couch to marathon in 5 months?

It's possible, but unless you are extremely dedicated and do everything in your marathon plan to the letter (and perhaps even then) it's probably a recipe for injury.

In this scenario, you would train for the marathon, which means you could easily do the half distance, but for a couch-to, doing a half the month before the marathon might not be the best idea, unless you do it fairly slowly as a training run.

Also, "run" is a relative term--you'd likely (and wisely) be doing a lot of walking both in training and the marathon in order to successfully complete the program and the race.

One thing to look at is the time limit on the Pittsburgh marathon ... it can get very dicey if it's your first marathon and you're doing it just to finish, depending on the time limit. There are just so many unknown factors on a first race.

In looking at marathon training plans, even many of the beginner ones will say "you should be running several times a week" or be able to run half an hour at a time or some such prerequisite. Pay close attention, and if you're not there, you're not ready to start that plan.

Clarification is always good!

Running is a different beast, although having the cycling base in terms of aerobic capacity will help. So it looks like you're able to run 4-4.5 miles at a clip right now ... the question is, is that pushing yourself, or is that an easy, conversational pace, and can you do several of those a week?

Are you really coming off the couch like the title of your emails says or do you have a good aerobic base from biking? 

Could you do with the goal of finishing.  I would say yes.  If you are asking should you do it? I would say no.  Why not train seriously for that half marathon and put off the marathon until the Fall or pick a plan to really ready yourself for Pittsburgh '09? 

If you are dead set on doing it I would find a marathon training plan and use the half to test a reasonable pace for the full.  You will not be able to taper  before the half, but you could slide into the taper right after it.

x2. Many plans are 3 months. That gives you 2 months of a slow build before that sturcture even starts.

Dude, you totally can do it if you just stick to the training.  I spent a summer cycling to rehab a knee.  I got cleared to run toward the end of August '06 and ran a marathon the last weekend in February '07.  I ran it like a snail, but I finished.  I started my training with a ONE mile run since I hadn't run in over a year and a half because of the knee surgery.  You are WAAAY ahead of where I was.

Get a plan together, stick to it, and it will be more than worth it.  Good luck!

X2

I did this in 2002 with the Chicago Marathon.  While I finished in 4:30, I didn't run or exercise again until March of '06.  Best advice is to build up gradually -  10k, 1/2 marathon, marathon over each of the next three years.  Marathons are taken far too lightly IMO.

You could probably train to the point that you could complete the race, how I wouldn't say that it's a good plan.  The marathon distance isn't going anywhere and as a new runner, it would probably be better for you to build up over at least a season to be able to appropriately build for the distance.

Currently your longest run is 40', so assuming you can add 10% a week and don't need recovery weeks, it would take 16 weeks to build to a three hour long run and then you would be in taper.  This plan is almost surely a recipie for injury in a novice runner as it is very aggressive.  Instead, I would do the half you are planning and maybe consider a half or 10k if they are offered the same weekend of the marathon.

Shane

gymgirlx - 2008-01-04 10:38 PM My mom is still running, and PRing She used to be a hard- core runner, and I think training for a marathon sparked the fire in her again

Which is slightly different than a novice runner taking on the challenges of a marathon.

Shane