Advice please - I’ve got a place in London Marathon 2024

[Passmethpens]

Hi everyone. Some advice from any runners out there please?

I’ve got a place for next years London Marathon 🙌 through a charity.
I have only ever run 10km, I last did one of those last summer and didn’t find it easy at all if I’m honest. I really want to enjoy the experience, the crowds, the atmosphere etc and am not interested in any particular time but want to get round without keeling over.

I’ve been looking into training schedules and have heard good things about Hal Higdon. I’m thinking of doing the half marathon trading first and aim to do a half marathon in November and then start the marathon training one in Dec (marathon is on April).

Does this sound reasonable? / Like a good idea?

Any other advice from marathon runners especially with regards to diet etc most welcome.

Ive already got good running shoes and know that I shouldn’t wear anything new at all on the day!

I think an autunn half and a break before marathon training is sensible.

I was on C25k this time last year due to injury and ran (jeffed- run/walking) a spring marathon this year. I built up to doing HM comfortably before Christmas then picked up the marathon training after new year.

With a risk of injury recurring, I used a 2 week cycle of training with the long runs every other week so there was plenty of recovery between runs.

There's a lot of halfs around October. Pick an event and do a 12-16wk plan to build to that and build an appropriate base fitness between now and the start of that training block.

An autumn half and a spring marathon is very sensible. Hal Higdon is great, as are the free runners world training plans. Whatever you do, make time to do a bit of a strength training on the side. A little is better than nothing and it will really help

And RE diet, just whatever works for you and is enough!
Personally the day before a big long run I keep it quite high carb, low fibre… but apart from that just be sensible, make sure you are eating enough, the running burns calories but so does the recovery. It puts your body through a lot of stress so just take good care and make sure you’re giving it enough energy

Thank you for the advice.
Ive printed my Hal Higdon novice 1 trading schedule off today. The first run is a 4.8km 😳 so I’ll do a couple of shorter runs over the next couple of weeks before starting properly.

Is it a good idea to get sports massages on your legs throughout training?

And what sort of thing counts as strength training?
would yoga or walking work?

Was going to recommend Hal Higdon and your plan sounds perfect to me. I started from a similar base, followed that plan and had an absolute dream first marathon, loved the training and the day itself.

Yoga and walking wouldn’t really cut it for strength training. You should be aiming for some weight based exercise and don’t forget your core, it’s essential for running.

Don’t forget to work out your marathon pace, don’t train too fast whatever you do, you’re aiming to build lots of slow twitch muscle so you’ll be doing a lot of slow running.

ok, does that mean joining a gym?
or are there things I can do at home on YouTube?
i’m 45 too - if that makes any difference 🤷🏻‍♀️

Lots of stuff you can do on You Tube although I rather enjoyed going to classes, it was short, sharp and a bit of fun with others as marathon training can be a lonely business.

strength training needs to be resistance based but you don’t need equipment. Have a look at Madfit :)

I used to have sports massages every 6 weeks, it helped a lot.
There are (or there was) marathon training plans on the London marathon website so might be worth taking a look.
Swimming is also a good one to do along side your training, it's not weight bearing so gives your body a rest, and it is good for fitness.
Some hill training is good (even if it does make you question your life choices at times 😂).
Can't say I did too much with my diet, except make sure you are well hydrated before a long run. I used hi five aqua gels, and haribo fizzy sweets as a sugar hit. Practice with anything like this before the big day to see what helps. And of course carb loading the day before a long run

Enjoy every minute!, it is an incredible experience

How’s your training going OP?

I’ve got my first marathon in April too (London charity place) and feel terrified as have hurt my knee.