2019 Sub 3 hour marathon thread (Read 680 times)

Lela - amazing PR. I do agree with Steve that the course is tough now. I'm going for a PR there too, but it's very likely we will be facing a headwind for most of the race. Also, finishing in Central Park seems like a nightmare. I'm not looking forward to having to run such hilly terrain over the last 2 miles or so. I'm not sure I'll run it in the future, but I had a deferred entry from last year and figured I would give it a shot.

 

Steve - how are you feeling?

 

Race Question - I know Madison did 2 crazy marathons in a short time span, but for normal folks, have you been able to PR a shorter distance within a relatively quick turnaround after a marathon? I'm asking because there is a half marathon 4.5 weeks after Boston that I want to run, but only if I can run well. I know that I'll be recovered enough that I won't be risking injury, but I'm curious if anyone else has done well in these types of races.

I haven’t raced 4.5 weeks after but I have about 6 weeks after and they have usually gone pretty well.  Been a bit flat after this marathon but most of the time I have felt pretty good.

inside a marathon by Scott Fauble and Ben Rosario is a must read.  If you have ever coached on any level you will love it.  If you haven’t ever coached you will love it.  Fauble is going to do massive things at that distance.

Thanks all - still riding the PR high.

Steve/Jmac - So despite living in NY my entire life, I've never raced in NYC. Granted I live 6 hours from the city. With that said, I have been down there to spectate the marathon a few times. But in general, I don't have a good perspective of what is good bad about races there (I have run over some of the bridges and in CP but not enough to really have it burned in my brain - though this could work in my favor in some ways I'd imagine. Based on what you said and I have heard, it's definitely a harder course than before. But (I'm weird) and actually would prefer that, since I am using it as a tuneup for Boston. I'd rather run slightly slower but have  to practice running with wind, crowds, and hills to make sure I'm better ready to roll come April 15th. Maybe that means I don't knock down my new PR again in March, but if it means I'm set up for better success at the full distance I'm okay with that.

Swim- I actually just unwrapped my copy of inside a marathon. Pre-ordered a while ago and it came  a week or two ago but currently have like 3 others I'm reading. I'm hoping to wrap some of those up this weekend so I can get started on it. I've heard really good things though and looking forward to being able to chat about it after with you/anyone else who reads it. I also listened to a podcast with Fauble just recently that was recorded months before his breakthrough, it was interesting to listen knowing how things kind of turned out for him last year.

Jmac- I really like that turnaround time for races, maybe a little less for fulls but a full to a half or shorter distance - it's really good timing. You have the space to recover but not so far removed that you lose a ton of fitness.

Lela - congrats again on your massive PR.  Sounds like a sub 80 might just be right around the corner!  Don't currently have any plans to go visit our family since we were up there in late October.  Thinking more like the summer and fall too cool off from here 

Agree with what some others have said as I think 3-4 weeks after a marathon you should be ready to give another race a shot.  Ran a solid 10K about 3 weeks after my marathon PR last Jan/Feb and then felt like I was ready to run another solid marathon within 4-6 weeks, but I have to imagine the mileage base going into each one plays a big role.  Also think a painful marathon gone wrong where you trudge through the finish will leave the body beat up more.

Thanks JMac. Yeah, I must admit I'm going to have to a bit careful as I've done quite a bit of volume with quality in a short span and hence why I only ran 6 today   Also been trying to keep up with nightly core and some stretching work in the time being.   Having said that I'm going to need a week where I take a bit of a step back to make sure I absorb some of this latest work.  I also need to move my next LR tomorrow morning and just entered a local 5K (for a good charity) and will run that us 8E + 3.1T +7 or 8E, which at least sounds a bunch easier than the 13 at quality last weekend - lol.  Sunday will still be a recovery day!

Lela - congrats again on your massive PR.  Sounds like a sub 80 might just be right around the corner!  Don't currently have any plans to go visit our family since we were up there in late October.  Thinking more like the summer and fall too cool off from here 

 

Agree with what some others have said as I think 3-4 weeks after a marathon you should be ready to give another race a shot.  Ran a solid 10K about 3 weeks after my marathon PR last Jan/Feb and then felt like I was ready to run another solid marathon within 4-6 weeks, but I have to imagine the mileage base going into each one plays a big role.  Also think a painful marathon gone wrong where you trudge through the finish will leave the body beat up more.

Jumping on the congrats as well - and going sub-80 would put you in range for an OTQ (seems to be the pre-requisite fitness from what I've seen from teammates/friends).

As for post-marathon recovery, I really think it depends.  I can tell you that there's no way that I could run a solid time at any distance - marathon or shorter, within 4 weeks of a marathon.  Some of that may be that I like to take a solid break after my marathons.  But even when I've jumped back into training 2 weeks post-marathon, I've noted that my performance is definitely compromised for some time after.  I've run a second marathon 8-9 weeks after a marathon twice, and both times I felt that my performance in the second was compromised by the first.  I just don't have the same reserves.

Again, it's individual - I certainly know quite a few people who bounce right back from a marathon to PR at another distance a few weeks later.  I suspect that my slow recovery post marathon is related to the fact that I'm a very slow recoverer anyways.  I also structure my training to peak at my goal race  - I wouldn't be surprised if that's also why I'm done for a while after.

Lela: Wow, congrats on the outstanding half!  That's a great start to your Boston cycle and your pursuit of an OTQ. That time puts you in sub 2:50 marathon territory according to JD's calculator, which I find to be pretty accurate. It's great that you had competition and were actually racing against others, that has to help you push yourself a bit harder.

Regarding racing after a marathon, my experience is similar to Darkwave: I have trouble doing anything fast in the 4 weeks post-marathon. I've jumped into training hard-ish just a couple weeks post-race in the past, and it came back to bite me in the form of colds and fatigue. That said, I need a long time to recover from hard workouts in general relative to others.

 

 Race Question - I know Madison did 2 crazy marathons in a short time span, but for normal folks, have you been able to PR a shorter distance within a relatively quick turnaround after a marathon? I'm asking because there is a half marathon 4.5 weeks after Boston that I want to run, but only if I can run well. I know that I'll be recovered enough that I won't be risking injury, but I'm curious if anyone else has done well in these types of races.

I do this pretty regularly and find that once my marathon soreness goes away (~1 week) it will take me another week or so of easy running before I'm ready to try anything hard.  I always do a workout of some sort prior to the second race just as a trial to see if I'm ready to go after a PR or not.  So I think 3 weeks would be about the minimum between racing a marathon and going after a PR at another race.  Just try it and see how it goes.  Based on your running the week before the race you should have a good idea of if you're ready or not.