Hills for a road marathon

A couple of years ago I did my best, and most irritating, time of 3:00:44 for a regular road marathon. I'm thinking that I'll might have a go at shaving 45 seconds off that time, but can't be bothered pounding the roads in order to achieve it.

I'd like to ask if anyone has successfully improved road race times without going near tarmac in the build up, whether you were at all scientific about it. I'm prepared to put the time in on the hills.

Any info anywhere as to how to compare fell logged miles vs road ones?

This topic seems to come up every now and then, and the consensus is that you need to suffer the miles on the road. I personally think this is bollocks.

I did a marathon last year, just nipped under the 3 hour mark, and didn't do any particular training. I ran a few long fell races, such as Edale Skyline and the 3 peaks (admittedly 1 week before the marathon, so it may not have been entirely helpful), and a couple of halfs, and a smattering of 10Ks just to get a feeling for the road.

This seemed fine. I think doing long runs on the fells you're more likely to adapt to using fat as an energy source, rather than blood sugar, and build up the endurance and strength to make a marathon seem easy. Race on the road enough, and the speed will come.

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I personally think this is bollocks.

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Pudgy - This assessment is reassuring. Thank you. Since you snuck under three hours and that's all I'm after doing, I'll follow your lead and suffer some road miles to pick up the pace and add the "specificity training" to the regime that I read is important, while keeping the main chunk of my time on the hills.

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Originally Posted by sapper

I'd like to ask if anyone has successfully improved road race times without going near tarmac in the build up, whether you were at all scientific about it. I'm prepared to put the time in on the hills.

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Hi Sapper, Hill and off-road training (fells, fields and riverbanks) certainly improved my marathon times. Such enjoyable training built strength and stamina that enabled me to stay the distance without hitting the wall. The only times I ran on tarmac was in preliminary races - quite a few 10K's for sharpening and raising my overall cruising speed, and a longer race such as the Dentdale Run a few weeks prior to the marathon. Such training enabled me to run sub-3 hours when I was in my sixties!
Cheers!

Hi Sapper
Have a look at this, there is a lot of typing for the sake of it but if you pick the bones out it makes some sense. You can also train on any surface or gradient.
I have been trying it and after 3.5 weeks I am just starting to see some progress.
I still run off road and hills.

http://www.tricoachjill.coach-site.c...ge/4110957.htm

Just see what you think. Chapter 4 onwards is the most imforative.