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

Fly - I’m pretty sure I’ll be going back to a 7 day week US style training at the beginning of next year. 

Watson - Congrats on a podium finish! Running a marathon solo is a lot harder imo...so maybe pick a bigger race next time?

Piwi - Nice solid 50 miles! Is that you surfing on your avatar??

Marky - Thanks and nice week. Taper time soon!

Swim - Wow, your training is amazing and that 10k TT is something else!  You really need to start believing in yourself because you’re capable of kicking IAM’s butt big time...YES YOU ARE!!!

Andres - You must be on a high meeting me again. 

This went about as well as it could have gone. I thought there was only about a 20% chance that I'd hit the targets on all of the workouts, but I was able to more or less do them all as prescribed.

Tuesday was my first experience with the special block setup. The 6x5m in the morning was totally fine. The evening workout was poorly planned, as the track ended up being closed, so I had to work it out around the path which goes around the river in Cambridge/Boston. It was hard to get the legs to turn over in the first mile, but the remainder wasn't that bad at all.

Thursday's workout ended up being hard to stick to on the 3rd and 4th rep, which probably had as much to do with the humidity coming back as with training load. Yesterday was humid as well, but I seem to have gotten on top of the LRs with late quality pretty well.

As things stand right now, I'd need to be able to sustain 255-257W for the FM to have some wiggle room under 2:40. The miles in the LR at that target were with my legs about as tired as they've been in a while, so it's hard for me to gauge if it felt like MP effort or not. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to build just a bit more fitness over the next couple of weeks, as that will best set me up to be incredibly bitter when it turns out to be 78F with 90% humidity in Richmond on November 11th.

Glad to see this thread is gaining some traction here.  I'm paul2432 from the RWOL sub-3:00 thread.

JT - Please accept my condolences as well.

Dan - Nice race, glad you got your goal.  We used to say on the old forum "choose the pain" and your certainly did.

Watson - Sorry to hear race did not go as planned.

Short bio: I live in southern California (Thousand Oaks), 49 years old, married Dad with two girls.  I started running after college in 1993 to lose some weight.  I ran my first race in 1994 and was hooked from there.  I've been off and on over the years, also dabbling in cycling and triathlon, but been fairly consistent with running the last 5 years.  I ran my only sub-3:00 at LA marathon in 2016 on a warm day (2:58:20).  Hoping to go sub 2:49 (Moose Mug) at Tucson December 9th.  It's a downhill course, but even so 2:49 will be a stretch.  I've also been doing some ultras.  I have a 100K on Feb 4th and the Angeles Crest 100 mile on August 4th (I think).  I've done 3 100Ks before.  AC100 will be my first 100 miler.

Here is my week (week 3/12):

Weekly Summary
Monday, Oct 02, 2017 thru Sunday, Oct 08, 2017

​

Saturday long run didn't quite go as planned, was hoping for 12 at marathon pace, bailed after 6.  I have some roads near me where I can do close to 10 miles down hill.  I might try that both for practice for Tucson and to see what kind of pace I can hold.

Philly HM, week 8/12
M     01 00 00       16.0 @gym bike(u) 25% at >100rpm
T     00 44 28         5.12
W    01 20 29       10.6 tm w/ 3wu + 4x1@5:21 + 2cd, 0.5%
                                      rec: 4min @6mph, hard after: 1500, 800, 400, last rep sucked 100%
Th    01 18 05      10.1 tm w/ 3wu + 4@5:49 + 4x200m@12.4mph + 2cd
F      -- -- --           URD     heavy couple work days
S     00 56 13        6.84
S     01 17 50       10.15 w/ 3@6:10, 0.5%, felt rubbish, too hot, high HR
                             ====
                              42.81 + 16bike

Mixed week for me. I took an extra day to let my shoulder calm down on Mon and then was really happy to get the Q sessions on W/Th done. The Wed session especially was real tough and it felt good to get it 100% done. I had another Q session scheduled for today with 5/1/5 at M/T/M pace. Felt rubbish pretty much from the off, so I decided to bail. Time to get back into the 70s with 6 weeks to go.

Dan/Swim: I really hope the weather and your health holds together because both of you guys have put together epic cycles. Rolling though 20 together in 2:04 and then a shoot-out for the line. No pressure, Rupp showed a few 4:30s is all it takes

Paul: Welcome, good to have you onboard. I think you've long enough to go to get yourself in shape to have a proper crack at a MM. 100s... the metric version is intimidating enough. I have nothing bu admiration for anyone tough enough to come through a 100miler in one piece.

Watson: Tough break with that cold at the worst time. Great job on running a very respectable ~solo time. Top 3 must have been fun. I hope your knee doesn't become anything more serious!

Andres: Good job on the half. As has been already said, this should act as a nice launchpad this cycle. Think work/life will allow a good cycle... I'm ignoring the injury bug. Hate that guy!

Marky: Good decision taking an easier week. It's too easy to keep pushing when things are going good and suddenly find yourself in a hole.

