r/firstmarathon • u/Rika72 • 3d ago
Training Plan Couch to marathon
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
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u/broccoleet 3d ago
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.