've gone from a half iron to a marathon in three weeks and it went fine...but I was trained up for the marathon before the half iron.  You've got twice as long between races as I had (effectively speaking, considering recovery from the tri and taper for the mary), but from reading your blog, my guess is that you aren't anywhere nearly as trained up on the run as I was...which means you're either going to be undertrained for the marathon or ramp up your long runs too quickly and risk injury right before the race.  Neither is a great option.

I'll be competing with my desire to stop at the first bar I see and drink the rest of the day away.

No, i just want to finish in about 5 hours and not hate life by the end of it.

My long runs right now are about 8 miles or so...

You'll probably finish, but it sounds like a bad idea, and you risk injury.

Generally, you'd want to do at a 20 mile training run, minimum, before doing a marathon.

And generally, you only want to increase distance by 10% per week.

I'd suggest putting off the marathon for some other time.

Just for some perspective... in Hal Higton's Novice 1 Marathon Trainin plan an 8-mile long run would put you between weeks 2 and 4 of an 18-week plan. So ideally if you were folloiwng a similar plan, you'd still need 15-16 weeks to be fully trained up. Right now, you are giving yourself 8 weeks.

In his other training plans like the one I followed, Week 1's long run was 8 miles. If, for example, you were following that plan, you'd need 17 more weeks to train.

 

Edited by lisac957 2009-08-24 2:40 PM

Realistically, then, you only have time to get your long run to somewhere in the 14-16 mile range (at best).

I did my first marathon on impulse, on a short training schedule, and with a long run of 14 miles.

It was absolute torture and I barely broke 5 hours (with a couple of really miserable miles of walking towards the end).  And I was running 40+ miles a week before I decided to do it AND I wasn't doing tri's at that point, just running.  If I was miserable and barely broke 5 hours with that kind of running base going in, I think you can make some conclusions about how it'd be likely to go for you.  (Like I definitely wouldn't get too attached to finishing sub-5, for starters.)

I did something similar last year. I went from OLY training (longest run 8 miles) and an OLY race on Sept 7 to marathon training and marathon on Oct 19. My goal was to go under 4 hours (it was my first marathon). I was able to get in 13 miles (x2) 18 miles (x1) and 21 miles (x1) prior to the race for long runs. I also continued to cross train with swimming and cycling because ramping up the mileage that quickly kinda hurt. It can be done but I dont think I enjoyed it as much as I could have. Luckily I managed to avoid hurting myself which could happen with big mileage increases in a short period of time.

Do it...If you really want to you could do a marathon tonight...its all about will power!

People on here are overly cautious at times and like to think that we need 20 + hours of running every week just to do anything...You will finish...

Terrible advice.

It looks to me like everyone on here has a different opinion.

I agree Lisac...you are giving terrible advice...

people on here are so quick to say.."look at the logs" "ramp up your training over 6 months"...quite honestly a marathon is not that big a deal...most healthy people could knock one out right now if they absoloutley had to...

Will he win..No...but who cares!

I have done 4 marathons. After making the mistake of ramping up too quickly for the first one and getting injured, I learned to respect the distance and follow a training plan that ramps up the distance slowly. I also learned to enjoy the journey along the way.

My first one I went from couch to running a marathon in 5 months. I did it in 4:37 but the last 6 miles was like a death march. Every step hurt and if it hadn't been for my family waiting at the finish line I would have quit.

Two years later I did another one. What difference. After recovering from my injuries (PF and ITB pain) I got back into running. First I built a solid base working up to running about 20 - 25 miles a week for about a year. Then a group of us started training together to do a marathon. All of us had a goal of around 4:00 hours. We met every Saturday and did a long run together. We started at 6 miles and gradually worked our way up to 20 over a 8 month period. I cruised to a 3:47 marathon time with a negative split. What a difference being prepared made. Everyone in the group met their goal. Several of us in the training group have also become life long friends mainly from doing those long runs together.

My suggestion is not to rush into doing one so soon. That marathon or another one will still be there when you are better prepared and can enjoy the experience rather then just surviving it.

Edited by browncd 2009-08-24 4:41 PM

This user's post has been ignored.

Edited by PennState 2009-08-24 5:09 PM

You forgot number 3
Is it going to hurt?  Without a doubt

This user's post has been ignored.

I would suggest a half mary and then plan for the marathon next year. Unless this is your only opportunity to finish a marathon, why not postpone until next season and make it [more] enjoyable?

My IM run was 4:30 and that was on about 20-30mpw for the two months leading up to it. Ever done a HM? Full is like doing 4 of them.

I think sub-5 would be more than reasonable if you start now. Walk the aid stations, do 10-1s whatever.

You told him he could go and run a marathon TONIGHT if he had the will power.
Sorry, but that IS terrible advice, given his preparation.

Read the thread and most people are agreeing with me, just perhaps more politely.

 

It looks to me that you're only reading the posts you want to read.
Look, you're going to do what you want to do. But when you ask a "should I do this" question on this forum, you've got to expect honest advise, whether you like it or not.

 

Have you read the entire thread or just your posts?


Several people here said it would hurt but it would be done.  Other people seem to think it's a bad idea.  Other people say it's up to the runner and how he/she feels.

You've had your say and I thank you for it, but other people seem to disagree with you.   Deal with it.


As for me, I'm not sure if i'll run it or not.  I guess we'll see how I feel after the Oly...

What we need is to follow up all these threads to see what happened. Did they do the xxxx and how did it work out?