marathon runners?

[youngfella]

They talk wile bit about building up a fitness base in pre season. If you are fit enough too run 26 mile, thats a brave base for the season. A month of speed training and you'd be flying fit, id imagine. I find this fitness stuff interesting

[bingobus]

I did 5 miles in the gym last night. I'm delighted with myself.

You'll be fecked tonight for the big game. 

[mannix]

Wil I ran it easily, sprinted the last 2 miles. On the day it was great and I was well prepared.In training I would sprint 200 yards about 10 or 12 times so even though marathons are steady running its possible to be fit enough for football with the training and specially if you are lifting weights too.

[ONeill]

Mannix, any chance you could post your schedule from scratch?

[Baile an tuaigh]

Ran my first of five marathons this year the latest was last Sunday. There tough and a little addictive.

May   Belfast 4 hours 6 minutes

June   Notre Dame 3 hours 56 minutes

June  Iowa 3 hours  54 minutes

October  Chicago 4 hours 19 minutes

December  Tucson 3 hours 41 minutes

Hope to do Connemarra in the Spring. Anyone else planning this one?

[Dubh driocht]

BAT, That is a lot in 6 months , you need to watch damage to joints.I did NY in 3hrs 24 in2000 and considering one in 2009 but Connemara may be too soon. Where is the route,what is the date ?

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Any time I hear of marathons I can only think of Declan Moffat and his exploits in Southampton.

[milltown row]

have spoke to many men that have run marathons. not natural runners but they have done 3/4 marathons and they have all said, while good for doing it the damage is not worth it. i'll stick to watching them run past and cheer them on.........

[Hardy]

Was just watching Ardal O'Hanlon there on Live At The Apollo. He was saying someone said he should take part in a "fun run" and he was wondering how those two words ever ended up in the one sentence. It'd be like having a lump on your head and calling it your humour tumour. Running, he said, is something you do when there's a leopard on the loose.

[baoithe]

Was just watching Ardal O'Hanlon there on Live At The Apollo. He was saying someone said he should take part in a "fun run" and he was wondering how those two words ever ended up in the one sentence. It'd be like having a lump on your head and calling it your humour tumour. Running, he said, is something you do when there's a leopard on the loose.

[thirteen03]

I wouldn't advise a footballer to do a marathon because 1) being able to run 26 mile isn't much use to a footballer 2) the time spent training for it is time you could spend doing more useful training (e.g. interval training/speed work, which also improves endurance anyway) 3) You're not supposed to do any heavy training in the two weeks leading up to the marathon, and it takes about 2 weeks to recover from it, and again this is time you could spend doing more useful training. If you want to do a marathon I don't think it'll make you a worse footballer, but I do reckon if football is your priority there are better ways to use your training time than marathon training.

I done my first in Dublin in October and really enjoyed it. Here's some good 14 week training plans for anyone thinking of doing one in the future:
If you're aiming for sub 3 hours: http://www.runnersworld.ltd.uk/sub3hr.htm
3:00 to 3:30 http://www.runnersworld.ltd.uk/3hr.htm
3:30 to 4:00 http://www.runnersworld.ltd.uk/4hr.htm
Slower than 4 hours http://www.runnersworld.ltd.uk/firsttime.htm