Marathon Training Thread - Week Ending 4/1

Edgemont Dave,

Does your name have anything to do with Montclair? I grew up in Montclair. Good luck in your quest for Boston 2013. I earned a spot in NYC last fall. See you there.

No, Edgemont is the name of my neighborhood in Westchester County, NY. Great job qualifying at NY. Not an easy place to do it. Hope to see you in Beantown a year and two weks from now!

Stormin - tough luck at the race. You are in great shape, though.

Drey - Likewise. I fear getting bad wind more than anything at Boston.

samblackbones Nice, well-earned PR!

blaznbison Is it right that your second mile split was 4:46? Impressive

unsure - setting your pace is one of the most difficult things you have to decide before a marathon. If you feel that you are in shape and you really want sub 2:30 then I say go for it. You have to ask yourself if you will be more disappointed if you go for it and blow up or run conservatively and wonder if you could have run faster.

categorically wrote:

unsure - setting your pace is one of the most difficult things you have to decide before a marathon. If you feel that you are in shape and you really want sub 2:30 then I say go for it. You have to ask yourself if you will be more disappointed if you go for it and blow up or run conservatively and wonder if you could have run faster.

Pretty good summary of the whole marathon dilemma. A long enough race that if you get it wrong, you can't try again for awhile. Short enough that if you blow up there isn't time to recover.

I'm already starting to worry about that pace dilemma and I'm 7 weeks out.

I lied. I didnt end up running on sunday. so just 50...64x3,50 ..next month i hope to go from 240m to 280

Hi All… thanks… I am in mid of quarter closing, so just a quick reply to the questions asked.

muebele - The next race is next weekend; somewhere between 11.5-12k race – depends on how they draw a line and whether they add anything to the finish. I think the event guys expect around 6,000 runners. Then the week after that I would like to race the 10K Road Championship here in Slovakia…. And I am thinking about Prague Marathon on May 13.

kr – I don’t think it was just a weather…. Perhaps I got a little carried away in the first half. I felt great, the pace just seemed so easy and I ended up running 1:10:53. On some pics from the race I am up front leading our pack – so that probably was not smart either.

categorically – I knew the wind was going to be bad… the week before that we had very nice weather. On Monday of last week everything turned 180 degrees and it got cold and windy. I had been checking the weather channels twice a day each day…. At the end it was it was…. Just get behind someone, don’t lead any in Boston. When I was in the pack I hardly felt it; and the wind was quite strong here.

blaznbison – I thought you would know. BTW, nice comeback from the MMA; hahaha. I hope to see you get that 2:19.

marmite - good luck in your 10k

blaznbison - nice half. Sounds like you'll really start getting quicker once you've got a bit of speed work behind you.

categorically - looks like you're ready. Enjoy the taper.

unsure - last year I was intent on breaking 2:30 at all costs because I felt I had earned the right to go for it. I was clicking off 5:40s like a metronome up to 17 miles and collapsed at 20. This year, I'm in just as good shape but am not putting pressure on myself if I don't feel good on the day. So, go for it if you feel good, but there's no shame in backing off early on if you don't feel it's going to be your day. If you're in good shape you should still run a PB.

80-90 - awesome Sunday run. You're in great shape.

muebele - you're absolutely right. We're all trying to do the same thing here. No one should feel like they don't belong just because they're not running 2:25!

I have been loosely following a Hanson's type plan this cycle as an experiment. So no long runs past 16 miles (though i did some 18s and a 19) but just mileage and weekly 6 miles at tempo and weekly 8-10 miles at MP. The thing that concerns me is that they have you doing this even the week prior to the race. So a 6M tempo 12 days out and 10M at MP 10 days out. Does anyone think this is too strenuous?

This may almost sound like a cop out answer, but you chose to follow their plan as an "experiment" to see if it works. Abandoning the guidelines of the "experiment" in the last couple of weeks seems to defeat the purpose. Keep following it and see what happens.

How have you been feeling following the Hanson's plan? If you are feeling beat up from it then maybe run them at HMP and MP "effort", but not necessarily specific pace.

Definitely almost a cop out answer.... But you are correct, i should stick with it. Though i haven't really been following it so closely. My mileage is higher than in the "plan" and i did go beyond the "16 mile" cut-off point... The only thing i took from the plan is the 2 regular weekly workouts.

My concern is really about the taper, or lack thereof, in the plan. And whether 10 miles at MP, 10 days out, is wise. I will probably do as you suggest, perhaps 2x5 miles at MP effort and not focus so much on splits.

As for how i feel, my legs are not beat up, nor are heavy, as they have been in every previous training cycle which had much less mileage and longer long runs. But all this is irrelevant if i don't perform on race day.