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

I believe in experimentation - Try one technique and try and perfect it and then add some variation - Better or not? When I ran every workout harder - It worked as far as results - Before - If my MP was 6:15 and I ran most my workouts 6:45-7:15 (+:30-1:00) occassionally long runs were a tad slower. I would run 20 milers were the 1st half = 7:15 and 2nd 6:15. Recovery runs usually started out slower but averaged at least 7:15. Now MP 6:40 - Is it cause and effect or lack of mileage - We will see. I am just starting to get some traction on eating, mileage, consistent workouts + Weight workouts. I am confident that the slower pace on recovery runs will allow me to gain more from speed work and have me in PR shape and then some by summer / fall. If not I will experiement some more. I would agree that if you are getting steady improvement with an approach - Stick with it. But if you plateau for too long - experiement.

But, would it hold true over the long term? To put it in a different way, would improvement continue for as long and would the ultimate peak be as high as with not running so hard? Maybe not. Question for you...what would you the estimate cost of running 5 seconds per mile too fast for your condition during the the first 15 miles of a marathon? Could you expand on this a bit, e.g. 3 seconds too fast, 6 seconds, etc., effect on finish time in minutes, and any other thoughts on pacing.

It really depends - Because I train higher mileage (100-120 mpw during peak training) - I may be able to hold on much better than other people. To some I believe it 5-6 seconds too fast can be disasterous - Like: 15 mile @ 6:36 pace 16-20 slowing to 7:00 pace 20-26.2 Slowing to 8:00 pace - Ending up with 1:26:30 / 1:40:00 In Houston 2006. I was stubborn and tried to hold / increase a pace 3-5 seconds psat my fitness 10k 39:26 (6:21 avg) 1/2 M 1:22:46 (6:19 avg) (6:17 pace between 10k and 1/2) 30k 1:57:53 (6:20 avg) (6:22 pace between 1/2M and 30k) Finish time 2:47:14 (6:23) (6:30 pace between 30k and finish) I believe if I hand not pushed hard earlier, I could have run 6:21 the whole way - Maybe gaining 1 minute. This is the race that I came to realize that even when your legs feel trashed - If you can run 1 more step, you can force yourself to keep a decent pace for another mile and another mile - I feel confident if I can get myself to mile 20, I can force turnover to the finish. I think the average marathon can get away with 3 seconds, maybe 50% get away with 6 seconds and struggle in with a 1-3 minute time loss over a perfect paced race. Above that, most low to mid mileage people will lose much more time. I am not sure if that answers your question - To me the perfect race is Mile # 1 MP + add 6-10 seconds Mile 2-4 MP + add 3-6 seconds Mile 5-20 MP Mile 20+ Gauge what ever you have left and spend it all by 26.22 in an even and orderly manner. It takes my legs about 4 miles to warm up

Last Sunday's 30k shook my confidence a little because it was the first race in a while that I really faded (from high 6:30's to high 6:40's) over the last few miles. I'm hoping that starting at 10-12 sec per mile slower in the marathon will have me feeling a lot better at 20 miles than I did Sunday near the end. In another 2 miles I'm afraid I would have been in death march mode.

Last Sunday's 30k shook my confidence a little because it was the first race in a while that I really faded (from high 6:30's to high 6:40's) over the last few miles. I'm hoping that starting at 10-12 sec per mile slower in the marathon will have me feeling a lot better at 20 miles than I did Sunday near the end. In another 2 miles I'm afraid I would have been in death march mode.

Jim, 3 hours is tough but you are very much on track. Your two 1:24 half marathons should give you a lot of confidence. Overall the 30k time wasn't bad and a headwind can make a huge difference. Look at the guys you beat!

No pressure

Thanks you guys; I guess I was just looking for a boost of confidence. In the end it's going to be up to me. Although the slowdown last time did worry me some, I know that the slower pace of the marathon has to make a difference. Last year I ran a negative split on the same 30k course while finishing strong, but my overall time was 2 minutes slower. My biggest concern for CIM is weather. If conditions are same as last year I like my chances.

Hey Jim, good job on the 30k. I think you're on track for just under 3 hours. There's not much wiggle room, but all that means is that you can't have a bad race and still get under 3. So just run a good race. I ran a good race today, a 37:51 10k, down 40 seconds from six weeks ago. My mileage is still low, but this was about a minute off my PB. I ran my first week over 60k in a long time (75k). This will hopefully be a stepping stone to more good weeks. I thought about the chiding above about taking days off (was it Ken?) and figured that if I start running everyday, or even twice a day, the mileage will get up there. So I ran 10 times this week, sometimes twice a day for 20-30 minutes.