Sprinter but now want to take part in marathon

Question

I was a sprinter who used to run 100, 200 metres races, but now I'm training myself to improve my stamina and run long distance races.

I run on a treadmill 1 km everyday. Will a treadmill help me increase my stamina or do I have to choose an open field/road?

Also, I have completed 1 km in 4:05 minutes, is it good enough if I'm preparing for a 10 km race? Half and full marathon is a distant dream as of now. Also, I want to run marathons as a personal achievement only.

I'm open for any valuable suggestions.

Answer 1

Progressing

A treadmill is a very good place to gain stamina, but only 1km is very little.

Suffice to say, if you want to complete a half marathon, you won't be running 1km per day, and then suddenly 21km on event day, right?

If you run on a treadmill you have the luxury of setting a steady tempo for yourself, and seeing how far you can get at that tempo without having to walk.

Testing

So one plan of attack would be to set the treadmill to say 12km/h, and test yourself. Say you can run 8km at that pace, you have a benchmark to go by.

After a month of running at different speeds and different distances, try testing yourself at 12km/h again.

You should also seek to test yourself at distances outside, in the environment that the half-marathon would be held on (concrete, terrain, etc). Try for instance completing a 10k as fast as you can, and use that as another measurement for your progress.

Calculating your needed average velocity

Say you want to complete the half-marathon in 4 hours (just an example).

21km / 4h = 5.25 km/h, so that's the average speed you'd need to complete it in that time. I see now that this should be a very pedestrian speed, so let's try 3 hours.

21km / 3h = 7km/h. This should be very doable for most people, especially someone who is already presumably in decent shape.

You get the idea, right? You should easily be able to gauge whether or not you'd like to participate in the upcoming half-marathon based on what you've been seeing on the treadmill.

Answer 2

Your pace for 1km is good but you need to train by doing longer distances or your body will not be at all ready for a 10k and you will in no way be able to keep that 1k pace on a 10k run while only training 1k each run. Start increasing the distance you run until you are up to at least being able to run 5k or 6k at a comfortable pace. If you have the time try to run 10k once a week at least to get a feel for the pace you need to set for the race. Also, running on a treadmill is not bad but try getting some running in outside as it is much different than running on a level treadmill with a steady pace given you by the machine. If possible, try to find the route for the race and run it a few times before the race.