2017 Sub 3 Marathons...and beyond! (Read 403 times)

JMac- We'll see!!  There's a new, dead flat, half marathon here in Auckland on April 8 (the day before my birthday).  I'm lining that up as my next major goal race - as long as the wind is negligible it's a potential PR course.

Andres- yeah to be honest it's pretty hard for me to judge how much difference the humidity made as - apart from some cruisy runs in Noosa, I haven't run in those sorts of conditions in probably 6-7 months.

Slingrunner - welcome!

Swim - that sucks about the injury and missing Richmond.  Hope you get it all sorted and recover quickly.

IAM- good luck for the 5k!!

Mark:  Stellar debut and congrats on the sub 3.  Way to gut it out when things went dark.  Don't like races either that bring the faster FM and slower HM runners together.  I struggled with that issue a few years when I was right on the edge of BQ'ing.  Enjoy the recovery and you certainly have faster times ahead!

Welcome Sling!

Swim:  Hope things come back around soon.

Andres: Nice week and a great effort at those two races this weekend!  To me that 1:22 HM is pretty impressive after a 5K!  5K will come around soon enough.  It's still a hard distance to get right and you can improve in a relatively short span with a few weeks to months of sharpening work with the speed.

IAM:  Another monster week!  Don't be afraid to rest up and come back stronger.  Some weeks are just better than others ...

For me:  Another pretty solid week.  Cut the mileage ever so slightly down to the mid 70's versus the 80+ for the past few weeks to start to taper a bit back for my tune-up HM next weekend.  Assuming the weather is somewhat cool (by my standards) I'll give it a go to see where I am in this latest cycle.  Would like to pace myself (in good weather) right around six flat or high 5.5X to see how that feels about right now. The 5K (PR at 17:12) I ran last night was a good sign though since I was coming off 16 miles well faster than GMP in the last 6 days.  Think I'll taper even further this week with just a light workout of a 3 X 1 mile come Tues or Wed to see how my HMP feels right now.

As for the 5K race I paced myself from the gun a bit more aggressively than earlier this summer which helped.  Was around 5:27 (but slightly downwind) or so for first mile split.  Funny thing is that my Garmin Watch went dead a few minutes before the start and then kept rebooting every few seconds until it literally came back up 30 sec before the start.  The GPS signal then was off for the first mile saying I was only running around 5:45 pace which was wrong, but helped push me a bit faster.   Turns out the signal had me running off course as well so it never really was right until the final mile or so.  That said I definitely left it all out there this time.  Felt really hard about 1.5-2 miles in and then for the final mile was thinking how in the world can I maintain this pace?  Didn't help that we were into the wind (and rain) at this point.  Still was able to grab onto a few of the runners ahead of me and reel them in for the final 1/2 mile and was able to pass all but one of them.  Pretty pleased overall since this means I'm really close to sub 17 fitness and hoping that means a good HM is just around the corner!  Will say that my 17:43 in a 90+ deg heat index late in June might have been a somewhat better effort than this one though.  Finally, turned around and paced a friend this morning at a local HM.  Made for a very short night, sleep wise, but enjoyed the company and watching someone else hit their goal!

Weekly Summary
Monday, Oct 23, 2017 thru Sunday, Oct 29, 2017

JMac  - really looking forward to seeing how you and Fly do in NYC next weekend.  Looks like it's pretty wet there at the moment but if the forecast holds you could have near-ideal race conditions next weekend.  I have to say I'm envious of the crowds on those big races.  Auckland certainly has a few people out supporting but nothing like you get in the big cities and there's some long empty stretches.

Weather - nice 5km and sounds like tough conditions.  I ran my 5k PR four weeks or so after my HM PR so hopefully it's a good indicator for your fitness.

JTReeves - With the speed on that 1 mile rep I think you might surprise yourself on your 5km.

Watson - thanks, as per the 1:30 thread I hope the body is benefiting from a bit of rest.

