Sub-3 Marathon Thread

Training
622

So, I ran another sub 3, which as it transpires is my 17th sub 3 marathon, (just had to check).
2:43:22, which was a pb. Now this was not the plan…

I entered this back in January 2020 on a whim, it was at the time the week after London 2020 so was never going to be serious, it go rolled twice and then shifted a week for some unknown reason. Anyhow I had already booked a fast half for this coming weekend, given I am a tightarse and I recover quick I thought I would do it at a steady pace and I should be ok for next week.

Now the slight curve ball to this plan was that it was the NZ masters marathon champs and as far as I could tell, I should win my AG. So plan was circa 2:50ish, if anyone signs up last minute who is super quick let them go.

Anyway, started fast for 500m out with the front runners. Check no one is old up there.
Then drop back to just under 4’s and let people drift past. The advantage of NZ being so small is that I know most of the decent runners now.

Anyway, about 3k a guy who could be my AG catches and comes past. Being English I could not ask him direct so decided try and drop him. That failed, so decided to stay with him for a bit and see how I felt. We got chatting a bit later, he thought I looked knackered at 2k, the cheek, but also he said he was targeting sub 2:45. Bollocks I thought, anyway felt ok so stayed with him.

There are a few hill around half way, but I had thought that after those I may try and run the last hour at 2:40 pace if I felt good. So I did. Pulled a couple of people in, finished 8th and to my surprise a pb. Not bad given I felt really good throughout and only started my taper on Friday :wink:

2nd in my AG as it turns out was 3:05 so had plenty spare, the guy was at least 10 years younger than me so I suspect I don’t realise how old I really am/look. Anyway obviously this is massively confidence boosting and hopefully I can recover well for a fast half on Sunday…

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623

:wink: :joy:

Classy running again @YKK you don’t seem to fail to impress with your current exploits. I don’t want to jinx anything, but your race schedule and weekly mileage are seriously impressive, and still PBing is just excellent.

Keep it up!

More importantly though, did you beat the cheeky bugger?

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Seeing as this is where a lot of running stuff gravitates, thought I’d stick these two articles here:

Both on the coach who has taken two of our girls to exceptional heights in the marathon. Steph is probably well known about, having got Olympic qualification, but Rose set the third fastest female GB time of the year a few weeks ago too. It’s amazing the progression of Rose. Steph was always rapid from the time I became aware of her, but my very first club tempo session was inadvertently spent running reps alongside Rose as we were similar pace. She’s obviously way faster than me now!

They both adopt the mulitsport approach too. Both are to be seen at club swim sessions, etc.

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625

Great run @YKK It is great to see you go faster than planned, certainly an inspiration for me in my next Marathon

626

Yeah dropped him at 28k when I started rolling at 3:45’s. He got under though 2.45 which is great. Particularly given that
a. the course was quite lumpy so hard to judge pace, ie I had a couple of low 3:30 k’s when bombing down the hills and a couple over 4 when going up
b. From very early on the k markers were off. Our watches were pinging in more or less the same place, but always 300m or so before the actual marker. I understand why London is always long, but to be that off that quickly in what is essentially a large single storey high village suggests more some poor measuring. Anyway onwards and upwards!

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627

5 weeks until MK

15 miles at 6:42 pace today on tired legs.

So 2 more key weekend sessions really as I was hooping to do a HIM on the 13th of June.

20-22 miler next weekend?
18-20 at goal MP the week after?
Mid week run is about 12-13 miles at the minute

Half term is coming up so could through a big week together

Any thoughts?

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628

A lot of my sub-3 friends like the 54321 session at MP with 1 mile recoveries between them.

Looks good though and today’s run on tired legs is a good form guide.

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I’m assuming that 5 miles, 4 miles ?

630

Sorry, yes. Worked well for someone who was a 2:20 runner I think.

Doesn’t translate as well to K’s.

15 miles at MP

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631

Might chuck that one in mid week during half term

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632

This is all very personal but 12-13 miles mid week is perfect, possibly run at marathon pace. Definitely not quicker. I tried to imagine I was going the race on some of these runs.

The Sunday long run. For me 20-21 miles is the absolute maximum and really should be done at a slow pace. Really try not to look at the watch. Its a cliche but it really is time on the legs. By all means more than one of these but I would suggest the last is three weeks out from race day

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633

I should have also said that if you are looking for runs at quicker than marathon pace (I’m assuming that you want to just break 3hrs so sub 7 minute mile pace) then those training sessions are the others that you doing besides the mid week and the Sunday run

As its 5 weeks to go I really wouldn’t be doing anything drastically different to what you have been doing. You have the speed; its now about adding that endurance.

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634

Thanks dude,

Currently only on 3 runs a week at the minute

Tuesday - treadmill intervals
Thursday - Medium run before work (10-13 miles)
Sunday - Long run

It’s hard to know where to put another one that then won’t interfere with Tri training

Monday - Swim intervals - Bike intervals
Tuesday - Short swim - Run intervals - Bike
Wed - Long Swim
Thurs - Run - Bike
Fri - Swim - gym - Bike
Sat - Long bike
Sun - Long run

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635

Wednesday rest day then? :rofl:

@Sparky - Love that “imagining the race”. Think they call it “visualisation” now, some fancy word for role play. That midweek 90 minute half marathon would be a good kudos giver on Strava, too :see_no_evil::+1:t3::fire:

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636

If you can call it that after 5-10km in the pool :rofl:

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637

I just like a full day off, or two, per week.
Plus a nice bath.
Always a nice bath.

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638

Yep when I was doing my marathon training I was training for London. On my Wednesday run, which was about 12 miles, at about 10k I would be in the arse end of Worcester. At that point I was imagining myself running around Cutty Sark.

That took a lot of ‘visualisation’ :wink:

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639

Can you even plod just 20-30 after (or before) that long swim.

From my experience you cannot run enough miles and none of them are junk. Even 20 minutes is another 2 1/2 miles say and it all counts…

And then again same question for Saturday, if only for the next 4 weeks

Although I only run, I have tried a second long midweek and multiple midweek midlongs.
If I dont do a hill session I have settled on 2x6.5-7k @MP effort (not pace as only training shoes), the distance was dictated by the course I was running, but you can make it work for you. That was hard, but did not impact anything else

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640

Can add brick runs quite easily, but that Wednesday is at my time limit to make it to work as I have a lesson at 8:30 :roll_eyes:

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