I want to do something with no preparation.

Member

I want to know how far I can push myself. I don't want to train for 2 more months then run a distance I know I can accomplish. I want to run a marathon within the week. Screw the marathon. I want to do an ultra. Now.

Member

Member

Member

MED, tell me your pulling my leg and meant to post in Riff Raff, if so read no further.

Evil or Very Mad

I feel your post cheapens the efforts of those of us here who go out week after week flogging their guts out in an effort to achieve their goals. It may not be a challenge to you, but I'm sure the marathon is very much a challenge to everyone else who posts here be they 3, 4, 5 hour runners.

Talk's cheap MED, how about putting the score on the board first, then tell us whether you pushed yourself or not.

Member

Gone Fishin

This thread kind of reminds me of back in my school days our cross-country coach would wrap up the season with a 13-miler from the school to his house for a party/dinner/bonfire. After all our races and all the workouts, routine and regime were history, we'd plunk out a distance pretty much none of us ran during the season. I remember the first season in 7th grade I did that 13. My training for the year was 3 & 4 milers, maybe a 5 for my ultimate peak. That 13 was pure hell, agony and gallow-walking the day away. Yeah, I made it. Yeah, it took me forevah and a day. Yeah, I felt some satisfaction. But as I compared it to the following five years I did that run, it was overly embarrassing at how long it took, how crazily unprepared I was and how potentially injuriuos it could have been.

The human body is capable of a lot. Heck, the hockey coach in those days used to drop off all the recruits on the first day of practice, 10-miles from the arena and if you made it back period, you were invited to day 2 of practice. We read almost weekly in online forums of people running races waay over their head. There's no glory in it. Sure, a few online personalities will ooze over you for it, but what's that worth? Really, I belive you, I or anyone here could gallow-stumble through a marathon tomorrow. Even some of us with a relative decent base could stumble through a 50k on a whim with a sundial timed result. And when you look at the pace of people that run across the country on a whim, their pace is probably something you or I could handle and after a few day of agony likely begin to get the legs for doing it day in and day out.

I'm with the rest of the replies so far. Pounding out some distance while unprepared makes for some fubby Monday morning reading online, but there's a whole lot more glory in taking the preparation steps necessary to do it to the best of your abilities.
Remember this one?...
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
-Steve Prefontaine

Member

Are you just antsy? Got marathon fever like some of us?
Yes, you probaly could go out and run a thon tomorrow. But I would think about the potential serious injuries you could do.

I put off the Towpath Marathon because I didn't have enough long runs under my belt. And right before Akron, I had a sudden whim to just sign up and run it the night before. Now, I know I could have run both Akron & the Towpath marathons..but at what price? How badly do I want to hurt?
I'm big on training. I refuse to run races that I am not prepared for. I don't want to start my race reports "...although my training has really not been where it should be, I went ahead with the race anyways..."

But then, I'm older than you, and don't bounce back quite as fast, so I tend to take it conservatively.

Pyromaniac

Member

MED makes perfect sense to me. Many of the people on this board have done exactly what he is talking about. Most people run their first marathon just to finish, and very few ran a full 26 miles in training runs. There are two main categories of challenges in racing - trying to finish, and racing for a certain performance. Once you have been racing a while, you miss out on the challenge of just trying to make it through. So finding something that will push your limits makes perfect sense to me. How is say racing a 50 miler when you aren't sure if you can make it past 26.2 any different than the challenge of trying to run a 3:15 marathon when your PR is 3:30? It both cases you are pushing your body into the unknown.

Yesterday I ran a marathon knowing I was poorly prepared due to an 8 week injury. Between my loss of conditioning and the unhealed injury, I had serious doubts that I could finish. I did finish, and it was one of the best feelings I have had in my 24 years of racing.

The Pinball

Member

Member

Member

On the issue of running a marathon on an unhealed injury, Phar lap and rolling rock are generally correct that it is a very bad idea. I had a very specific situation where it made sense. It would take far too much explanation to get into all the details here, but suffice it to say that my doctor, coach, and I spent a lot of time evaluating things and making a very careful decision. It was not about being heroic or brave, but what was best for the long term plan to run a fast marathon in 2007.

The point, of course, wasn't about that, but the experience of running a race where you are unsure if you can finish. My comment that "many of the people on this board have done exactly what he is talking about" is a bit misleading. What I meant by this was not that everyone followed the same approach MED is talking about. But many of the people here have entered races (particularly first time marathoners) not sure if they could finish. Unless you always set worthless goals, everyone here has gone into a race unsure if they can hit the goal.

I think everyone here would likely agree that the bulk of what is important about running is the daily, consistent training towards a goal. But on a routine basis in training and racing we should push ourselves into the unknown. The first time Lindgren did his 88 mile loop around the lake, he just did it because it was there. I'm sure he probably didn't know if he could actually make it. I'm sure he didn't think "I shouldn't try it, because it is more valuable to train to the point where making it around in a moot point." Of course it is great to challenge yourself to train day after day. It is also important to weigh the risks of pushing to the limit by running an extreme distance. But challenges take many forms, and running fast for a relatively short distance (one you know you can finish) isn't the only one.

Phar lap said "Ask or read any of the marathon reports here. I haven't read one where the individual wasn't PUSHED even if it was just a case of getting over the line." I must be misreading this, as this seems to be exactly my point.

Pyromaniac

My view of it CoachC is that MED is an experienced & talented runner. He knows and I know he could probably finish the 26.2. I don't think the risk of injury outweighs the need to finish the distance for him, especially when he could train for and run a very good time when he puts his mind to it.

Member