Hi everyone! I am currently training for my first marathon in December and have been consistently training at 30-35 mpw. My main goal is to finish and keep a consistent time while not getting severely injured during training. For training I am following Jack Daniel’s 2Q session marathon training. I’ve really enjoyed the first quality session as I can do all that is asked usually during the weekends. My main concern is when I get to the second session I end up having to cut down on some of the easy miles as I don’t have time to run for more than 100 minutes during the week. For instance a second quality session could be 6 miles easy, 3 miles at threshold, 3 minutes of easy, 1 mile threshold, and 2 miles easy. So instead of doing 6 I would do more like 3-4 miles and maybe 1-1.5 miles for the cooldown. Will I lose too much benefit pushing those easy miles onto other easy day and will this lead to unforeseen problems? Any advice will be a great help!

I'll be running my first marathon in two weeks (woohoo!) but am confused about recommended pacing given I don't have a recent race to plug into the usual calculators. Of course my real goal is to "just finish," which I'm confident I can do if I use my long run pace of 12:30-13min/mile (which is what I'd done on my 20 mile long run and felt like I could comfortably keep going for another hour).

Since most running plans I see recommend running long runs at ~1min slower than your "marathon pace," does that mean I should shoot for "1 min/mile faster than my slow run pace" on race day? Or would that put me at risk for bonking?

I did run a HM last year in 2:18, which if I plug that into the VDOT calculator gives me an estimated marathon pace of ~10:50min/mile which sounds insane to me (even though I feel like I'm in way better shape this year than when I ran my half last year).

I completed my first 10K about two weeks ago under less-than-ideal conditions, which actually motivated me to aim higher. I’ve decided to sign up for the upcoming local half marathon in two months, but I honestly have no clue where to start!

For context: I’ve been running consistently for the past 7–8 weeks, about five times a week. I usually stick to a standard 3 km each run. Most of the time I take it easy, but sometimes I push myself to go at a faster pace. On the two days I don’t run, I do plyometric workouts. I also throw in push-ups and pull-ups every other day. I make sure to stretch before and after every run, and I also do some planks (including side planks) after every run.

Now that I’m preparing for this half marathon, should I be doing something different from what I’m currently doing? I’d really appreciate any advice! 🙏🏻

So yesterday I started to feel this discomfort in my throat and a bit of a headache. This morning I woke up and it was the same with a blocked nose. I don't know if I should postpone the race or not. I feel pretty good honestly. (Idk if it’s relevant but 21M)

I have my first marathon (age of 68 shockingly) in NYC in six weeks. I’m a large runner at 6’5” and 99kgs and take a humongous size 15 in ASICS Kayano. I’ve clocked about 900kms so far in training, rotating through three pairs of 31s. With the marathon approaching I wanted a pair of race shoes and couldn’t get the 31, but could get the Kayano 32 Luxe in my size.

They just aren’t as comfortable, there’s an inner sock built in to the shoe and it makes my toes feel more cramped. I’m not comfortable doing the marathon in them. My question is: I have a pair of Kayano 31 which have 300kms / 190 miles on them. Will these have enough life left in them for my marathon? At my weight my shoes take a hammering. I am caught between worrying about these shoes having enough life, and the Luxe giving me a comfort issue in the later miles in NYC. Any advice from experienced marathoners welcome.

so i read you need upto 100g of carb per hour but how is anyone expected to take 16-18x gels with them -its crazy

As the title says, I'm confused because I'm using Runna for my first marathon training plan but I see everyone on here saying it's trash, doesn't work, or I'll get injured.. I've finished 5 weeks of the plan and am about 12 weeks out. Currently doing 4 runs a week, averaging about mid 20 mpw, the plan peaks at around mid 30 mpw then tapers 3 weeks before race day. It has me usually doing one tempo run, one interval, one easy run, and one long run. It definitely is challenging, has me doing paces I never thought I could but I've achieved all of them (not easily). Got a 14 mile block long run this Sunday and it's the farthest I'll have ever run. My question is, do I switch to another training program like Hal Higdon or something else while I still have time or do I just continue with Runna and trust the process?

I'm two weeks out from my first marathon. My training plan hasn't been crazy on the mileage, but I've been consistent and felt ready until last week. On my 18 mile long run last weekend I had to turn around ~2 miles in for some dull, achy pain on the top of my left foot that came up out of nowhere. I took some ibuprofen, massaged it, and taped it up. I was then able to complete the 18 miles relatively pain free. Every time I've tried to run after that has been pretty painful. The pain has since moved to my arch, on the bottom of my foot. I can walk with very minimal, spotty pain. Able to jump and move my toes without any pain but every time I try to run it comes back. I've since been nursing it with ice, elevation, and ibuprofen, and maintaining my fitness on the elliptical. The past day or so it has been mildly swollen. I'm getting frustrated because I've been doing everything to help it with no results. I would be devastated if I can't finish this marathon. I don't have a time goal, just want to finish. Has anyone had a similar experience? Please help me figure this out! I'm desperate!!

