Sub 3 hour Marathon.

[alwaysinjured]

Hi Mike that leaves me in a bit of a dilemma, to crack the 3 hours I need to run at a bit under 7 minute mile pace (6:52 I think) therefore I was going to do a long run for 10 miles adding a mile per week up to 18 miles at 7 MMP, is that pace for me “Junk miles?” also what about slower runs say 8-9 MMP would they be classed as junk miles or endurance building, this is road running, not obviously hill running.



Hi Iain, thanks for your input, as I would guess you would be a lot faster than I would every be should I try and do a bulk of my mileage at 7:30 pace? Is this then junk mileage for me?



Hi Cyclops, I know what you mean with Strava, I timed my run with my Suunto the total time on the watch was the same as the Strava time so it must have been about right, although I did leg 2 of the BG in 3:36 hours the other week, while I know my actual time was a bit over 4 hours, even allowing for a few stops to talk to other BGs, photos, pausing for checking compass in the clag did not add up to half an hour. (be nice if it did mind).

Started training with marathon in mind yesterday, ran 10 miles in the morning with rucksack (to work) then at night 7 miles with a club training session wearing a weight vest, mile warm up followed by hill reps, 250m hill, 30% incline on the road, sprint up then jog back as recovery rep X 19. cool down jog back to start.

ATB

Tahr

I don't think thats any good Tahr.

Reality is if you want to crack 3 hours in April time, you must be capable of cruising easily at (say) 9 miles in 6.40 now - it is a lot slower than the 1.23 that you need for the half which is more like 6.20 pace

In any event to run the marathon at equal effort you will slow down, and that probably means doing the first 20 or so in 6.40 anyway, to build a cushion of 3 minutes (2.13/4 say) - maybe 2 mins of which you will then probably lose over the last 10K as a result of slowing down on equal effort to aim for say 2.58.

So splits of say 1.28, 1.31

You can do reverse splits - I have done it, even making the last 6 miles the fastest, but doing it that way it feels like a 20 mile warm up jog to an eyeballs out sprint: and unless you are confident knowing you can. you will probably fail in attempting reverse. So 1.26-1.28 is the sensible range at halfway.

So you have to program your body to run easily at 6.40 - indeed halfway at 1.27/8 has to feel easy.

If you do that semi long at 6.35-6.40, and taper properly (losing the miles not the quality) - on the day it feels so easy and you will be actually slowing yourself down, although at London even in the top 1000 you still don't get your own space around till after cutty sark: so the first couple of miles can be hindered by idiots who always want to start at the front, knowing they will finish at the back.

I once had a stand up row (moi?? as if!) with a guy next to me who had a schedule on his arm, we were standing at the 2.50 marker. I looked at his schedule - discovered it said 4 hours, and told him he was ruining the race for at least 10000 runners behind us. (days before chip timing) He Didn't care. You will lose even a minute in the first couple of miles to such idiots.



So my view 7-10 pace is programming the wrong pace, they really are the junk miles and having grooved that pace, 6.40 will feel too fast.

So I think the 3 paces are...
6.35/6.40 build 9 -18 semi long (as you get fitter, you may hit 6.30)
Long intervals / lactate threshold etc at (say) 6 min pace efforts
Pace runs of 5/6 similar/ not much over that at 6-6.10
Long runs , over 7.15 pace - even 7.45 just time on feet or LDWA - or if racing half/20, leave out the pace run day before.

Save your energy for the semi long - see if you can go sub 6.30 after which getting to half way and even 16 is so easy in 6.40 on the day. That one session is hard and vital. As are the long intervals. Don't make the long one hard too.

If you cannot do 6.40 for hour some months before the marahton, you probably cannot do the 1.23 half in late winter/ early spring, and I doubt you can do the sub 3.