What did it take for YOU to break 2:30 marathon?

Using elite, world class marathoners and their workouts as examples for people trying to break 2:30 for the marathon is again (like you've continued to do) terrible advice for people in this thread.

Are you serious? wrote:

Using elite, world class marathoners and their workouts as examples for people trying to break 2:30 for the marathon is again (like you've continued to do) terrible advice for people in this thread.

It's a direct response to your asinine quip about me not knowing anything about training.

An assertion that's just as ridiculous now as it is when you made it.

Try to keep up, son. It's tiresome having to go back and explain everything to you at an elementary level.

I don't care if you or anyone else follow my advice or not. It's not even 'my advice' in the first place. I'll be super happy if you continue to tempo at 5:15 and race at 5:05. Less comp.

HRM...... wrote:

Awesome responses, thanks guys.

I'm not fast, not slow either. But I'm durable.

Me too. Not sure if it applies to you, but at age 22 after about 5 yrs of mostly 30mpw and XC, I ran 2-3 yrs of averaging 50-60 MPW. At the time I had a 15:30 and I think 31:21 pr's, decided to run my first marathon as a lark with 7 days to race day....and ran 2:27.

Bump

I ran 2:24, 6 years ago taking an unorthodox route. In March, I ran a marathon, split 5:35's for the first 16 and realized I wasnt going to be able to finish if I didnt slow down. Slowed down to a walk around 20 and finished in 3:20. In late May, I ran another marathon, slowed down to 5:40s and made it to 20, and then was able to "cool down" for the last 6 and finished in 2:34. Septemember I ran another in the same method, but finished in 2:36 this time (the course had a huge hill at 17 that destroyed me). In December I managed to make it to 25 at 5:40s and struggle bussed the last mile in 8 min but finished in 2:29:45. Come February I had a breakout day, split 5:30s the whole way and managed to close the last mile in 5:55 for 2:24:38.

Most people would not recommend so many marathons in such a time frame but my success I believe came from that I was only racing 2/3 to 3/4 of the race. I needed the thrill of the race to get me to train at a high level for a prolonged distance. Its very easy to call it quits at 16 on a 20 miler outside by yourself. Since I ran sub 2:35 the later marathons were all comped which was helpful.

My 5k, 10k and half times all supported a quick marathon, it was just that I didn't have the aerobic capacity to run 26 miles which I gained through my competive "training" runs.