Sub 3 hour Marathon.

[alwaysinjured]

Thanks AI, i read that and it chimed with the conclusion i'm reaching re training, i.e. too much junk, not enough funk (as a coach i know often says). I was on course for sub 3 at Berlin in 2008 when i tore a quad at mile 22 and walked the last 3.5 miles to record a 3:18. Was gutted as was in the shape of my life having just done a 1:23 half with more in the tank (pb was 1:26 up to that point). I'm in for Berlin next Sept and wanted to take a more surgical view of training, and 3/4 sessions is as much as i'll be able to do anyway given child no 2 is due in Feb!

LDWA events are lovely and it never occured to me to use them for the long run for a marathon.

Good luck Tahr, i'll also be pushing for that elusive sub 3 next year

**ouch** I can relate to that

The schedule that I did manage to fit into some long working hours was..

M off
T shorthills (1 mile warmup - 5K total over a 1/3 mile hill up and down - 1mile warmdown - sometimes off , if busy
W semilong as above 12 build to 18 at 15 sec faster than marathon
Th off
F Night long intervals 5 building to 9 * K+, half K recovery, round local block. 9-10mi total
S 6 mile pace
SU long 15 - build to 23, plod.

That way only one midweek run is critical, the rest are essentially weekend - still 50-55 mi.
The sessions dovetail well, the pace run on sat seems easy after long ints on fri.
When racing on sun, I would lose the SAT pace session.

[Deadlegs]

Lots of good advice here. I did 3:10 at London last year and am doing Edinburgh next year. I would like to go sub 3 but don't think I can. Running the distance is not the problem it's getting the cruising speed down to 6:50 mins/mile. I like AI's schedule but would recommend a target marathon paced session every week to get used to the speed. Also be careful not to do too much quality or you may get injured. Some friends have drastically increased their speed by one weekly track session and regular cross country races.

[Vic Crescit]

M off
T shorthills (1 mile warmup - 5K total over a 1/3 mile hill up and down - 1mile warmdown - sometimes off , if busy
W semilong as above 12 build to 18 at 15 sec faster than marathon
Th off
F Night long intervals 5 building to 9 * K+, half K recovery, round local block. 9-10mi total
S 6 mile pace
SU long 15 - build to 23, plod.

.

Your Saturday 6 mile pace - does that mean marathon race pace?

And the plod - how much over marathon pace would you do? Cheers

[alwaysinjured]

Your Saturday 6 mile pace - does that mean marathon race pace?

And the plod - how much over marathon pace would you do? Cheers

Think I said higher up - more like 6.10 pace

The worst pace to train at in my view is junk mileage at 7.0 - 7.15 , do that and the marathon will feel too fast to maintain. Use the midweek semi to program pace not slower than 6.40. Then nowhere near that for longs eg 7.30+ or offroad/ldwa.

I knocked 10-15 min of my times in a matter of months when I stopped doing junk miles in that forbidden zone, reduced the miles and made the core workouts specific. I was also less tired all the time!

[IainR]

Think I said higher up - more like 6.10 pace

The worst pace to train at in my view is junk mileage at 7.0 - 7.15 , do that and the marathon will feel too fast to maintain. Use the midweek semi to program pace not slower than 6.40. Then nowhere near that for longs eg 7.30+ or offroad/ldwa.

I knocked 10-15 min of my times in a matter of months when I stopped doing junk miles in that forbidden zone, reduced the miles and made the core workouts specific. I was also less tired all the time!

I think the long run needs to be sharpish... or at least finishing around marathon pace for the final 5k..

I do my 20 milers around 6:40-6:50 pace.. finishing 6:10-6:15 pace... marathon pace is close to 6 for me.

For me the key sessions are long run, 1 med-long run, MP runs, and longer reps/tempo sessions.. 1-2 miles.. then the bulk of my mileage is around 6:50-6:55 pace..