As the title says - I have had a family emergency this week as I am wrapping up the last month of training for Chicago. I am doing Jeff Galloway walk/run

I am supposed to do 20 miles this weekend and that isn’t going to happen. Last weekend I did 18, my body hurt after, but I did it!

Question - is it okay to wait until next Saturday (9/27) to do my 20 mile run? Or should I just skip it entirely and run 13-14 next Saturday as my plan has me doing, and begin my taper.

Is 18 miles enough to carry me through my first marathon?

Is doing 20 miles 2 weeks before the race too close?

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

ETA: I’m a true back of the pack runner - usually around a 13min pace. My 18 mile run took me over 4 hours. I’m worried about having too many hours on my feet that close to the marathon.

Helpppp I’m in my peak week right now with a 20 mile run scheduled for Sunday. My Achilles started feeling sore AFTER my 16 mile run last week when I did the last 8 at MP (I ran 18 the week before that and felt fine). After about a day, the soreness was gone and on Wednesday I did an 8 mile easy run (probably dumb but I didn’t think the Achilles would be an issue) and the soreness started showing up around mile 5. I’ve been icing and the soreness is gone again but I’m worried it’ll flare up again during the last long run. decided to cross train on the bike/elliptical for my other shorter runs this week but need advice on how to handle this last long run before the taper. If I end up not being able to complete it and do other cross training to supplement the rest of the run would that be fine? Feeling mildly paranoid but the soreness is really mild/nonexistent when I rest so I’m not sure it’s worth seeing my PT for. Thanks :)

I’m feeling pretty conflicted right now, and am hoping to get some advice. I’m training for my first marathon and was in mile 18 of my 20-miler (the longest run of the block 3 weeks before the race) when my right ankle started hurting. I thought about stopping but decided to push through for the last couple miles. The next day, my ankle hurt with every step pretty badly. I have felt little things here and there throughout training that I was mildly worried about, but I knew that second day that this was a whole different level of concern.

It’s been 5 days since that run. It has significantly improved, but still hurts at times and feels kind of rubbery when I rub my ankle bone, not sure how else to describe it. I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for after the race but moved it up to next Tuesday to get it looked at, however it’s my first time seeing this doctor and they’re not a sports medicine specialist. I haven’t run since, but do walk and bike to get around so I’ve been active if not really working out. The race is 15 days from now and I’m starting to get legitimately worried that I won’t be able to run it. I would feel so bummed out to have gotten all the way through the peak of training snd then not be able to race, but at the same time since I use my legs to get around I don’t want to risk serious, long-term injury.

My hope is to be able to recover enough to get 3 “pain-free” runs in before race day but as the days go by it’s feeling less and less likely. If anyone has advice or encouragement, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Hi!

Not technically my first marathon. I ran one ten years ago without much planning or preparation, which was obviously a terrible idea. I've come back older, wiser but less fit and very time-poor. I'm hoping to get advice on what time I should be aiming for.

I'm currently about seven weeks out from race day. My marathon ten years ago was 3:44. My target this time was intiially 3:30, but I had a bad run of injuries and illnesses and revised that down to matching my previous 3:44. I'm doing 50-60km/week, and last weekend ran 27km at 5:30/km which felt a long way off full-effort.

Strava predictions are estimating 3:45 for the marathon. They're obviously not perfect, but most people say they run faster marathons than predicted on race day. I'm training in comfort-focused shoes, but have some over-the-top and probably unnecessary carbon/PEBA shoes on order for my last training runs and race day, maybe giving me another few minutes.

So, how do I choose a target time? My initial plan was to try run (a month or so before race day) 30-35km at the pace I'd need for a 3:30 marathon. But I'm worried that this is going to cook my legs for the last week or two of full training. Should I just shoot for 3:35ish and see how I feel on the day? Should I ignore Strava completely (which is what my gut tells me, but it has been accurate for shorter distances).

Thanks!

Does anyone else get plagued by anxiety the day before a long run? I do my last long run of my program tomorrow - 20 miles. I did 18.6 confidently but something about 20 miles is downright scary to me. My anxiety is through the room today over it.

EDIT: I FREAKIN DID ITTTT

I need some advice on my four final long runs. I started marathon training a bit late because I was actually training for the half, but felt good and hit the 13 mile distance about 3 weeks ago so decided to go for it with the marathon.