I looked at the final results for the race yesterday.  Just 7 seconds between the top two men as the race winner almost got run down at the end - and some guy ran a 2:53 with no shoes for the second half! (he chucked them because his knee was playing up).  Hannah Oldroyd, who flew past me with about 10km to go (and was still almost 2 minutes behind the womens race leader at the 35km mark) ended up winning the women's race by over a minute - even after stopping to help a guy over the finish line.  Phenomenally well-paced race on her part.  Overall the times were a little slower than last year (which had near-perfect conditions) - the mens winner was 4 minutes slower and the womens winner about 7 minutes slower.

D2nd: Congrats - another sub 3 down!  Sounds like a perfect marathon to me (with good pacing and you will hurt in the last 10K)!  Well done - enjoy the recovery.

JT:  Think your sub 18 5K is alot closer than you think.  NIce week and a speedy workout!

Watson:  Hope the rest does you well!

Good luck to those in NYC!  Hay is in the barn ...

Thanks everybody for the feedback/suggestions.  I'll certainly let you guys know how it goes.  My current plan is to go for the 3:00 if the weather is nice (I won't be devastated if I lose Boston, as I'll get an extra 5 minutes toward it next year).

iamdisappoint- I've run 5 marathons.  I don't think the first counts.    Marathon 2 and marathon 3 were only a couple minute positive splits.  Marathon 4 I had some health issues and did struggle down the stretch, but I had very little base (more than half of my training was in a sling) and I didn't really know what my fitness was heading into the race, marathon 5 was extremely windy and I employed a pretty wacky gambling pacing strategy to try to be with a pace group while running into the worst of the wind and it failed (I did average faster for 20-26 than 14-20 because of wind).

This marathon my base is higher though and I'm recovering very quickly from my runs.  But I am concerned about my ability to hold the pace because I do not run well in heat, and nearly all of my difficult/important runs this cycle have been in bad weather and many didn't go well.  I think I've also had some nutritional issues in the past that I have not worked out... I haven't been able to take in anything beyond Gatorade after mile 16 or so in pretty much all of my marathons.

I also am very low tech, and only run with a stop watch, but hopefully I can find a group of people trying to break 3 hours to go with.

Good Morning Everyone! 5 Weeks until race day for me and I am starting to get excited. Reading some of these race recaps and tapering strategies is making this all very real to me. First off:

SWIM- Absolutely devastating. I get a pit in my stomach just thinking about what you are going through. I'm glad that it sounds like it is relatively minor, but to have put all of that training in and not be able to run your race is incredibly disheartening. I wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy.

IAM- Awesome week. 105 miles at those kinds of paces is incredible. I can't wait to see what you do come race day. This 5k should be a fun one for you.

TN- Good to see you on here and logging a few miles. How has it been feeling? I know you are easing into things and still staying on the bike a lot.

Mark- Congrats on the sub 3. I'll be excited to follow your training and see that time drop even more!

Weatherboy: Looks like a really solid week with a good 5k thrown down on Saturday. That looked like a good time for a rainy day. Congrats!

My week was definitely a unique one. I tried to keep it as routine as possible until Friday when I did a 207 mile relay race with 5 other guys. I ended up putting in 38 miles over 30 hours in some pretty mountainous terrain. In a typical week I average about 1800-2200 feet of climbing over the week. Due to the rave I ran over 6500, with almost all of that being in the two day period.

On Monday I started off with a 4x2 mile workout. I averaged 5:24 pace for those and was surprised at how good I felt. Then on Wednesday I did a nine mile tempo that exceeded all my expectations. I was able to average 5:42 pace, and while it was hard work, it didn't feel like a fluke. I felt relatively comfortable throughout and then sped up for the last couple miles. With 5 weeks of training to go I feel like things are really starting to click. My main competition for St. Jude has also been posting some impressive workouts so I feel the pressure. This is going to be a lot of fun!

Monday, Oct 23, 2017 thru Sunday, Oct 29, 2017