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

iamdisappoint

I have completely abandoned the strength training, actually. I had a weird pull in my lower abdomen that I was worried might be a hernia. I saw a doc for it in May, and he couldn't find any evidence of a hernia, and we talked through the lifting + running. He eventually shrugged it off. I noticed that various core exercises seemed to bother it, so I started doing those more infrequently, and eventually tailed off to nothing. I don't think I've done anything but run and stretch since July or so. I'd like to get back to it after Richmond.

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I had what appears to be a similar issue.  Dec of 2015 I got a strange pull in my lower abdomen, just right of center.  Felt it during warm up, but not really after a mile or so.  Felt it when lifting and doing any core work.  Doctor quickly ruled out hernia, but said to back off of the lifting/core stuff.  March of 2016 I had my hamstring issue, which the doctor seems to think is related somehow.  Either way, I didn't do any core until after this year's Boston.  Decided to just start doing core work again. Powered through the discomfort for a few weeks and then it went away. And yet the hamstring issue still lingers...

Andres - Is there a Google Sheets link for everybody's upcoming races? I'm totally lost now without that sheet as to where everybody stands.

I just threw up a link on the first post.  Sorry about that.  I was hoping to figure out how to make the sheet appear in the post, but didn't get too far.  I tried to update it, but I know I failed to add some people.  If I have missed you, can you remind me again of your race and your PR so I can put it up there?

 

I just threw up a link on the first post.  Sorry about that.  I was hoping to figure out how to make the sheet appear in the post, but didn't get too far.  I tried to update it, but I know I failed to add some people.  If I have missed you, can you remind me again of your race and your PR so I can put it up there?

Andres - Please add me to the spreadsheet - Tucson Marathon - December 9th - PR 2:58:20 - Goal 2:48:59 (MM)*

Looks like I'll be the last race of the year - hopefully folks will stick around.

*FYI - For those of you not from Runner's World, we had a thing there called a Moose Mug, which is a marathon in 2 hours plus your age (+20 minutes for women).  There is a guy named Ray Bentley who will make you an engraved mug if you make this time.

 

I just threw up a link on the first post.  Sorry about that.  I was hoping to figure out how to make the sheet appear in the post, but didn't get too far.  I tried to update it, but I know I failed to add some people.  If I have missed you, can you remind me again of your race and your PR so I can put it up there?

Upcoming race: Richmond on 11/11. PR is 2:47:56 from this year's Boston. Tentative Richmond goal is 2:39.

So you were not badly affected by the heat? I remember on RWOL there were guys running 30-40 minutes off PR, despite having a good cycle.

I was definitely affected, but managed to avoid taking as much of a hit as some others, I guess. I'm small (5'6", 130), and the bigger you are, the more heat affects you. I also did RWOL user kayry's sweat runs the Friday and Saturday before the race. Put many layers on, run on a TM in an unventilated environment for 45-60 minutes, and attempt to lose ~3% of bodyweight in sweat. This isn't pleasant, but causes your body to temporarily store more plasma, which is useful for a hot marathon. 

I was probably in 2:43-2:44 shape too, so I definitely lost something to the conditions.

I appreciate the compliment, but you'll need to bump me down at least one spot: the donut master himself ran 2:45 at Boston last year!

Hi everyone, another defector from RWOL.

I was AWOL from there for a couple weeks as I was in vacations and then started a new job that was really time consuming. I just had time to lurk one day when I saw Andres talking about  this website right before they shut it down over there.

I finally have a bit of time to post here,first of all to thank all the sub3 guys from the RWOL forum. I ran Chicago 10 days ago and finished in 2:54:42. There is a great deal of knowledge on that old forum and here now that helped me get that 15 min PR. If I find some more time, I'll try to write another bio. I don't think I kept the one I put in RWOL somewhere.

Quick race recap on Chicago. I was following some variation of Daniels 2Q for 18 weeks, with not so much mileage compared to some posters here but definitely a bump from my previous cycles, stayed most of the weeks between 45 and 60. My last workouts, races at the end of summer were pointing to 2:53 shape but my last 5 weeks, I didn't get any workout in and not much mileage, as I was traveling in Europe and then starting a new job with a huge project deadline right before the race so it was just easy miles where I could fit them.

Weather was a little hot for Chicago so I decided to shoot for 2:55. I was glad it was an easy pace to check (6:40) and that I had a pace band. I always run with autolap on, so I was worried I would forget to split manually the miles, as the GPS goes crazy downtown in Chicago but I did all the splits, except mile 26.

I remember holding back the first couple of miles, trying to always stay close to the tangent(that was not really visible by the way), conserve my energy as I knew it was gonna be hot. Got my gels at 7,14 and 21. Got some water and gatorade every stop, dumping water on my head too. Got through the half in 1:27:06, a bit fast but the first few miles, it was really tough to find the right pace.

I started noticing around mile 17/18 that I wasn't sweating as much anymore, I started to feel the heat.

Around mile 20, there was this guy that was running next to me (we kept passing each other) pretty much the whole race, that started to speed up, or at least, wasn't fading. So i decided to stay with him. We passed a lot of people there, mile 24 we were still together but then on that long straightaway, I really started to struggle to stay behind him, could feel my legs starting to cramp.

I was really fighting to stay on pace, battling thoughts like "relax you got sub3 , just jog it in. Who cares if you do 2:55 or 2:57?".

As I saw the 800m to go, I started to open my stride, ok this is it, 2 laps around the track and you are home. 300m to go, you turn and there is a 100m incline. I didn't know about that, I was like "wtf??? who does that?", started to swear and laugh nervously. I pushed the last 200m to make sure the clock read 2:54x  as I was passing the line.

So pretty happy with the result given the weather and my workload the last 5 weeks of the cycle. I feel like I settled for the right goal time and executed very well.

I haven't run again yet, as I had some weird pains in my right leg last week. I ahve benn rolling a lot and it feels better. going to try to get some easy miles today andthe rest of the week.

I  have a bib for NYC, so if I feel like I can run it without injury, I might see some of you there. I saw that some plan to get through the half in 1:29. I'll let you know if I feel recovered well enough for that, could be fun.

Just wanted to post this to thank the sub3 guys from RWOL again, as it was a great help and motivation to train through the summer, and hopefully as I start running more again and things start to settle at work, I'll start posting here again.

Paris: Congratulations on the huge PR at Chicago! Given you did that with relatively low mileage you probably have room for significant further improvement.