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rec.running FAQ, part 3 of 8

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Archive-name: running-faq/part3
Last-modified: 16 Jul 2002
Posting-Frequency: 14 days

See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
============================================================
Mail Order Addresses

The addresse/phone of some popular running mail order outfits (Directory
assistance at 1-800-555-1212 for mail order outfits not listed):

Road Runner Sports
6150 Nancy Ridge Road   1-800-551-5558 (Orders)   rrunner@cts.com
San Diego, CA 92121     1-800-662-8896 (Cust Serv)      Fax: 1-619-455-6470

California Best
970 Broadway                    1-800-CAL-BEST
Chula Vista, CA 91911-1798      1-800-225-2378

Tel-a-Runner
80 Speedwell Ave                telarun@telarun.com
Morristown, NJ 07970            1-800-835-2786

Hoy's Sports
1632 Haight St
San Francisco, 94117            1-800-873-4329

Holabird Sports
9008 Yellow Brick Rd
Baltimore, Md 21237             1-410-687-6400  Fax: 1-410-687-7311

=================================
Marathon

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increasing your mileage (Jack Berkery berkery@emmax5crd.ge.com)

There are many good, professional, books and articles on how to train for
whatever distance you choose. More for the marathon than others I think.
Get one or two and mull them over. The following recommendations are a
distillation of having read and digested most of these and more than a
decade of experience.

Let's suppose you are beginning with a base load of about 20 miles per week
over a long period. First I DO NOT recommend that anyone who has been
running for less than 3 years should run a marathon. Running is a long-term
game and it takes time for your body to become adjusted physically to the
demands, not only of the marathon itself, but also of the heavy training
mileage required to build up to it.

Next, you should always keep in mind that your build-up should not exceed
10% per week. 10% doesn't sound like much but it's actually a big
adjustment for your system to make. Not only muscles, but bones and
connective tissues must be strengthened to take the increased load and
running marathon mileage is a lot of pounding. Remember 10%. That is not to
say that if you ran 20 miles last week, you cannot go more than 22 next
week, but over a period of 3-4 weeks the rate of increase should not exceed
the 10% slope. After 4 weeks then, you should be doing just under 30 miles,
but not more. If you go from 20 to 24 in the first week thereby exceeding
the 10% rate, then doing 24 again the second week will bring you back on
track. You can continue to build up mileage for about 6 weeks when you'll
reach 35 miles. Then you MUST BACK OFF for a week or so. Drop back by about
25-30% for one week. Take two or three days off in a row. Get some rest to
gain strength before beginning the climb again.

How much mileage is enough for a marathon? I have known people to run
marathons on 25 or 35 miles per week. Don't try it. How they got away with
it is not important. It is only important to know that it simply ain't
smart. You can get away with 40-45 per week if you are doing a regular long
run of 15-18 each week. It is better to be doing 50 or more for 6 to 8
weeks before the marathon. This means you have to have the time necessary
to build to 50 at that 10% rate (with 1 rest week out of every 6) and then
sustain that 50+ mileage for 6-8 weeks as well. This is a heavy schedule.
Never doubt that. When you listen to the mega-mileage people talk about 70
or 80 or more, they make it sound as if everyone should be able to do that.
Well we CAN'T all do that. We all have a break-down point and for the great
majority, it lies somewhere below 50 or 60 miles per week. You'll know
where yours is only after repeated tries to exceed it result in an injury.

So how do you build the mileage? Suppose you are doing an even 3 miles a
day, no more, no less. You must begin by building the long run. In a
marathon training schedule, the long run is everything. Start the first
week of the build-up by just lengthening one run. All other days should
remain the same. Make one, usually Sat. or Sun., a 5-6 miler to get your
10% increase. Take the next day off from running. Rest is important after
the long run to allow your system adjustment time. The next week of the
build-up, increase the one long run again while still holding the normal
daily runs the same. As a rule of thumb, your long run can go to 3 times
the distance of your daily average run. So while still doing regular 3
milers, you can build up that Sat. morning run to 9 miles. Don't do a 12
miler though until you have made your daily run 4 miles. This means keeping
the long run at 9 miles for a few weeks and increasing the daily runs until
your average is 4 or 5 a day. Then you can return to increasing the long
run. Toward the end of the build-up you may be doing something like 6-8
each weekday plus an 18-20 miler on the weekend. It might also be a good
idea to alternate long runs of 15 and 20 miles every other week.

As you get close to the date of the marathon, run your last long run 2
weeks before. DO NOT do a long run one week prior to the marathon. In fact
for the last week you should taper down to do only about half, yes half,
the mileage you have been doing. DO NOT run the day before and 2 days
before the race you might only do 3 miles just to get the legs loose and
the blood flowing. You MUST be well rested for the big race itself.

Now assuming you do everything right there is still no guarrantee that the
marathon is going to go well. Many things might prevail to make it hurt,
hot or humid weather, getting caught up in too hard a pace, not drinking
enough water before or along the way (THE GREATEST SIN). You may even spend
3 or 4 months building your training only to come down with an illness or
injury a few weeks before the race which will set you right back to
square-one. If you want certainties, you're in the wrong game. What matters
is not that you get to do that particular marathon on that particular day 5
months from now, but rather what you plan to do over the next 5 or 10 or 50
years. I did say running is a long-term game, no?

Another note of caution. All the rules can be broken. You may get away with
lower training, higher ramp-up rates or shorter long-runs. You might even
get away with it more than once, but sooner or later it's gonna get ya.
Take the more conservative plan and be safe. You're looking for a positive
experience not an injury.

