Calling 3:00 Hour marathoners. Any of you former 4:00 marathoners?

howlongwouldittake wrote:

Curious to see your YEARLY progression for instance like.

2008 4:18 marathon

2009 3:47 marathon

2010 3:28 marathon

How long would it take to from a 4:00 to a 3:00 marathon with good quality training base?

My first two were close enough to four...so I'll chime in.

2006 3:52

2007 3:55

2008 3:29

2009 3:15

2010 3:08

2011 3:07

2012 2:57

2012 2:49

2013 2:41

2014 2:38

For myself I just really lacked endurance as I ran a 1:29 half during those first two near 4 hour marathons. And I slowly built mileage over time. Concentrating on my average mileage rather than peaks, like I did before. Some of my bigger just in mileage came in 2012 and all of my times really started to fall. I realize its going to get considerably harder but I'm hoping I've got a few more minutes to shave off.

Anyway, hope that's beneficial.

My first 10 marathons were between 3:37 and 4:16. This was between 1988 and 1991. From 1991 to 1997 i went from 3:20-3:02. then i got old and hurt.

June 1969 4:22 at Holyoke,Ma

Sept 1969 3:39 @Atlantic City

Feb 1970 2:57 @Bronx,NY

April 1970 2:53 @Boston

Miles,miles & more miles. Raced over 40 times my first year of running that started March 15,1969. Lost 30 lbs. Had fun.

Still have fun, just slower

This goes quite a few years back, but my three marathon times were very similar to yours. There never was a fourth marathon.

Age 28: 4:20 (20 mpw)

Age 29: 3:56 (30 mpw)

Age 32: 3:21 (45 mpw)

At age 33 I was in better shape and running about 50 mpw before I overtrained and broke down prior to #4. I was aiming for 3:15 at the time and was thinking that 3:10 might be my upside limit.

FWIW,I was 6-1, 170 during this period.

My progression, grouped by year:

3:40

----

3:16

3:00

2:57

----

3:03

2:42

----

2:42

----

DNF

2:51

2:46

Nov. 79. 4.09.

Sept. 80. 3.01.

Oct. 80. 2.55.

May 81. 2.51.

Nov. 81. 2.44.

April. 84. 2.43.

Nov. 94. 2.53.

June. 96. 2.53.

Oct.97. 2.58.

Oct. 98. 2.58

May.00. 2.57

3:52:xx in 2010

3:15:xx

2:52:xx

2:46:xx

2:51:xx

2:43:xx in 2013

Mine were spread across many years but the progression was like this.

1988 - 5:07 (didn't train at all)

3:53

4:10

3:25

3:30

2005 - 3:15 (finally got training advice from a good runner)

2006 - 3:14

2006 - 2:54 (good training with higher mileage)

3:04

2:57

2:56

2011 - 2:58

Had I gotten the good training advice earlier I could have easily went from 4 hr to sub 3 hour marathoner.

May, 1972- 4:34:30

Nov. 1972- 3:29:04

Feb. 1973- 3:24: something

Apr. 1973- 3:45:something

Nov. 1973- 3:15

Apr. 1974- high 3:00s, can't recall, got very sick

Feb. 1975- 2:50:24

Dec, 1975- 2:41:35

Apr, 1975-DNF, really bad blisters

Dec. 1975 3:06 (maybe?)

Apr. 1976- 2:53 something

Dec.-1976 2:50s

Not happy with marathons at that point did not run another until either April of '78 or '79. I can't even recall at this point, I think it was '79, when I did 2:35:21. After that I never got under 2:50 again.

I ran 4:18 in 2006 as a 25 year old former bodybuilder on very little training (maybe 20 MPW jogging and a few 18-20 mile runs beforehand). I started training (40 MPW, plus tempos and track work, and ran 2:52 in 2008.

I was a 330 guy then actually started training.

330

318

307

257

For those who have done it, what did the trick? Loads of miles?

SoWhat wrote:

For those who have done it, what did the trick? Loads of miles?

I didn't do the gargantuan jumps that some people here did, but I went from 3:22 to 2:48 over a period of 5 years. The biggest key for me was weight loss.

I went from 3:40 to 2:42 in 2 years and 4 days. It took a doubling of miles, from 30 mpw to 60 mpw and 25 lbs of weight loss from 190 to 165 (I'm 6'1"). I also threw a bit of lifting and swimming in there.

SoWhat wrote:

For those who have done it, what did the trick? Loads of miles?

The drop from 4:34 to 3:29 was really just more consistency. I went into the 4:34 race thinking I'd been doing 50-60 mile weeks and that should be enough for a half decent marathon. It turned out that I had maybe 3-4 weeks in that range and had missed days in the other ones so my overall average was more like 40. Just doing what I was supposed to do every day got me over an hour faster. From there, yeah, loads and loads of miles.

The 4.09 was done off casual training on a warm day with no knowledge of what was involved.

I bought two books, one by Arthur Lydiard and the other by Tom Osler.

I started a good solid distance program of steady mileage and long runs, added some faster stuff once the base was built. I went out too quick in my next race and did 3.01. I backed up 4 weeks later and sat behind a legendary masters runner. He guided me to 2.55 after a 1.28 first half.

I had been averaging around 70 mpw in the previous 10 months.

First marathon, 4:55. Second was 5 years later...4:09. Getting down to 3:20-3:30 was pretty easy for me. Getting to 3:10 took several years, and getting under 3 hrs took several more hours. For me increasing mileage, and having many miles at a moderate pace helped, along with losing five pounds.