How long will it take to get ready for a marathon?

Question

I'm currently swimming 1 hour 3X per week. I'm also riding my bike 1 1/2- 2 hours 3X per week. I would like to keep these excercises in my regimine. How long would it take me to get in shape for a marathon?

A little about me: I'm 6'2" and 193 lbs. I have previously completed in 3 solo 24 hour mountain bike races. I have run in the past for fun. I am really slow. I'm running about 9:30 minute miles now, but I am capable of running 8 min. miles. The fastest mile I ever ran was a 6:50. The longest run I've ever done is about 9 miles.

Answer 1

If you have figured out your time per mile over 6 miles you can go to any on line running forum and have a program made for you. Most of them will have the time it takes to train for the marathon at about 18 weeks but you can technically do it in half that time provided you do more long runs and aren't worried about hurting after the event. The best thing to do is to always have the long run (12-18 miles) as part of your training program and do it every two weeks at a minimum.

Answer 2

Rule of thumb is this: Once you are logging at least 25 miles a week running, begin training four months from the event. Never increase your weekly mileage more than ten percent and make sure that you begin to taper down roughly three weeks before the event. Follow this and you should actually enjoy the run. Alot of this info can be obtained from the run the planet website. Good luck. Im doing a 16 mile event tomorrow for a benefit to the special olympics.

Answer 3

4 months

Answer 4

Want to go straight to a marathon huh?  not even a half mara.?  Well the good news is your cardio system is probably pretty good, but the bad is that running gets your heart rate so much higher than anything else and puts a beating on your body.  I'd say probably take you 4-6 months to get ready to do one.  Main important thing is your long run which should be done about every 7-10 days apart.  You can increase the distance in general by 10% each time out.  I make sure you can at least complete around 16-20 Mi. before you do one.  Hope this helps, good luck.

Answer 5

Well it shouldn't take you that long, sounds like you are fit!  It could take anywhere from 8 to 24 weeks, depending on your time and fitness level.  There are several plans out there, however, if you want to train for a marathon, you may have to sacrifice something in your excercise regimine to fit in your marathon training.  To train for marathon, you should be able to fit in a minimum of 3X/wk running with one of those days to be a long run.  If your pace is 8minutes/mile you could run it in 3 1/2 hours.  If you run it at 9:30minutes/mile you could run it in 4:17 hours. Don't expect to run it at your 6:50 pace though.  

here is a link to some marathon training plans:

http://www.runnersworld.com/subtopic/0,7...

http://www.marathontraining.com/marathon...

Answer 6

Lots of good info available- go to Jeff Galloway's website:

he writes for Runner's World. I have several of his books and they're all great.

http://jeffgalloway.com/

You can do it! I personally have no desire to do a marathon but good for you!

Answer 7

well, b/c you've already been warming up and training with biking, jogging, and swimming, you should be ready for a marathon anytime. also, it depends how long the marathon is. i've heard ppl say that it takes at least a month to get in complete shape for a marathon but keep up ur routine.