PK: Solid week. I could do 1k "climbing" in an 80-90 mile week here in AA, but there's climbing and then there's proper climbing.

Mikkey: Urgh, damn upper hammy pain. I find that if I don't roll regularly or if I have a long day sitting in the office, I can gaurantee some upper hammy issues. Such an annoyance. Good luck tapering for Tulipland.

Danb: Congrats, way to hang in there and bring the sub3 home.

wow. we're only into our second week here and its p8. `i haven't kept up. ``Fall race season in full !!

Watson rough time it sounds but hopefully you gained something from the experience to use the next go around

Fly`how did the 15k go

Andres very cool on the Mikkey sighting.

Dan.b thanks for the dramatic race report! Congrats on hitting your goal!

Swim and Iam: I'm glad you're here! I hope Richmond goes super well .. it'll be exciting! Actually Swim I'm glad you're in Flagstaff. I would think that would be a cool environment being a runner. How are you liking it overall?

Mikkey hmmm... and ugh on the upper hamstring. Hope you can figure it out. Amsterdam is like real fucking soon!! Be smart. MM in London is goal!

I can't remember what else.

Posting last two weeks since I haven't

9/25 to 10/1: 68 miles

M: 50 min recovery (8:52)

T: 0

W: 6.5 mi AM (8:24) 6.5 mi PM (7:39)

T: 4 x 1.5 mi (6:33) with 1/2 mi float (7:03)  84 deg .. was supposed to be 6 x 1.5 mi but failed. Later saw the floats were supposed to be closer to 8:03.

F: 8 mi (8:12)

S: 10 mi (7:29) with 11 x 20 sec fast/60 sec easy

S: 18 mi (6:59)

10/2 to 10/8: training interrupted - visiting my son in Maine

M: 0. took redeye Sunday night and got to Maine Monday evening - ain't happening

T: 0. recovery from travel!

W: 20 mi (7:10). I was only going to run 8-10 but I was on the Eastern Trail in glorious fall weather .. I just felt like running .. so I did.

T: 7 mi (8:06)

F: 0

S: 0

S: BAA Half 1:26:21. 14th F. 1st Master by 4 min, 1st AG (45-49) by 16 min.  Garmin 13.23 mi (6:31)

Has anyone here ran the BAA Half before? IAM? I am not sure I would call it 'rolling' as BAA describes .. there are some rollers for sure but there are some almost bordering on climbs too. Conditions added to the challenge with temps low 70s dewpt around 70, humidity mid 80s and windy 15-25 mph. I didn't target this as a race, having ran a solid 20 on Wednesday, but timing was good workout.  $300 for top Masters .. almost pays for the fucking overpriced hotel I ended up staying at because Expedia messed up my original reservation and I found out at 9pm I didn't have a place to stay.

Everyone: Thanks so much for all the kind words and sympathy, teared up just reading through all this. I really do appreciate it. You are a great group of people.

Pretty much decided I won;t do Hartford on Saturday; just don;t feel I will mentally be where I would need to be to run a fast marathon. Looking forward to cheering on all those with races coming up.

Watson: Sorry the sub 3 didn;t happen but 3rd place overall is quite nice. You'll get it next time.

Dan B: Enjoyed the race report, you paced that one perfectly. Congrats again.

Swim: So sorry about your mom. She would be proud of how you are running now. That 10k time trial was awesome. I'm loving seeing those time trials. Must have felt great to run at sea level after those massive weeks at altitude.  Cannot wait to see what you put down at RIchmond.

IAM: Huge week, as usual. It will take me a bit to get used to the wattage, but it's an interesting take on gauging effort. As with Swim I am stoked to see what you do at Richmond.

Andres: Congrats on the half; that is a great time considering where you are in your training, and that you had a cold.

Mikkey: Hope the back sorts itself out with some stretching.

Marky:  Love that 3000m time trial, keep those coming. I'm looking forward to getting back to the track and maybe doing some of those, but at nowhere near your speed.

Cinnamon: Great weeks and congrats on the AG win, especially under tough conditions! You'd be much faster in cool weather on a flatter course.

So glad this thread is firing on RA!

Dan - Great race and recap, always good to hear about what other people are thinking during those painful steps. I've definitely had those demons creep in of "it's only a couple minutes, I can slow down" but glad you pushed through to the sub 3!

Fly - How did the race go? It was crazy humid here in NYC, can't imagine racing in those conditions

Mikkey/Piwi - Good weeks

Watson - Can't imagine running a marathon with nobody running around me, it's impressive that you came in 3rd. I know you've had a lot of weeks where you weren't able to get your mileage in. Enjoy your break from running but stay active here!

Swim/Iam/Paul - Monster weeks

Andres - Running that time with a cold is very impressive.

Kram - Is 5:21 your T or I Pace? Because 1 mile repeats at I pace is absurd and makes my legs hurt just thinking about it.

Cinnamon - That's a great race given those conditions plus your accumulated fatigue!

JT - Totally understandable, take your time