2011 marathon

Zav

i have a possible place on next year's marathon. I do about 200 cycling miles a week. Apart from knees, is anyone aware of a cycling reason not to do running as well?

Rapha

No problem at all. You will use different muscles when running compared to cycling. Lots of people out there who combine running and cycling (and even swimming!)

chill123

well, the reason i got into cyling was to get away from the ankle/knee injuries!

however ive done the london marathon twice and would recommend u do it. just be very careful to up the mileage very slowly to avoid injury. i got injured both times in training as soon as the weekend runs got up over the 12 miles distance. still i limped round on the day both times and loved every minute of it! good luckj!

Zav

thanks very much - at the risk of winning the idiot of the year question for my first post, i should add that i spent much of the first 42 years of my life boozing and smoking. I took up cycling 2 years ago, lost 3.5 stone, but have not run since i was a student.

danowat

Marathon training is quite time consuming, so you may have to cut down the volume of cycling you do, which could be an issue if you really enjoy cycling.

Just get a decent pair of (properly fitted) running shoes, a marathon training schedule and you are good to go, I used to do lots of "brick" sessions before my knee gave out after the Norwich HM in 2009, they were quite fun.

aberdeen_lune

It wont help your cycling but if you enjoy it go for it. It all depends what your goals are. If I wanted to improve as a cyclist for instance set PBs in time trials or do well in road races I would avoid marathon running. If however you dont cycle competitively and your main challenge is running a marathon then go for it.

jairaj

I used to do the odd bit of running (10K off road). I found the cycling helped maintain a general good level of fitness as would any form of exercise but it didn't seem to do a lot for my running. Although it was good for recovery, you use different muscles so usually going for a cycle got the blood pumping around well but didn't strain the tried running muscles too much.

if you're doing something big like a marathon then I would suggest you need to do some good running preparation.

newtez2

Iv done the London marathon it was brill!! also done shed loads of half that seems to be the right amount of distance for my body to cope with,
Just take your time and dont go into it to fast you still have many many months to get them miles out,
Up the distance to about 10% every other week and you will be fine,
To be honest you will see some right sights at the marathon! some people really dont have a clue about trainning and shouldnt even run a marathon its a bloody long way!!

I missed out this year and next year!!!