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

Good luck Sparky and  Bhearn,

 

Sparky, congrats on your training.  You are ready!

 Same here Sparky & Bhearn.

That looks like an excellent build-up Sparky - looking forward to hearing how you do.

For this training cycle (starting in Jan 2009) I’ve run 1325mi in the 21 weeks prior to the race for an avg. of 63mi/week. I managed to do 7 of these weeks at 70+mi and 3 of them at 80+mi. I might also note that my son was born 6 weeks ago which knocked down my mileage for about 2 weeks (not using this as an excuse for “lower” mileage though).

 

Looking back at last year’s training, I can’t even believe I ran a 3:06 on the mileage I was at… I didn’t realize it was so low!

 

I’m planning to run this Sunday’s race more aggressively than I did at my last marathon. This will be my 3^rd marathon and I know *somewhat* more of what to expect. I’m also more comfortable with my race pace, having done 3 long-tempo’s of 15, 17, 18 miles at MP.

 

I’m buzzing with energy and excitement!!

 You should be - all that data sounds good - Stay possitive and stay smooth - No straining - just smooth to mile #20 ...

Have a great race!

No, I'm not going for sub-3 again tomorrow. Newport was my original sub-3 goal, but you guys convinced me to go for it at Boston -- which I am extremely grateful for!

After I ran sub-3 at Boston I figured I would try it again at Newport. But I've been averaging 1 marathon / week since then, and they haven't been fast. In fact each time I go out slower, and each time it's still too fast. I haven't been doing any serious training since Boston, and I've cut way back on (midweek) miles. So -- I'm figuring on 3:20ish tomorrow. It's a little painful not to go for it on such a fast course, but really I'm not in shape for it. (At least this time I've had an extra week's rest; I didn't run last weekend. Hopefully this will get me out of my downward spiral. OTOH, I have 2 lined up for next weekend...)

Sparky -- go get 'em! Looks like you're well positioned. But hey, you know, negative splitting is still a sound strategy!

Bhearn, you continue to amaze me!  How many marathon have you run this year?

9 total, 7 in the streak starting with Boston (7 weekends). There are plenty of other maniacs who have run way more than that this year. Some of them fast... Annie Thiessen won Newport on Saturday in 2:56, after winning Capital City two weeks earlier in 2:58. Damn! (She now says she's "retired", but I'll believe it when I see it.)

So... Sparky, what was your result??? Don't keep us waiting.

 

So... Sparky, what was your result??? Don't keep us waiting.

 

 Sorry to keep you waiting  Just rolled in the door now after a busy weekend - we had a "meet our son" party after the marathon so there was little time for me to post.

I was successful! I ran 2:59:18, for 2nd place in the 20-24AG and 19th overall. I will post a proper race report tommorrow but in the meantime the stats:

   first half split: 1:31:33

    second half split: 1:27:45

My goal was to run even splits but it ended out in a slight negative one - not too bad. The course was an out and back and was steady climbing (with 1 big climb) so it was conducive to negative splits if one paced themselves properly. No crashes, although I did have the 20mi+ "why do I run marathons?" thought running through my head.

Its great to break the 3 hour barrier! The 42 second leeway I had is one lonnnnnnnnnng and painful 42 seconds. Next goal: 2:55 in Royal Victoria Marathon in October. That one's at sea-level so I'm interested to see what I can do if I keep up my training.

stay tuned for race report tommorrow.

Thanks to everyone for your advice - whether it was explicitly given or if I picked it up by my super lurking skills.