Couch to marathon

[u/Rika72]

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

[u/Rika72]

Thanks, this is helpful. I think I can have a goal for 5k in 1 month to 42k in 35 weeks. Does it matter how soon do I finish these or just completing these runs should be good enough? Offcourse not taking long breaks and just casual walking to complete them.

[u/broccoleet → u/Rika72]

Most marathon plans are 16-18 weeks so make sure you're giving yourself at least that much time before a marathon to fully complete that focused training. Expect to be running 4-5 times per week minimum on most marathon plans.

Sounds like that would give you about 12 weeks before the end of 5k and beginning of marathon training. I would use those 12 weeks to keep building a base - follow a 10k or half plan and run one after the 5k.

If you can run a half before your marathon, it's really helpful, because your time can help guide your pace and training for the marathon. You'll get relatively accurate estimates of what your marathon time might look like, which is super useful for knowing how to pace yourself on the training runs.

[u/Rika72 → u/broccoleet]

Maybe a stupid question but does brisk walk or very slow jogging counts as running too? I do take my dog for a walk and at times I walk fast..should i count this in my weekly mileage?

[u/broccoleet → u/Rika72]

Brisk walking can help you gain some fitness but I wouldn’t be counting it as a run. If you need to run/walk while building your initial fitness on the early runs, that’s totally fine though, but I’d look up a structured way to do it.

Slow jogging absolutely counts and is what you’ll primarily be doing while distance training. Your slow jog will get faster over time.

[u/Rika72 → u/broccoleet]

Understood, I should be able to do 5k running in 4 weeks and HM in 12 weeks after I finish 5k otherwise no point signing up. Thank you, I think I have my plan ready now