Couch to half marathon in 4 months!?

power101

Background:

Did Limerick 10k last year in 59 minutes. I did about 6 weeks training for this and it was much tougher than I ever thought it would be. I had never run before and hadn't done any exercise in probably 7 years.

Unfortunately with work I had to go back to england for 4 months which interrupted my running and I didn't get around to running again due to a sprained ankle until the beginning of January this year.

Plan is the Limerick half marathon in May in under 1.45. To reach this goal this I've given up all alcohol , all sweets and rarely have any takeaways .

January

Started off with soccer on tuesdays and doing two 5.6k jogs. Never played soccer before in my life.To start with I found the jogs very tough and was in bits for a day afterwards. Soccer I was barely able to move by the end of the games

Did the Milford hospice 10k in UL in 57:01 on the 20th January. Found it quite tough.

Increased my soccer to thursdays aswell at the end of January and continued doing two 5.6k runs a week. Saw that I was able to recover quicker.

February

Went and did the castleconnell 10k on 17th Feb which I thought was a much tougher course than UL in 54:50. At this stage I had also dropped from 97kg's to around 91kg's. I'm 6'4"

Did the Adare 10k on the 24th Feb which I thought was much easier than the castleconnell 10k and completed it in 51.27. Unfortunately we were a bit late to this so I didn't have time to stretch out properly and my calves were at me for the last 2k. Did a recovery run the next day and all was good.

Continued with an hour of soccer twice a week with two 5.6k runs.

March

Now playing soccer 3 times a week on Tuesday , Thursday and Saturday. Don't feel tired after them now at all. Was doing 6k runs but I realised I was finding them too easy so I did a 12k run on the evening of the 6th. Feel absolutely perfect today.

Future:

The soccer seems to be doing wonders for the running for me anyway. I'm rubbish at it but the sprinting and running around are helping. For good or for bad but I'm basically using it as my short runs. I'll be increasing soccer to 4 times a week from the week starting the 11th March.

I Plan to be doing around 16-18k runs each week by the end of March and then I think I'm going to go for more than half marathon distance once or twice coming towards the end of April.

I might be pushing the distance a bit hard but I'm not feeling any problems so far so I want to keep up the momentum.

spurscormac

To get from a current 51:27 10k to a 1:45 HM will take a hell of a lot of work.
Check out the McMillan calculator to get an idea of what times you need to be at to achieve that.

On current 10k, you're looking at just under a 1:55 HM. To get to 1:45, you need to get down to a 47m 10k.
Make sure you're working off a good training plan to ensure you're getting good quality miles in.

Personally, I wouldn't be increasing the soccer, I'd be getting more specific running training in, my thoughts are you need to be doing at least 3, preferably 4 running sessions a week to get the improvements you need.

Just my 2c

power101

Its great to get feedback cheers!

I know from looking at training programs what I'm doing isn't in the slight bit conventional but for some reason it seems to be working for me at the moment. Whether it continues will have to be seen. The next 10k race is in on the 17th March and I plan to be under 50 min for this. If I'm not I'm going to have to change the training completely.

What I've started to do recently aswell to push myself further is 100-150m sprints at the 2km 4km and 6km marks during runs.

If I can start to manage to properly lift my legs and push them forward I should start to get places. It's been pointed out to me that I'm barely lifting my legs so this is one major thing I'm going to start working on this month.

hardCopy

Be careful with the soccer, I found as I got fitter and faster at running I started having regular issues with my back and hamstrings when I played rugby/tag rugby. The change of pace and direction was a killer for me, even though I was much faster once I got a bi of space with the ball. Ended up taking a sabbatical from rugby.

Cookie_Monster

not quite from couch as I cycle a lot but I went from being barely able to run 3.5km last October to running and 11.9km and 7.4km km legs of an event in December to a half marathon last Sunday. OK so it was largely downhill and took me 2hrs but it's entirely do able I reckon

Krusty_Clown

If you want to get better at running, run. If you want to get better at football, play football. You can do both, but don't make the incorrect connection that your soccer is improving your running beyond a general increase in fitness. Find a half marathon training plan, follow it, and with the specificity, you'll have no problem hitting your goals (pardon the pun).

power101

Well my times are still coming down. I did the 10k at the weekend in 48.57 so my progress over the past 10 weeks has been as follows

57.01
54.50
51.27
48.57

I think I should be able to get down around the 45min mark within the next couple of weeks and hopefully be around the 40 min mark by the beginning of may. Its getting much easier to run and my recovery times are improving aswell.

I hope to do the half marathon in around 1hr 45 maybe less.

I'm going to try to start running in the morning and do between 6-12k and then longer runs at the weekend.

Krusty_Clown

power101 wrote: »

Well my times are still coming down. I did the 10k at the weekend in 48.57 so my progress over the past 10 weeks has been as follows

57.01
54.50
51.27
48.57

I think I should be able to get down around the 45min mark within the next couple of weeks and hopefully be around the 40 min mark by the beginning of may. Its getting much easier to run and my recovery times are improving aswell.

I hope to do the half marathon in around 1hr 45 maybe less.

I'm going to try to start running in the morning and do between 6-12k and then longer runs at the weekend.

Great progress, but unfortunately running progression is not linear and as times gets faster the laws of diminishing returns kick in. Losing 9 minutes in 5 weeks (49 -> 40) is a massive task (a lot harder than going from 57 to 48). Better to set specific goals, rather than reaching two steps ahead.

Lumen

91kg is heavy.

Dropping 5kg might gain you a couple of minutes in the 10k.

Better still, drop 10kg. :pac:

power101

Lumen wrote: »

91kg is heavy.

Dropping 5kg might gain you a couple of minutes in the 10k.

Better still, drop 10kg. :pac:

Yup I've gone from 97kg to 90kg now. I'm 6'4" so I think I should be able to go to 85kg fairly handily.

GoHardOrGoHome

Lumen wrote: »

91kg is heavy.

Dropping 5kg might gain you a couple of minutes in the 10k.

Better still, drop 10kg. :pac:

Well, well, well! If it isn't Lumen!

Spoken like a true cyclist! It is true for runners though. Losing a few kilograms (if you have them to lose) will certainly bring your times down.

dekbhoy

power101 wrote: »

Yup I've gone from 97kg to 90kg now. I'm 6'4" so I think I should be able to go to 85kg fairly handily.

I was playing fball and running also but the fitter I got the more stupid little injuries I was picking up from fball. 1 slight injury when your upping mileage can throw you off completely, I also found when I had an important race upcoming it was then I picked up Injury's. if your really enjoying doing both then continue.