From half to full marathon in 12 months

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biggus_richus Mar 2013 11:38am, 20 Mar 2013 21 posts	0 biggus_richus I completed my first half marathon this past weekend, and I've got my eye on completing a full marathon in a year's time - thinking London or Brighton at the moment. I'm also still classified as overweight, by about a stone, so ideally, I'd like to maintain and build on my current fitness AND get my weight down a bit. I've lost around half a stone while training, although that was mainly put on over Christmas. I completed the Great South Run in October and followed a ten week training plan prior to the half marathon, which went along the lines of: Monday, Friday - REST (would sometimes go to the gym to row/weights) Tuesday, Thursday - 30 - 40 minute recovery run Wednesday - intervals of varying number/duration at threshold pace + 10 min warm up/down Saturday - Hills Sunday - long run, which over the weeks went (in mins) 90-90-95-105-120-120-120-80-60-RACE! I kept to the plan reasonably well, although missed out on a few of the hill sessions. Absolutely made sure I did the long run every week though. I only joined Fetch in February, so my training log starts from around week 7 of the plan. I'm not sure how to progress from here, whether to stick to this pattern, or cut back from 5 runs a week and mix in more weight training. My local parkrun is a 3 mile jog/cycle away and I'd be happy to build it in to my routine. Some more half marathons would also be good and maybe even a 20 later on, but unsure as to how frequently. From what I've read on Fetch, I think I need to SLOW DOWN as I'm doing recovery and long runs at my race pace (8:50 - 9), and often faster, but any advice would be gratefully received - the only plans I've seen online seem to last for 12/16/18 weeks.
BigChiefRunningBore Mar 2013 11:49am, 20 Mar 2013 18,515 posts	0 BigChiefRunningBore Any minute someone will say 'build your base miles' which is a good idea. review in six months. Don't try VLM choose a nice marathon.
JohnnyO Mar 2013 11:55am, 20 Mar 2013 15,371 posts	0 JohnnyO I would say just do what you enjoy. A marathon in 12 months gives you six months to see how you feel. Build your fitness if you want. Do some more races, do some cycling, lower your weight gradually and sustainably. Then in October see where you are and how you feel. You wont get in to VLM or Brighton, but there are lots of other races that are quite possibly better which will allow you to make a decision when you are ready, rather than force you to commit when you are a year out.
Ninky Nonk Mar 2013 9:31pm, 20 Mar 2013 809 posts	0 Ninky Nonk Why not join a club? As above don't worry about a marathon for now, have fun, enjoy the other distances. Well done on doing the half.
jono Mar 2013 9:40pm, 20 Mar 2013 11,415 posts	0 jono yes course you can complete a marathon - just run, there's not much else to it really, you gradually build up base mileage, strength and stamina - but yes pick a nice marathon not that fun run in that there london town
plodding hippo Mar 2013 9:42pm, 20 Mar 2013 47,811 posts	0 plodding hippo Course you can do it Johnny O speaks sense happy birthday Johnny
biggus_richus Mar 2013 8:58am, 21 Mar 2013 24 posts	0 biggus_richus Thanks for your responses. Possibly raised more questions than answered though. So the consensus is, for the time being, just run and run further? Should I be worrying about the type of running or pace at all?
Ninky Nonk Mar 2013 10:28pm, 22 Mar 2013 814 posts	0 Ninky Nonk running.competitor.com
Hackett Mar 2013 1:17pm, 23 Mar 2013 916 posts	0 Hackett You can do that. I had never run more than a 10k when I started running. I started training in the Oct and by Feb was doing HM then did London in the April. Many will have similar stories.