Doing a Marathon or half

I am a keen runner and have done numerous half marathons all over Auckland and did the Kerikeri one a couple of times too.

If you go to this website its a great help for training and tips to help get you up to a good fitness level. It also lists most of the runs around the country. Hope this healps.

Good luck, its a great goal to aim for

Thanks girls will check out that site peachy.

What was your training plan like LR?

james how much running are you doing?

keep googling running training programs until you find one that you're comfortable with.  My new years resolution one year was to do a half marathon and i hadn't run in YEARS!  I literally started off alternating run 2mins then walk 2 mins for 20 mins the first day (and those last two mins of jogging were HARD) but i ran my first half marathon 5 months later   A lot of training programs target a certain time running each day, but i prefer to target distance - easier to plan training runs that way for me.  Also, don't try to run fast - run at a pace that you're not feeling stressed and so you can achieve the distance    Final tip - get good shoes!!!!!!  The amount you'll spend on them is motivation enough to get lots of use out of them for a while  but it is so important for protecting your shins and knees etc - go to somewhere like shoe clinic and get them to analyse your gait so you get appropriate shoes.

thanks MissShell

MrsMac good idea, I told DH I need good running shoes so will go to somewhere proper & get them done

Thanks LR, interesting about the pace times. I walked over 15kms in 3hrs & half of that was with the pram & dragging other kids for a couple of kms

Running rocks! haha i love it and have trained a few friends who said they couldn't run.

I think the biggest thing is to realise that there are different types of runs to train different things. If you want to build up your cardiovasc fitness (ie increase distance and times) then you need to start running at a really slow pace. If you go at it full tilt you will be buggered, only run a couple of kms, won't enjoy it, and it won't increase your CV fitness - or burn fat. Then running will always be hard.

So you basically want to start out running at a comfortable pace, this may only be a little faster than a walk and you may feel like a plonker but it is the best way to get some distances up. Before long you'll be able to work on speed, hills etc. If you're puffing too much slow down, you should feel like you could run like that for ages. I do say tho not to stop and walk on your runs, do some longer walks separately. Or set yourself a run time of say 15 mins and don't stop to walk till after that. Another good thing is to learn to recover while running so when you're buggered from a hill or going too fast, don't stop and walk but run really slow for 100m till your breathing is better, then back to training pace.

Running is completely a mental game and i honestly believe everyone can run (and enjoy it even!) but that it is our thoughts that stop us. It shouldn't take you long to build up your times.

If you started doing 3 runs a week for 15-20 mins (3km) comfortably, then build up 5 mins till you're doing 30-35 mins (5km) comfortably and then start adding in a long run. So one of those runs add as much as you feel you can so maybe 10/15 mins.

Once you're doing up to 10km and a few 5km runs then your cv fitness will be good enough to start looking at increasing speed etc. And yes it's always good to sign up for a run early in the piece so that you've got your motivation.

I use www.mapmyrun.com to see how far i'm going and plot my routes.

Let us know how you get on. I'm going to go check out that website, need a run for myself!

Im so not a runner and am still slightly over weight and I ran the kerikeri half marathon the November just gone, I followed the programme on the internet on the kerikeri half marathon website but my mid week runs I stuck to around 7km as thats all I could fit in and did the long runs in the weekend, I only ran 3 times a week but had a good base fitness level and did cycling too, start off slow as others have said you will go further, the couch to running 5km programme is a good way to start thats the run for 2min roughly walk for 2min etc until your running 5km once you get to running distances like that you can build on it a few km a week, it never got any easier per say but you eventually think ahhh 7km is nothing when you run 19km but its still has hard (if that makes sense?) I found that focusing on distances rather than time helped, as I am a slow runner, get some good shoes first, go to shoe science or somewhere like that and be prepared to spend a fortune on shoes but a good investment, when your running anything over 12-14km take Gel or jelly beans or something for some extra energy, and the one thing I couldnt run without was music, stopped me thinking of my breathing and pain etc, also running really is a mind game! more a mind game that a physical thing in the end if i can do it you can so do it! go for it! plently of time

Great advice crafty - you can train me i always get puffed so just stop or start walking but need to give it a better go I think.

ohmig! I dont think I could run 5km without my ipod but managed to do a half marathon with it! I so so so so need my music that is a must for me why do they say not to run with an ipod? I have been in some triathalons where your not allowed to run with them for safety reasons, but it was only 3km so wasnt to bad

I run with a drink bottle of water and use to pop into the shops on my long runs to buy another one, I was the only one with a drink bottle I saw on the half marathon and to be honest I didnt drink much of it as it was powerade and I think it gave me a tummy ache, there are so many water stations at the events you dont really need to take water to the event, another way to have fluids on the long runs are to drop a drink bottle off somewhere on route before hand

In terms of taking things, I got an arm band from rebel sports which is an armband with a pocket on it, which I cliped my ipod to and could fit in my phone and gels jelly beans etc in, I did use to put those things in the zip pocket on the back of my bike pants until I got a sore back from it

Awesome thread and advise girls!!! Im doing a boot camp at the moment to get my fitness back up after christmas. I love running (must do it with my ipod to help me get in the zone though!)but Ive never been able to go far or well but my aim is to do a half this year. My main issues are my knees and my *shame* pelvic floor...not what it used to be...
Anyhow thanks for the links, will keep checking in here to see how you are all going!