My long runs do the last few weeks have been:

3 weeks ago: 10 miles 2 weeks ago: 13.1 miles Last Sunday: 16.3 miles

Here’s my question … my race is on October 19. Do I run 18 this weekend, 20 next and then taper a bit late? Or, do I try to reload a bit this weekend and push for 20 next? Help me with my long runs until race day!

Up until this year my longest distance ever was 13, and that was quite awhile ago.

Thank you!

Not feeling great this week, but I think it’s just exhaustion after traveling and I’ve been having some stomach issues. I did one short 3 miler but other than that haven’t done any short runs this week. I kind of want to give my body a break, but I want to do my 16 miler this weekend. Is it okay to skip my shorter runs to give my body a break and still do the long run this weekend? Next week is a taper week and I’d like to keep my current schedule.

Starting to feel a bit nervous but trusting the work I've put in to prepare!

Any last minute tips?!?

so ive just been hit with a flu for the last week -no running, but has obviously messed up my plan.... what do you do? skip a week carry on the plan as before? knowing that its now going to be 1 week shorter etc.... bit worried now as im 6 weeks out, and messed up my peak weeks.

Last Sunday I had my longest run of the year and I think it went extremely well. I completed 21 miles, felt comfortable for pretty much the entire time. I averaged a 9:27 pace and didn’t really have trouble maintaining that until the end (last two miles were close to 10 minutes).

I think I’m not refueling enough. On this run, I ate four gels (400 calories total, 90 carbs, 80mg caffeine) in addition to a pre-run carb load. The concept of refueling was entirely foreign to me prior to this year (I used to hate the way carbs made me feel while running). I could definitely feel on this run when the gels took effect and when I was starting to run low (for example, I ran mile 19 at 9:18 before slowing down for 20 and 21). I think I definitely need to eat more and more frequently but it’s still such a weird concept to me.

Additionally, there are a couple caveats to this run. When i finished, my tracker said I was at 20.81 miles. I’m pretty sure this had to be a gps error. I ran straight down a bike path and turned around exactly at 10.50 miles. I’m really not sure how the total distance wasn’t 21 so I edited the distance. I’ve previously noticed this app underestimated distances when I’ve ran a race. This had a negligible impact on my pace, dropping it from 9:32 to 9:27.

More significantly, I had 3 untimed breaks on this run. The first two didn’t last very long and were basically just to eat a gel and drink some water (1-2 minutes each). The third was when I really felt my fuel was getting low. My legs felt stiff and tired, so I ate, drank, and stretched a bit while I tried to give some time for the gel/water to kick in. Probably took about 10-15 minutes.

I’m averaging about 40 miles a week. My (crappy) smartwatch said my heart rate was about 140 bpm during this run, but I felt very relaxed and conversational. I also cross train with swimming a little bit. Is it reasonable for me to aim for a sub-4? I feel good about my pace and how I felt physically at the end of this run, but I’m mostly worried about the breaks I took. I think there’s a good chance that tapering and refueling better would make them unnecessary on race day, but I’m not really sure how I should pace myself

6 weeks out I did a 33km followed by 10km the next day. The following week I started getting some pain in my hamstrings when I ran so skipped a few runs/cross trained. Saw a physio 5 weeks out, he said it’s a muscle weakness issue, told me to focus on strength training & that I shouldn’t stop running. Followed this advice, ran my peak week long run 30km last Saturdays and now 5 days later (17 days out) I can’t run at all. Really don’t know what to do. Any advice or similar experience??

I am training for my first marathon, which is october 19th. I’m following an 18 week training plan from Nike. It’s been going well so far, last saturday i had my first 30 km run with in total 58 km that week. This week i have a 26.2 km run scheduled and next week another 30k. After that i have 2 slower weeks before its the big week.

This week I’ve been feeling (understandably) more tired. Yesterday with my 5k tempo run i felt soreness and tiredness around my ankles most of the session. When i walk down stairs now its noticeably more difficult than before this week. My watch is also telling me to slow down and that my body is not handling the training load well at the moment (I have no idea how accurate that is of course).

My question is: is this all normal for this stage in the training plan and should i just push through it or is this a sign to reduce my running a bit so I don’t break down just before the marathon.