------------------Major Marathons & partial World Marathon Schedule

http://www.coolrunning.com/marathon/list.shtml
http://joedom.home.mindspring.com/evt03.htm

Boston Marathon    ==================
Boston Athletic Association
P.O. Box 1996 Hopkington, MA 01748
Tel: 508-435-6905               Fax: 508-435-6590
         The Boston Marathon is held on Patriots day (3rd monday in April).

Starting time: Noon Boston Marathon qualifying times.

Age Men Women   Wheelchair Divison
18-34 3:10 3:40 CLASS   MEN     WOMEN
35-39 3:15 3:45 1 (Quad Class) 3:00     3:10
40-44 3:20 3:50 2-5     2:10    2:35
45-49 3:30 4:00
50-54 3:35 4:05
55-59 3:45 4:15
60-64 4:00 4:30
65-69 4:15 4:45
70-74 4:30 5:00
75-79 4:45 5:15
80+    5:00 5:40

Note: Qualifying time based on age on the day of the Boston Marathon.
Example: You run a qualifying race at the age of 44 in 3:22. You then have
a birthday before the Boston Marathon, making you 45. You qualify, because
your required qualification time is 3:25.

Chicago Marathon          =========
101 W. Grand Ave.  Ste. 600  (Carey Pinkowski)
Chicago, IL 60610               (312) 527-2200 [VOICE]  (312) 527-9901 [FAX]


London Marathon 	 ========
PO Box 3460
London, England SE1 8RZ 44 71 620 4117  fax: 44 71 620 4208
UK entrants:            In Oct. get *proper* form from London, fill in,
enclose cheque. You should find out before Xmas if  picked in the lottery.
. If you've run a sub 2h40  (men) or sub 3h10  (ladies) no need for lottery
as you qualify for the national championships (held in conjunction with
London).

Non-UK entrants:                Get on "official" trips to come to the UK
to run London from sports travel firms. If you book with sports travel firm
you will definitely get an entry. Going it alone then write:

Los Angeles Marathon    March  ======
11110 W. Ohio Avenue, #100
Los Angeles, CA 90025-3329              (310) 444-5544  AGE 18-59 60+

Marine Corps Marathon    =======
Box 188
Quantico, VA 22134                      (703)640-2225

New York Marathon   ======
NYRRC
P.O. Box 1766 GPO
New York, NY 10116                      (212) 860-4455

         For U.S. residents: Send a self-addressed #10 business-size
envelope (about 4" x 9.5") and a check or money order (no cash) for a $5.00
non-refundable handling fee. Make the check payable to: NYRRC.
         Send AFTER midnight of "set start date." All requests must be
posted "start date" or later.
         The NYRRC sets a "start date" for accepting requests for
applications, about May 15-20. Prospective applicants must send a SASE and
$5, postmarked ON OR AFTER this date, to a PO Box in NY. They send a blank
application, with no guarantee of anything, fairly promptly.
         Fill it out and return it ASAP. A caveat: You must be a member of
UST&F, the USA's governing federation of running, to run in the NYCM. You
can apply for entry along with your marathon application; instructions and
UST&F application are sent with the blank NYCM application.

Applications accepted on the following basis:

Slots are reserved for non-USA runners (don't know how they are allocated).

12,000+ applications are accepted "first-come, first served" basis. The
NYRRC claims this is not a tough thing if you act promptly - i.e. send
request for ap on "Opening Day", and mail back the completed app. within a
day or two.

X,000 slots remain. Once above criteria filled, all applications received
go (figuratively) into a big, big box. In late July or early August, NYRRC
draws out the X,000 lucky envelopes. These entries are accepted. They draw
a few hundred more, I guess, to set up a waiting list in the event of
cancellations.
         NB: the rest of the applications are returned with refunded entry fee.

San Francisco Marathon   ====
City of San Francisco Marathon
P.O. Box 77148
San Francisco, CA 94107                 (415) 391-2123

Honolulu Marathon       )======
Honolulu Marathon Assoc.
3435 Wailae Ave. #208
Honolulu, HI 96816                      808-734-7200



Many tours to the large national & international marathons are organized by:

Marathon Tours
108 Main St
Charleston MA 02129             (617) 242-7845

Marie Frances Productions
7603 New Market Dr
Bethesda, MD 20817              301-320-3363

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous

Pulled this chart out of Marathoning by Manfred Steffny. ( pub 1977).
(Robert Davidson davidson@maricopa.edu)

Max. possible Realistic
10Km marathon time marathon time
------ ------------- -------------
27:00 2:05:00   2:08:30
28:00 2:10:00   2:14:00
29:00 2:15:00   2:19:30
30:00 2:20:00   2:25:00
31:00 2:25:00   2:30:30
32:00 2:30:00   2:36:00
33:00 2:35:00   2:43:00
34:00 2:40:00   2:49:00
35:00 2:45:00   2:55:00
36:00 2:50:00   3:00:00
37:00 2:55:00   3:07:00
38:00 3:00:00   3:15:00
39:00 3:05:00   3:20:00
40:00 3:10:00   3:25:00
42:30 3:22:00   3:42:30
45:00 3:35:00   4:00:00
47:30 3:47:30   4:20:00
50:00 4:00:00   4:40:00
-- 
Austin "Ozzie" Gontang, Ph.D.
TEC International
2903 29th St
San Diego, CA 92104-4912

hm/off.  619-281-7447
fax           619-281-9468
email	<gontang@electriciti.com>

Chief Executives Working Together
http://www.teconline.com

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Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:12 PM