I’m very excited to be signed up for my first ever marathon in Chicago in October. The longest I’ve run so far is a half-marathon last January (on my own, not in an official race), and since then I have been running an average of 7 miles two or three times a week.
To train for the marathon I want to more or less follow the program recommended for beginners at coolrunning.com (you can see it here.) It’s a 20 week program, which means I should begin it on May 25 to be ready for the marathon on October 10.
However, I’m going to be away in Taiwan for the second half of June, and I’m not sure I’ll have a chance to run while I’m there. I don’t want to wait until I get back to begin the training because it means I would have to compress it into about 15 weeks, but at the same time, I know I shouldn’t just skip those two weeks of training and jump right into the more advanced stages. So for those with experience, let me ask: how much am I likely to be set back by a two week hiatus early in the training program? And what would be the best way to ease back into the original schedule?
I’d start in early May and do your best to run while you’re in Taiwan. If you can’t, just ease back in when you return.
I doubt you’ll lose much ability by that point. Those training schedules are guidelines- I’ve always been sort of loosey-goosey with them. I missed an entire week of training the 2nd week in October, three weeks before the NYC Marathon the first Sunday in November, and it didn’t matter.
The two week hiatus may not hurt you. Sometimes the time off is really good for recuperation and gives your body a well-needed break. A former running partner of mine got an ankle sprain and had to sit and do fuck all for a few weeks, then ran a marathon for his best time ever.
I’m not sure about how it would affect you early in the training program though. I’ll send him an email and see if he’s got any advice.
A break early won’t be much of a problem. When yo get back, if you’re behind in the schedule make the long runs your first priority and cross train instead of running 1-2 times a week so you can compress the schedule a bit to make up for lost time.
Even if you can’t compress it, doing the long runs are the key, the other runs are secondary. I knew someone who ran a sub 3 hour on 3 days of running(and 2 biking) a week.