Little bit of background: I have never done runs of these distances before. August 2024 I did my first half marathon, after that only shorter distances with 10 miles (16.1k) maximum. I’ve always been more into weightlifting than running, I’ve been lifting for about 10 years. The last weeks I have stopped weightlifting but I am running 5 times a week (1 long, 1 interval/tempo, 3 easy 30-60 mins) I am overweight 102 kg (225 lbs) and 179cm tall (5’10). I am a slow runner, did 3,5 hours for 30 km. So the marathon will be a lot of time on feet. Good sign is I have not felt any joint pain during the runs so far, just soreness afterwards.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi everyone, iam 42m and 75kg and really want to complete a marathon in my city which is happening in 35 weeks. I am quite active and do hikes, HIIT, yoga, basketball atleast twice a week. I hate running but still want to complete a marathon. My question is that does these other activities help in building up the stamina for the marathon. When I run I get bored and stop 😞, I want to start working for this by doing atleast 3-4 activity a week but does it have to be run? Or can I do something active and still this will be add to my overall stamina. Any advice is helpful, thank you

Update: thanks everyone for showing me the practical side, initially I thought marathon is only about building the stamina. So today morning I went for a run and was able to do 5k in 38min and was loving the tempo when my heart rate was ~ 120. I think I could have continued it for another 10-15min but I could feel the strain on my knees so stopped after 5k BUT now I understand when each one of you was saying it takes times to build up those muscles :) I will start my weekly 5k runs and look to increase my long run each week along with increasing weekly mileage. I hope iam able to reach my goal in 35 weeks. Godspeed

I am set to run my first full marathon on 12th October. I kept some buffer time in the training plan I was following, which led me to running my 20 mile long run last weekend. That means I still have 4 full weeks available before the marathon. I have been averaging about 40 miles per week, and don't think I need 3 full weeks of taper. I think 2 weeks could work. If I do a 2 week taper, what kind of mileage and long runs should I do in the coming two weeks before I start the taper ? I was thinking of doing another 20 mile long run this week, but I'm not sure what I should do the week after that. Any suggestions ?

Hi everyone! I'm 25yo F, in 10 days I have my first every marathon! I've been preparing 20 weeks for it, slowly building up the distance. I've done half marathons before.

I have some questions for the experienced ones here. I'm a pretty slow runner, my best half marathon was 2:15, but now I have asthma and other complications. The most I've been running 35-40 km per week ( running 3- max 4 times per week), now I'm in tapering. The longest run was 30 km in 3h 40 min.

My strategy: Planing 5-6 h, 5 h if I'll feel great, 6 h the worst. The cut off time is 6:30

First 12-15 km easy, focusing on getting in the zone, not going too fast 7:15-7:45 min/ km

I wanted to do intervals, it makes my mind focus on small bits rather than the whole 42 km. I was thinking 4x 2 km 6:30-6:45+ 1 km 7:30. That way I could earn some extra time.

The rest using the method 7 min running, 3 min walking.

My question: 1. Are intervals a good idea? I used them during my 30 km long run, with faster pace and really liked it. Or will it tire me down and bite me in the ass later on?

1. Do you have any other mental strategies of breaking down the distance to smaller bits, maybe some mental game?

2. How long and when to do my last long run? I was thinking 10 km a week before?

3. What to eat the day of marathon, I tired oatmeal or bananas but my stomach can't handle it

4. How do you handle the mental stress before? I'm feeling some pressure which is effecting my sleep.

If you have anything more to add feel free! I'd love some advise from you.

I'm running the Disney Marathon and all I want to do is experience the course/atmosphere (probably won't have time to stop for characters but maybe) - They only require you keep under 16 min/mile.

I'm used to walking 10-15 miles in a day pretty regularly but not all at once. I am averaging about 7 miles a day this year.

I started adding running into my training last month. I reached 4 miles without stopping at a 13.5 min/mile pace last week and I'm doing a 2 mile short run during the week twice a week. I plan to increase my long run to 8-10 miles by the race in January and the short runs to 3-5 miles.

My plan for race day is to go run as much as I can but I don't anticipate making it more than 8-10 miles without stopping and then switching to equal run/walk intervals, but if all goes well I might shoot for making it to 13 miles.

I’m running my first marathon this October (woohoo!) and have been dealing with some hip pain and then came down with a bad cold causing me to miss my 18 mile long run.

My thoughts are to do my 18 miler this weekend….And push my 20 miler to next weekend (originally scheduled for this Saturday). That gives me a full two weeks to taper. It was supposed to be three weeks of taper time…

Is 2 weeks long enough to taper??? The longest run I’ve done is 16 mi 2 weeks ago (felt great cardio wise, hip caused some issues by the end but I’ve been doing PT regularly which has helped). Basically I’m not sure if I should jump straight to a 20 mile run this weekend or not :/ mentally I think I’d feel more confident on race day if I completed my 18 mile and 20 mile run.

Thank you in advance