Bare minimum training

As i prepare for my first marathon, and clock in the long runs etc, there is always those doing the bare minimum training. There is a girl at work, she is just doing a max of 7 miles at the moment, and only once a twice a week, and sometimes a week goes by with no training. She is doing the London in 5 weeks, and just said, oh, i will walk it, will be alright.

Has anyone else heard stories about people, who think they can just breeze through a marathon, and what were the end results?

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Comments

  • There was the karate dude who did London at short notice. Something like 4 weeks to go or so ? We told him it was silly but he got quite aggressive with us over it. He took something like six and a half hours - which is basically a walking time. He's not been back since.



    You get out of running what you put in. Crap training = crap times.
  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    This forum sometimes gives the appearance of being populated with hoards of people who have somehow found themselves signed up for a marathon.

    I didn't bother using the term 'run' because its quite clear that so many of the participants aren't runners to start with. Never were, never will be.

    Sometimes its difficult to work out who is right. The posters who want a solution to the fact that despite never having run as far as 10 miles in training still want someone to 'up-load' them a solution. Or the other posters who just tell them the truth.

    🙂

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    A lot of the woefully undertrained guys come on here looking for advice and then often get offended and upset when they get an honest response from a number of very experienced runners.
  • I've never run a marathon (I'm 44). I think I might one day but first I'd like to hit some PBs at the shorter distances.

    I started running again though to get fast and run a PB at Half Marathon distance.

    However I have found that running 4 times a week has a lot of associated benefits.

    Other than just after a hard run race I feel a lot better and more 'ready for action' (general and working life).

    Everything that involves a level of exertion is easier.

    My sex life and my own performance is better.

    I look healthier.

    I've never been overweight but I am sure I would have seen benefits here too if I had been.

    I have given my life a sense of purpose that work simply never has - before running again the thought of getting up before 7.30am was appalling - now I have got up, run 6-8 miles, walked the dog for two miles, stretched and had a shower by 8am three days a week plus I run at weekends too.

    This has also had the benefit of downgrading the importance of work in my life which has made me feel less stressed generally.

    Those people who enter a marathon for the sake of ticking the marathon box are missing out - big time! The real joy of running and how it makes you feel should be the by product of entering a marathon - if you don't do the running you don't only not enjoy the feeling of achievement on the day but miss out on all the associated joy too.

    So don't be jealous of the people doing no training - they are the ones missing out.

     

  • CC82CC82 ✭✭✭

    I was woefully undertrained for 2 marathons last year.  Not quite as bad as running a max of 7 miles once a week!  I knew I was undertrained, but I didn't appreciate just how much undertrained I was.  I finished my first marathon in 4:48 and my second in 4:24.  I was hoping for a sub 4 marathon last year, but realised that I just hadn't put the miles in.

    I wasn't a "runner" last year - definitely not.  I would class myself as a runner now though - I've started to train 6 times a week (3 of them running days, 2 cycling and 1 strength/weights/stretching - all geared at improving running performance) and I'm enjoying it for the first time in my life!

    On the second marathon I did last year, I had a mate who turned up to run the same marathon and his training was ridiculously low.  He cycles to work every day (12 mile round trip) but didn't start "training" for the marathon until about 6 weeks before hand.  He got one 20 mile run in (with a couple of 10 minute breaks in the middle) and a few other runs, but really nothing like marathon training.  He went out aiming for 3:30!!  I wished him luck but secretly thought I'd be passing him at about 15 miles or so reduced to a gibbering wreck.

    I "sprinted" in at 4:24 - greeted by a stiff-legged (but fresh-faced) mate who then told me he finished in 3:32.  I couldn't believe it.  He's either a liar (in that he trained way more than he told me) or has excellent natural ability - I genuinely think it's the latter.

    I'm hoping to beat him in a half marathon in May to put things right image

  • Also-ranAlso-ran ✭✭✭

    I was out with me mates last night and got trollied. I woke up today to find I had signed up for the ByEckItsHilly Marathon. I've got 4 weeks to train. I do a bit of weights stuff in front of the mirror so am quite fit. Any advice? aiming for 4 hours.

  • Nose NowtNose Nowt ✭✭✭

    Calum... if I had a mate who did that, I'm not sure he'd be my mate any more !

  • CC82CC82 ✭✭✭

    Indeed - I don't see him often.  He's my wife's mate's partner and they live in a different part of the country.  So, yeah, the first time I'd seen him for months he was completely p*ssing all over my marathon effort... by putting in less effort himself!

    I'll probably smash my half marathon time in May but he'll cruise to the finish 5 minutes quicker than me even though he hasn't properly trained for it...

  • ghostrider, it doesn't sound like your colleague is going to breeze through the marathon at all, in fact walking 26.2 miles will be boring as hell. congratulate yourself on training so that you can make it round in under 8 hours.

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    Whatever happened to that guy who was going to do all his marathon training on the Concept II indoor rower?!  image  (Silly question really...)

  • like it or not, the marathon, and especially the London marathon is a hugely popular event that attracts people who would otherwise not run, and perhaps once they complete it, and tick it off their bucket list, will never run again. I don't see the point in being annoyed with them, they just have a different perspective on this event.

    There are plenty of experiences I would like to have, but I don't feel a need to become absorbed in the activity to do so. I've done a couple of short, shallow SCUBA dives, and I've tried sea kayaking, both of which I found really enjoyable, but I didn't rush out and buy a wetsuit or a kayak, because they were just standalone experiences, not something I want to make part of my regular day-to-day life.

