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


Right on Hereford...

    My worry has been though that I have been aided too much by my anaerobic system, which is why I have relatively quick times for the shorter distances. I am not as confident that the anaerobic system will help me nearly as much for the marathon...
    You've got natural speed, but seriously, running a fast 10-miler has almost nothing to do with your anaerobic system, if I've correctly interpreted all that I've read on the subject. Your aerobic system is just fine. I agree with Jim that you will smash that 3-hour mark!
      I may post a fuller report elsewhere but the brief report for the sub-3 group is that I had a good day at the inaugural Channel Islands Harbor half marathon: 1:25:41, a new pr by over 3 minutes, and a good shot of confidence for a sub-3 in a year's time. Looking forward to hearing how Jim and Ken did. John
      Goal: Age grade over 80% on a certified course.
      kcam


        I may post a fuller report elsewhere but the brief report for the sub-3 group is that I had a good day at the inaugural Channel Islands Harbor half marathon: 1:25:41, a new pr by over 3 minutes, and a good shot of confidence for a sub-3 in a year's time. Looking forward to hearing how Jim and Ken did. John
        Very nice, John. That kind of time is a confidence builder and you've got some time to train. I think I'll let Jim do the Rock and Roll race report (he writes far better than I do). Suffice it to say he kicked ass! I didn't do too bad myself with a 1:24:15 but Jim was most definitely the star of the day. BTW, I love the Fall racing season - so many good race reports to read. People have trained all spring/summer and now start to reap the benefits. Good stuff.
          Nice goin' John. Looks like you are way ahead of schedule on that 1:25. I look forward to reading your report. Ken and I caught a fast course on a perfect morning for racing. We were within a few seconds of each other right through to the end (although I didn't always know it). I ended up running my all time age-graded best time of 1:04:09. I knew I was ready to run a good one but this was certainly beyond anything I expected. It gives me renewed hope of a sub-3 marathon, but I still have a couple more big ones coming up before I can even start thinking about. There's the Humboldt Half Marathon on the 19th, followed by Clarksburg 30k on Nov 9. I'm tired!
          Age 60 plus best times: 5k 19:00, 10k 38:35, 10m 1:05:30, HM 1:24:09, 30k 2:04:33
            Jim - nice race today!you are looking good for that sub 3. is the plan to do that at CIM? Alan
            - the grisly details http://alansmiles.blogspot.com
              Great to see the flurry of 1/2m PRs from all of you here, Dakota, Norrin, Ken & Jim! You could throw a blanket over the lot of you if you all raced together! fantastic! Jim, I followed your sub 40 thread on CR for a long time and remember all your hard work in breaking that a while ago and now you are burning through 10k sub 40 in a half marathon - awesome! You a great example of training smart and I always pay particular attention to any of your posts here. I look forward to all your attempts at sub 3's in the coming months, I'm itching to give it a go myself but not for 12 months yet...
                kevinyoder - undecided "ringer" I may be a "ringer" (not sure I agree), but I'm no longer undecided. 11/29 Northern Central Trail Marathon in Sparks, MD I was really disappointed in my 1:24:48 1/2m at the Maymont xc festival on 9/27 because it was over 2 minutes slower than last year. But then I realized that I rested the 2 days before the race last year and just trained right through it this year. At least that's my excuse.
                kcam


                  kevinyoder - undecided "ringer"
                  I may be a "ringer" (not sure I agree), but I'm no longer undecided. 11/29 Northern Central Trail Marathon in Sparks, MD I was really disappointed in my 1:24:48 1/2m at the Maymont xc festival on 9/27 because it was over 2 minutes slower than last year. But then I realized that I rested the 2 days before the race last year and just trained right through it this year. At least that's my excuse. Two weeks ago I ran a 1:26:08 and that was a train-thru and yesterdays 1:24:15 was not. 2 minutes right there. Busiman, DoppleBock, dcv2002 - You guys should be coasting in right now - good luck to you this weekend!
                    Kevin; I updated your record. Is this a different type of trail marathon? Aren't they usually very difficult and slow? As far as tapering, I find that days off right before a race are the kiss of death for me. However, it defnitely helps to run very easily for a few days. Before the Merced half that Ken spoke of, we both ran a lot harder during the week, which makes a big difference on how the legs feel on race day. My adivsor/coach of past 3 years, "Tinman", believes that easy running rather than complete rest days keeps your blood volume up, which is a big advantage for racing. He's been right on just about everything so I don't question it. Thanks Alan, Roth Runner. We really do have a nice group. I imagine there would be some good battles going on if we were to throw all of us togther and have a race. CIM is the marathon I'm planning on, although it's not quite 100%. I have another half marathon plus a 30k coming up and have to see how I come out of those.
                    Age 60 plus best times: 5k 19:00, 10k 38:35, 10m 1:05:30, HM 1:24:09, 30k 2:04:33


                    Right on Hereford...

