Where did I go Wrong?? (Read 424 times)

I ran my second marathon today, and despite getting a personal best, I was very very disappointed. Last year I ran my first marathon with a time of 4:09. Today I ran 4:02. A personal best by 6 minutes. However through 20 miles I was on pace for a 3:40 marathon but ended up having to walk most of the last 6 miles because I was in so much pain. I thought at the very least I would be in the 3:55 range.

I know my training wasn't perfect, and my taper was way too steep. However I have been sick the last two weeks and had to cut back my mileage more just to get healthy for today. And I didn't follow a formal training plan. For August and September my long run was in the 14-16 mile range. I never went past 16 miles this training cycle. I am thinking in future training cycles I need to be hitting 20 miles consistently and need more speed work.

In terms of racing strategy, my fueling strategy was spot on. I ran with the 3:40 pace bunny through the 19 mile mark. In the early part of the race his pacing was much quicker then 3:40. A 3:40 marathon is 8:23 a mile and we were much closer to 8:00 mile through the half.

Any advice or recommendations would be great appreciated. Thanks very much in advance.

Congrats on your second marathon.  Like Spaniel said the answer is more miles.   I would add some MP runs also.

You may have to run a few more marathons before you run your best.  It is so hard not to go out too fast.

Bump your daily runs up to about eight miles and run lots of hills.

Run three 20+ long runs in your training cycle.

No advice from me, but I am just curious whether that is normal for a pacer to lead a wrong pace. I've never had a luxury to follow a pacer in a face. However, if a pacer gave me a wrong pace, I'd rather not to have one. As we all know, to run the best of one's ability, the pace is critical.

It is not normal, but it happens, and plenty of people here can share stories. Pacers are human. Most people will tell you if you are very serious about your race goal, don't put your pacing in anyone's hands but your own.

The simple answer is you went out too fast for your conditioning.  You said you were closer to 8:00 pace through half...well south of 3:40 pace....so you crashed.  Unless you were gunning for 3:30, you went out too fast.

 

Looking at your log, you only have 5 weeks north of 40 mpw training for this race.  Longer long runs is only a partial answer.  More speedwork is certainly not the answer.  The #1 thing you need to do is run more.  #2 would be tempo work.  I would put a longer long run at #3.  With 40ish mpw, a 20 mile long run is half your weekly mileage.  That is an incredibly unbalanced approach.  Other than that one run per week, you would scarcely be doing runs of any significant distance.

Sorry for the delayed reply. I am so sore and tired right now. I just started a new job two weeks ago and part of the job is writing a series of regulatory exams. Well guess when the first exam was scheduled for? 9am this morning in downtown Toronto. The exam was easy. But getting there was extremely difficult especially since I can barely walk.

Based on my training what pace should I have targeted going into the race? By the time I hit 20 miles I had no other choice to start walking/running. But mostly walking. I believe at the very least I could have broker 4:00 hours.  How do you know what the right pace you should pick?

I didn't follow a structured training plan this cycle. Probably an error. The issue I have with a structured plan is, the first few weeks are easy to follow. But then they call for an 11 mile run on a Thursday night. The reality is I can't do that many miles on a week night just because of family commitments. I think I can probably push my week night runs to 8 maybe 9 miles.

So more weekly miles, a weekly tempo run at marathon pace, and to a lesser extent longer long runs and some speed work. Anything else

Thanks

In my experience, you were kind of doomed before you started.  Peaking at 14-16 miles for long run is a recipe for disaster.  At least it would be for me.

Generally, when I build for a marathon, I try to get to at least 24 mile long runs.  Or at the very least, so that the time on my feet is about the same as my goal time.

Even during my training, I find that I can almost (with a watch or GPS) know exactly when I am approaching the distance of my previous long run.  My form starts to go and things start to get very difficult.

Some people say a 20 mile long run should be enough because the taper, crowd, excitement, etc. should be able to carry you through that last 10k.  That isn't the case for me.  My wall always seems to be the distance of my longest run in the previous 3-4 weeks.

Longer long runs on the road is a tricky thing - you don't want to get so beat up it eats into your weekly mileage... which, yes, should be more. Count me as one who's only been back to the sport a few years and thought I could find a clever mix of workouts that would get around that.

 

Mileage is king.

 

You might want to approach the long run by time, anyway, building up to the time you expect to spend on your feet on race day. If you do some trail running already, you may want to do an occasional long run off road. It doesn't help you with the problem of pounding yourself into pavement for 26 miles, but I'm nearly 40 and can run 20+ easy on trails and still be able to run the next day. Not so on the road. ymmv. heh.

Trail running rules; I'm 57 and do the bulk of my miles on trails, I even managed over 100 miles one week this summer and my legs were still good to go each and every day.

I agree with others: mileage and more longer long runs.

I also think there are some other important factors like hydration, efficient energy distribution through the marathon and mental toughness (confidence). I focus on the 2nd and 3rd points in my long runs (over 20 mi), in other words, to figure out what my potential MP is, whether I have the confidence to execute it on the race day and how I can cope with the tough moments. I always have doubt moments during the training and races, but practicing in training certainly helps me to manage to overcome those moments in the races.

Since youre asking..

Taper was too long.. maybe 30 miles the week before and 20 the week of.

But, as much as adding miles... there needs to be workouts in there. Tempos in the 40 min range are great. Maybe a 60 min tempo once a month. And some faster workouts would be great too (if you really want to drop time). In fact, I would go out right now focus on that 5k time.