    You can't just rock up and "race" a marathon if you're a non runner who is doing it for the craic, but you can complete it with a bare minimum of preparation, pat yourself on the back, and go on living your life. And that's fine with me.

  • Nose NowtNose Nowt ✭✭✭

    Indeed, that's a very well-put argument ginger. Good analogies too.

     

  • Skinny Fetish Fan wrote (see)

    I've never run a marathon (I'm 44). I think I might one day but first I'd like to hit some PBs at the shorter distances.

    I started running again though to get fast and run a PB at Half Marathon distance.

    However I have found that running 4 times a week has a lot of associated benefits.

    Other than just after a hard run race I feel a lot better and more 'ready for action' (general and working life).

    Everything that involves a level of exertion is easier.

    My sex life and my own performance is better.

    I look healthier.

    I've never been overweight but I am sure I would have seen benefits here too if I had been.

    I have given my life a sense of purpose that work simply never has - before running again the thought of getting up before 7.30am was appalling - now I have got up, run 6-8 miles, walked the dog for two miles, stretched and had a shower by 8am three days a week plus I run at weekends too.

    This has also had the benefit of downgrading the importance of work in my life which has made me feel less stressed generally.

    Those people who enter a marathon for the sake of ticking the marathon box are missing out - big time! The real joy of running and how it makes you feel should be the by product of entering a marathon - if you don't do the running you don't only not enjoy the feeling of achievement on the day but miss out on all the associated joy too.

    So don't be jealous of the people doing no training - they are the ones missing out.

     

    Man I couldnt have said it better   ...apart from the sex bit  image  I too do the same [injured at the mo though, bad advice from 2 physio's!] get up early love the run - try and find nice spots when I go on hols.

    At 44 I think what the heck just go out and enjoy it, but I do train  ... though I make sure the run is the most imortant thing and that I can say at the end of every session it was enjoyable.

    People who go through life trying to get away with doing the minimum to tick boxes are the real losers - shame for them!

  • Millsy1977 wrote (see)
    A lot of the woefully undertrained guys come on here looking for advice and then often get offended and upset when they get an honest response from a number of very experienced runners.

    I think to be scrupulously fair, the 'honest' responses range from the downright rude or throwaway comment ('enjoy your walk') to the helpful and positive. I'm not surprised some people get upset if people simply laugh at them. Yes, they need to be told but there are ways and ways of doing so.

  • literatinliteratin ✭✭✭

    In that case... enjoy your walk, David!

  • Nose NowtNose Nowt ✭✭✭

    I liked the comment  (might have been from oirisheyes, maybe not) asking DF3 which marathon he was doing. So he could stand at the 15 mile mark to watch him finish.

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    I've never done a marathon, but I did once cover 26.2miles over 4hours as part of a club event.

    That was in the blazing heat, with drinks breaks, and wasn't raced, but even then on finishing, the overriding feeling was how empty of any energy I was. Just a shell. And I'd done a stack of halfs without falling apart before then.

    So to conclude, good luck David you'll need it!

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    SG,

    You could run a sub 3 hour marathon tomorrow if you had to. As a training run.

    What's the full race distance formula?

    Three times your average daily mileage. You must be close. 

    Do just one marathon, its the only way to get your office colleagues TSTFU!

    🙂

  • literatinliteratin ✭✭✭

    Impeccable maths skills there, David.

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    David Falconer 3 wrote (see)

    So all I have to do is 8 miles a day ric and then Im good to go??

    For 12 weeks yes. Its just an average though. That's why you can get around a 5k run on only 10 miles per week training.

    🙂

  • majority of people who do sport cqan do a 5k without any training Ric f...

     My teenage son who plays hockey .. went out on a run one day just to prove he could do a half marathon faster than me........which he did.....image

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Sn, I should have said get round a 5k on nothing.

    I was being generous to people who actually run a bit.

    Physical sport lets you do all sorts. I saw a guy run 2:01 for an 800m, and he was a triple jumper!

    🙂

  • I never trained when I used to do long distance challenge walks. I used to do marathon distances over hills and rough terrain with a few 10 minute stops for cake, tea and chat. Typically about 7 hours tops and that's walking.

    Also did 40 mile charity walk with a little bit of run/walk in the last half. That took sub 9 hours. It was all without training. It is easily possible to do a marathon in 8 hours or less walking without training by running serious distances. Also I know many people who are very fit just by walking. I know a few of them could run most of a marathon without training 4/5 days a week. Two of them did take up running and ended up doing the bgr in the time on second attempt. They were both over 65
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Ric, probably, but I'm too wise for that game, as do you think i'd be able to leave it alone at just a 2.59 or something? It'd take over everything!

    I like the people who claim they've done such and such a time off "No training".

    Usually when you delve deeper they cycle 50miles a week, or have played a team sport for years,and conveniently count these as "No training"

  • Many people find it appealing to attribute their successes in one field or another to talent, rather than hard work, which is odd I think. But it satisfies people's conceit that they are special, and somehow set apart from the masses by virtue of their talent. Conceding that one's success is due to hard work means accepting that your achievements could be matched by anyone who put in the same efforts.

    I'm amused at the lengths to which people will go to appear effortless.

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