Goal of Sub-3 Hour Marathon (Read 15845 times)

My first time going sub-3, Bay State 2002, I was very confident in my training, but not so much in my body. I had acute Achilles tendinites and wasn't sure I'd even start the race, let alone finish it. I was probably in 2:52-2:53 shape. The weather was good, the course was pretty flat. I did almost no running the week of the race, went out in 6:30-6:40 pace and was going along fine through half. Felt some pain starting to come after 10 miles, just before half, coming down off of a bridge I felt a "pop" in my achilles and a shooting pain. I slowed and just tried to take inventory...everything seemed structurally okay but there was more pain now. I just backed off and kept going. I told myself that I'd try to take it easy all the way to 20 miles and if I was still runnig at that point, I try to grind it out even if it meant I'd be in a cast for 2 months. I wound up finishing in 2:57:46 in a lot of pain. It's weird how race adrenaline works because a few feet past the finish line I could not bear any weight on my left foot. But hey I broke 3. I've crunched some numbers on my 6 best marathon performances and the clear predictor is mileage. Among those top 6 performances there is a perfect relationship between total miles run in the 3 full months before the marathon and my finish times. No other factor seems to matter.

My goal is to break 3 at this year's Chicago Marathon. I've come really close twice in my life: 3:01 at the age of 21 in Fort Wayne, a 3:03 at the 95 Chicago Marathon. Now that I'm 44, I'm giving it another shot. I ran a hilly 1/2 M in 1:29:48 in March. I know I need to improve that by about 4 minutes to have roughly an equivalent sub 3 marathon. But, I hadn't really trained that much to run the 1:29 half. It should help that I finally have some training partners again that really push me. In 95 I was running solo almost all the time.

My goal is to break 3 at this year's Chicago Marathon. I've come really close twice in my life: 3:01 at the age of 21 in Fort Wayne, a 3:03 at the 95 Chicago Marathon. Now that I'm 44, I'm giving it another shot. I ran a hilly 1/2 M in 1:29:48 in March. I know I need to improve that by about 4 minutes to have roughly an equivalent sub 3 marathon. But, I hadn't really trained that much to run the 1:29 half. It should help that I finally have some training partners again that really push me. In 95 I was running solo almost all the time.

Welcome BoilerTom. You're on the list. Good luck!

I've crunched some numbers on my 6 best marathon performances and the clear predictor is mileage. Among those top 6 performances there is a perfect relationship between total miles run in the 3 full months before the marathon and my finish times. No other factor seems to matter.

As a relatively new runner (only running for 2 years...only 1 marathon under my belt) I'm hoping that mileage is the best predictor for me too!!! Just out of curiousity Mikey, when you first went sub-3:00 (or when you first thought you could) what kind of mileage were you putting in? What kind of 10K times were you at?

Is there such a thing as to much of a base. Would have this mileage so far out make me peak too soon..

No. That's the short answer. The longer answer is the same, too. But, you do want to be mixing it up some, touching a variety of paces, doing strides and hill charges, working on form drills, racing every now and then, etc. during the base season. The problem is not so much peaking as getting stale.

No. That's the short answer. The longer answer is the same, too. But, you do want to be mixing it up some, touching a variety of paces, doing strides and hill charges, working on form drills, racing every now and then, etc. during the base season. The problem is not so much peaking as getting stale.

That's exactly what I have been doing, intervals, hills, tempo, long runs, easy runs, and then racing maybe once every two months right now.

Just out of curiousity Mikey, when you first went sub-3:00 (or when you first thought you could) what kind of mileage were you putting in? What kind of 10K times were you at?

The first time I thought I could run sub 3 was 2002 Boston, I ran 3:01:13. I was running 50-70 mpw leading up to it, ran a HM of 1:21:52 in March. I was doing 1-2 workouts a week, pretty standard stuff--30 minute tempos, some intervals etc. The first time I actually did run sub 3 was 6 months later at Bay State, when I ran 2:57+. Coming so close at Boston helped me focus and be more consistent--ran 60-70 mpw all summer leading up to it, had a longest run of 23 miles, I raced pretty often and even brought my 5k PR down to 17:17 that July. That was the one time I pretty closely followed a cookie cutter plan--the 70 mpw marathon plan straight out of Pfitzinger and Douglas' Road Racing for Serious Runners. I think I'm blessed with more speed that Dopple Bock but I don't have good natural endurance--that is always my weakness. The last few years I've focussed almost exclusively on the marathon and run pretty decent mileage for a hobby jogger and yet my marathon times, while coming a lot more in line with my other races, are still weak compared to most of my shorter PR's. I probably would have made a fairly useful 1500m runner at one point in my life. I'm experimenting with going back to the 5k for the first half of this summer, partly because I want to and partly to see if I can't move the whole line down from this current base of fitness that I've got...the results of this experiment won't be out until probably October though. If I can't get my marathon time in line with my 5k-HM times, then maybe the answer is to move my 5k-HM times down. In the back of my mind, 2:45 is the goal for fall of this year.