Sub 3 hour Marathon.

[alwaysinjured]

I'm not sure.. I don't think there is one size fits all.. but too many try to be race fit for 12 months a year..

I think its too many reps which lead to injuries though.

But this year I've stuck to endurance phases followed by sharpening and found it great. But I was out of the UK fell scene so not tempted to race.. I'll probably only race 20 times this year, with 3 goal races.. allowing that sort of structure.

I'm not light, not far off 80 kilos.. 90 a week on roads hurts.

I do think long term it wont be feasible if I had kids, missus etc.. at the moment I work flexibly.. my missus lives away, so I can do 20 milers midweek.. high mileage is easy with such a lifestyle.

160 may be detrimental to long term running but remember Paula was a 2:15 marathoner.. the greatest ever by a distance.. so she certainly got the gains for her efforts, but yes it was probably at a cost. But thats a fact of life..

80Kg? thats my problem too.

Guys like Bob Berzins are well built, seem heavy and got away with it. I wonder how heavy scoffer is? any ideas?

Paula was doing fast times at the time my son was doing international things, so I got talking to a few high up coaches "in the loop". There were saying that Paula's body was already so shot at, way back then , they expected her to be forced to retire long ago. I think It was only the olympic dream keeping her fighting. With that gone, I doubt if she has much motivation.

[IainR]

80Kg? thats my problem too.

Guys like Bob Berzins are well built, seem heavy and got away with it. I wonder how heavy scoffer is? any ideas?

Paula was doing fast times at the time my son was doing international things, so I got talking to a few high up coaches "in the loop". There were saying that Paula's body was already so shot at, way back then , they expected her to be forced to retire long ago. I think It was only the olympic dream keeping her fighting. With that gone, I doubt if she has much motivation.

Chris Solinksy American sub 27 minute 10k runner is 73 kilos.. he must be one of the heaviest elite runners around.

http://www.letsrun.com/2010/heightweight0504.php

I think it sometimes helps, but notice that if I get down to 77 for races it makes a big difference. But touch wood, I don't get injured. But played soccer for years so think I have fairly robust muscles/tendons from that. However I've been competing most weeks now for 25 years so wonder when it will catch up.. 34 next year and hope to have a good 5 years of improvements yet.

[Tahr]

So at 5'10 and if I get down to my race weight again of 11 stone, I should be OK, I always look at these 8-9st guys and think god how fast you could be if you trained right.

ATB

Tahr

[Tahr]

Well I managed 3:06 in the end, good effort but no cigar. Here is the details.

Despite the forecast of heavy rain on the day of the race the rain held off until the finish for me. It was a bit windy though. I stuck tight with the official ASICS sub 3 hour pacer for 22.5 miles without any real trouble, then my left hamstring started to cramp up and my pace slowed and slowed as it got worst. I finish off hobbling at just above walking pace getting pasted by everybody. In the final run in the crowd were fantastic, by now I was limping but they were shouting my name and cheering me on to the finish.

Got close but it wasn’t to be, in truth I didn't really deserve it as I hadn’t really trained hard enough in the main due to injury my average weekly mileage for 4 months before taping was 33 miles per week. I was aiming for 50 plus miles per week. Still I got a PB (not two difficult when you have only run one marathon before) and a qualifying time for other marathons under the good for age rule.

Oh well perhaps another one latter in the year, first I have to recover and then train for the Lower Alpine Mountain Marathon at the beginning of June. The marathon was a good one well organised at least the runners in my pen all seemed to be genuine sub 3 hours runners, no fancy dress runners with us unlike the London, so from a pure running/PB view a great race, but it is smaller than the London with 10,000 runners and the crowds were no where near as big. Plenty of water/gels on route, if you are a football fan starting outside Old Trafford might be a plus or minus point depending.

[vespa]

well done on pb kev
nottingham marathon is back september
good for pb course as second half is flat

[fellgazelle]

I think the Robin Hood (Nottingham) marathon is tougher than it looks. It's certainly flatter than it used to be but it's a long, lonely run in from the split with the multitudes doing the half at 11 miles. If you're running around 3 hour pace than you could find yourself pretty much alone for most of the second half and there is much less support from the crowds. Also the section around Holme Pierrepont at 20-22 miles is as monotonous as hell and often very windy.

[TheHeathens]

Good effort Tahr, I was out on my bike supporting the Normans yesterday and it was definitely windy in places.

Plenty of water too - we can organise things correctly in Manchester ;-)

Congrats to Andi Jones on finally winning it with a dominant performance.

[Yaks]

I also did Manchester yesterday. Was aiming for about 3:06 or 3:07, and ended up with a 3:03 - delighted with that.

Ran a really even ( actually slightly negative split ) race, and couldn't believe the number of people I was overtaking in the second half. In the last 6 miles, from 20 miles to finish, I overtook 150 people - a great feeling. I'm guessing one of them was yourself Tahr, sorry to hear you didn't get what you were looking for.

I'd averaged about 60 mpw for the 18 weeks build up, with 6 runs over 20 miles - felt strong at the end off that training.

Interestingly, I hadn't been able to do most of the marathon paced efforts in training, that the plan I was following asked for. Say 18 miles, with 14 at marathon pace - just couldn't do it in the middle of heavy ( for me ) training weeks, but with a good taper then 7:00 - 7:05 pace in the race felt very comfortable.

[IainR]

I also did Manchester yesterday. Was aiming for about 3:06 or 3:07, and ended up with a 3:03 - delighted with that.

Ran a really even ( actually slightly negative split ) race, and couldn't believe the number of people I was overtaking in the second half. In the last 6 miles, from 20 miles to finish, I overtook 150 people - a great feeling. I'm guessing one of them was yourself Tahr, sorry to hear you didn't get what you were looking for.

I'd averaged about 60 mpw for the 18 weeks build up, with 6 runs over 20 miles - felt strong at the end off that training.

Interestingly, I hadn't been able to do most of the marathon paced efforts in training, that the plan I was following asked for. Say 18 miles, with 14 at marathon pace - just couldn't do it in the middle of heavy ( for me ) training weeks, but with a good taper then 7:00 - 7:05 pace in the race felt very comfortable.

14 at marathon pace is along one, I just race for those sessions.

But I think the MP X in Y sessions are the hardest to fit in as running at marathon pace is hard work but key sessions.

I also find running over 16 miles just boring so do too many 14-16 milers, probably 2-3 times a week but need to put more 20's in.

Well done Thar, good effort anyway.

[Tahr]

Yaks congratulations on having a great run, yes you would have pasted me. At 20 miles I was on for a 2:58, the sub 3 hour pacer was running on negative splits because we crossed the halfway point dead on 1:30 hr. I did notice looking at my watch that we were running 6:35 MPM pace at times.

Just like you I could not manage to hit my marathon pace during training, on my last fast 10 mile run just a week before the race I could not hold onto 6:50 pace running on my own, I was doing 7:05, but on race day until right at the end 6:45 pace seemed fine and I was chatting to other runners no problem.