                      Wow! Just Wow. What a nice way to start the week, reading about all of your fantastic performances from the weekend. John, congrats on a huge 3+ minute PR in the half! You are right on track for that sub-3 marathon next year. I took a peek at your log, and man...talk about consistent! You've obviously got a well-thought-out plan and you are executing it perfectly. One question for you about your taper (and for others, as well)... I noticed that you appeared to cut out all speed work in the last taper week before your half. Do you find that that strategy works better for you than including a little bit of speed for "sharpening" the last week? Just curious how others handle the taper for a half marathon. Personally, I was following a training plan that called for a 20-minute tempo at half marathon pace on Tuesday before the (Sunday) race, and a 6x400 interval session at 5k-10k pace on Thursday before the race. I was happy with the results, but I haven't tried your method yet, so I have no basis for comparison! Ken, looking at your first post in this thread ("SanHoser R$R 1/2 marathon on Oct 8th - NEED to be around 1.25"), I don't think you were really all that close to 1:25, lol. You crushed that mark, which puts you in perfect shape for Silicon Valley at the end of the month. Awesome work! And Jim, I don't think it would surprise me if you did run a 1:04:09 half marathon. Seriously, you have been such an inspiration to us all, and you just keep getting faster. Amazing. Great stuff, everyone!
                        Dakota, I don't know if you were asking me about the taper, but I did include a light workout on Wednesday (4 x 800 plus 8 x 100 strides). Usually if I do something like that and follow with 3 very easy days I feel fully recovered for a Sunday race. That said, the taper can be a highly individual thing and would be a good topic for an entire thread. As I've said several times before, I don't respond well at all to an extreme taper or a lot rest days but I know of some runners who do. While I'm at it, I was impressed with the way you ran in Chicago half, especially considering the lower mileage you've run since I've known you from the forums. You have stepped it up a lot lately, so I don't want to take that away from you, but when you compare with many of us your mileage is still on the low side. It really does make a difference and there is a major cumulative effect after 2-3 years of it. At first I thought you were just a guy who didn't run a lot who had good natural speed. Now I see that you might actually be best at longer distances. Even though you are pushing 40 I see a lot of upside from here if you keep going with your recent trend of training more. No question you can break 3 hrs if you train for it, and probably with lots of room to spare if you train a lot.
                        Age 60 plus best times: 5k 19:00, 10k 38:35, 10m 1:05:30, HM 1:24:09, 30k 2:04:33
                          I may be a "ringer" (not sure I agree), but I'm no longer undecided. 11/29 Northern Central Trail Marathon in Sparks, MD I was really disappointed in my 1:24:48 1/2m at the Maymont xc festival on 9/27 because it was over 2 minutes slower than last year. But then I realized that I rested the 2 days before the race last year and just trained right through it this year. At least that's my excuse.
                          Two weeks ago I ran a 1:26:08 and that was a train-thru and yesterdays 1:24:15 was not. 2 minutes right there. Busiman, DoppleBock, dcv2002 - You guys should be coasting in right now - good luck to you this weekend! A little update. I came down with a virus last Thursday after my last track workout (in addition my hamstring tightened up causing me to abort the workout about 80% of the way in). I was down for the count Fri/Sat/Sun, even thinking I might just cancel the trip since it is 1000 miles away. Felt a little better yesterday and decided instead of lying around like a lump on a log I went out food shopping and mowed the lawn (on a tractor) yesterday evening. That seemed to perk me up. So I ran 5k this morning at probably too fast of a pace. My legs were like stone, but I seem to be OK now. I'm going to try 6-7 tomorrow AM with a couple @ MP and see how that goes. Then coast in to Sunday from there. I think sub-3 is almost out now. We'll see how I feel. I would like to set a PR though (sub 3:06). Depending how I feel on Sunday will determine whether I go for 650s, 700, 705s or 710s..
                            Wow! Just Wow. One question for you about your taper (and for others, as well)... I noticed that you appeared to cut out all speed work in the last taper week before your half. Do you find that that strategy works better for you than including a little bit of speed for "sharpening" the last week? Just curious how others handle the taper for a half marathon.
                            Thanks. I'm still experimenting with what works best for a taper. I think for a half marathon and less there is room for quite a bit of flexibility and variation from person to person. From what I have read the physiology of the marathon means that there are some different considerations. For me the taper (for the half) is as much mental as it is physical. I want to go into the race feeling good, feeling positive, and feeling fresh. For that reason I make the day before entirely optional. If I want to run a few miles I do, if I don't, or don't get around to it, that's good too. If I don't run I might run a little whilst I walk the dog to stretch out my legs. I cycle to work as well so it's not like I'm sedentary if I don't run. I think, and have read, that some speedwork mid-week is a good idea during the taper. Before the Pier to Peak half I had a 5k race on the Wednesday before. I'm not good at taking races 'easy' and ended up with an 18:21. I doubt this helped my fitness directly but it sure helped my confidence. I felt great for the race and wanted to replicate that taper for this weekend (cut back from 60 miles to about 40 and have a tempo workout on Wednesday). Unfortunately with the waning daylight I just ran out of time to get to the track on Wednesday evening and walk the dog so I went to the beach and ran, what might charitably be called some fartlek type intervals, whilst the dog watched. It was fun. One of my other goals is to make sure that with all this training and planning running remains fun. I added a race report here: http://www.runningahead.com/forums/topic/34669280110940a8acff8b771a3a721a John
                            Goal: Age grade over 80% on a certified course.
                            DoppleBock


                              I was away for the weekend and lots has happened - Jim and Ken - Congrats on 2 mighty fine 1/2 marathons - Definately sub 3:00 material. and ... Running a 1:01:47 (Not sure about seconds) - I ran one of those in December 2005 right before I ran a 2:47 in January @ Houston. I just cost myself 3-4 minutes by spending the weekend drinking way to much beer and eating way to much food - 3 day bad, bad, bad! I am all out of rythm with marathon on Saturday. I had been really making headway and was starting to think low 2:50s with the right weather. Now I am solidly shooting just to break 3:00 and I will be thrilled with it. good running to all -

                              Long dead ... But my stench lingers !

                               

                               

                              DoppleBock


                                PS to all of you 1/2 marathoners. I only ran a 1:25:58 1/2 marathon before running (6 weeks later) a 2:56 marathon time - So I think anything 1:27 or under has a shot.

                                Long dead ... But my stench lingers !