marathon running for smokers

[Tekniklie]

Same situation as you (almost, i quit smoking). Ran in high school. That was 7 years ago. About 20lbs over what i want to be. Smoked for years. I quit cold turkey 2 months ago and have been running. Slowly worked my way up currently running 3 miles. If you start now, I think you could easily make it.

[Atreides]

I started off slow as well, just make sure you don't push yourself. If you've been smoking for a while then it's going to take a long while for your lungs to fully recover, some people say it takes decades and you can't undo all the damage. From personal experience I can tell you it will get easier after as little as a week or 2 without smoking, and every week after that you can go without smoking you'll notice a greater and greater amount of time/distance you can go without getting horribly out of breath. The most important thing is to stay motivated and to challenge yourself without overdoing it.

[Saga]

Can you run 5k right now (3.1 miles)? If I had a 5k time for you, I could probably throw together a really good program. Lot's and lots of stuff to talk about though.

edit: Also, where do you live?

wait, a 5k is 3.1? fuck, i thought it was 3.2. well now i can shave ~40 seconds off my goal pace for the race in february, i ran a practice 5k in 30:40. im trying to qualify for the national marathon in D.C. in march which is 31:00 5k pace.

[Swatt]

take this opportunity to quit. you'd feel greater when you cross the finishing line.

i'm running the singapore sundown marathon in may. my last marathon was in 2006 with a 5 hrs finish

edit: shoes... asics > all

[Tyche]

Haven't had any asics in a long time, but they were meh at best as minimalist shoes. They make a fantastic stability shoe though. That's probably what the OP needs I'd assume. I'm alternating between Saucony tangents, adidas adizero PR, and Nike Free's depending on what I'm doing. I especially love the Tangent's, ran 9.95 miles in them today. Feet got damn cold for the first few miles, but it was good. Also, I got some Injinji socks...god I love those.

[Eggroll]

Has anyone tried vibram 5 fingers for running? Seems like another option for footwear.

[Tyche]

Never worn them, not near enough support for anything of significance.

[Tyche]

Fuck shoes, run the marathon in crocs. I wish I was being sarcastic...

Happy Feet: There’s a Croc for You
YouTube - New York City Marathon Run in Crocs

This isn't anything new. Ray McClanahan, local podiatrist and runner that many runners have been to, not only sells and fit clients in Crocs, but he also puts people into shoes that don't offer much in the way of heel cushioning. His goal is to move people up onto their toes and forefoot. So, you'll see Ray and his clients not only out in Crocs, but in racing flats, and I've also seen Ray grind the heels off training shoes.

Now with that said, I'll show you my Nike Frees (like 3 years and 1,000 miles old)...

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3782/freewh4.jpg

I cut the heels off awhile ago when I started to forefoot run. I never imagined trying to run in crocs though, but a lot of people have had success. I'm half tempted to try Nashville in crocs. Serif, if you read this, I'll pay your entry fee if you run a half in crocs with me in Nashville.

[Serif]

When is the deadline for entries?

13 miles isn't that bad, but in Crocs? Haha...

If we are doing that I am not going for a PR would be more casual but sure...

[Tyche]

If we're doing to country music one in april, you can enter up until the 19th. $100 (god damn that's expensive). I was being sarcastic about the crocs. I think I was. I'm gonna have to buy me some crocs. Do you run on your mid/forefoot or are you a heelstriker? Crocs would suck for heelstrikers.

[Serif]

I have a very high arch so yeah...I run on my heels and I have a lot of pressure on the balls of my feet. Did a stress test while I was in DC and it is pretty bad, so I got some insoles and going to try them out.

It is more expensive than the Marine Corp Marathon?! Wtf, that is crazy...

Well lets figure out if we are doing it in Crocs or not, if so I need to find some nice ones. If not I still have my shoes I ran my last marathon in although I might try to do a new shoe.

Would be sweet to get some other people from the forums to meet up here too but I doubt that will happen, haha...

[ozz]

When Tyche mentioned it I considered going but I have a final on the 25th :[

[Tyche]

My wife is pissed because she can't go. She'll be 9 months pregnant (Due 4 weeks after raceday). I told her I was "terribly upset" she couldn't make the trip. I may wear crocs, I've never tried them, but I'll buy a pair and see how they go. My guess is I'll be wearing either my 5oz flats or I'll buy something new. Maybe my Sauconys if I have an injury flare up or something. Beings crocs are used for forefoot strikers, I think you'd be putting your feet through pure hell wearing them as a heelstriker. It would be fun if others could run it.

[Serif]

I am hoping by the time this marathon comes around I will have a new condo or house I am living in and then if you want you can just stay up there with me for the weekend.

The only thing that is going to kill me is that my job I am involved with now is highly demanding on the physical labor part and when I trained for my last marathon I was in school and just had that to focus on. I should be fine seeing how I will just be training for half of what I did last time.

[Tyche]

I was telling one of my friends at work about people running in crocs, and I told him I may try it in April. He said "When in April", and I replied "April 25".

"Oh, that's the day of the wedding..."

Nashville is about 3 hours from the place of the wedding. The wedding starts at 5:30. I'll have to be at the wedding, I'm guessing, around 4pm for pictures. So in order to accomodate myself time to get home and take a damn shower, I'll need to leave Nashville by Noon on Saturday. How fast is your half Serif!?! I think I'll be good assuming I can get out of Nashville within 5 hours of the start of the race. Nashville is on central time?

[Serif]

I doubt I am anywhere near your time, haven't ran in a bit.

You have to be out within 5 hours from the start of the race?

Shouldn't be a problem especially if we only do the half, hell even if I were to run 13 miles at 10 minutes a mile that would easily be 2 hours 10 minutes and then you would have 2 hours 50 minutes to get out of Nashville haha...

If I get serious about it though I will probably cut my time down to like 8 minutes a mile, just depends on how much training I get done. If we do 8 minutes a mile that will be a 1hour 54 minutes.

I will more than likely just take this one easy and just aim for around 2 hours.

The marathon and half start at 7am, so if we ran it in 2 hours that would be 9 when we are done and that would give you 3 hours extra.

And yes Nashville is on Central Time.

[Tyche]

8 Minutes a mile will actually put you at 1:45ish. It finishes at LP field, I wonder where the parking will be. Hopefully I can park at LP field and shuttle up to the starting line and just grab my shit from the busses at LP field and be on my way when we finish at LP field. The websites not working for me at the moment, so I don't know how parking is laid out.

[Serif]

Yeah the website is being retarded...parking shouldn't be too big of a problem I don't think. So the half finishes at LP field? I wish I had a swimming pool around me, the closest one is like 20-25 minutes away.

So lets say we run the half and we finish in 2 hours, that would put us done around 9:00 AM, you just going to head out and then go straight to the wedding?

[Tyche]

Yeah probably. I don't want to chance it being close, the bride will castrate me. I think I have her worried enough when I told her I was going to be in Nashville that day lol. I was going to spend the weekend up there, but I had forgot about the damn wedding. Do you know your work schedule that far up? If you don't work on Fridays, I can maybe come up on Thursday and spend a day down there.

[Jefe]

Hey Tych, isn't it forefoot running natural? I noticed it when transitioning from jogging to sprinting ;x