Hey letsrun crowd,
Apologies in advance for the length of the post, but figure anyone who is going to be helpful will want to know all of the detail listed below. Any advice on how to avoid the dreaded marathon crash again would be most appreciated.
I was a pretty competitive (sub 14:40 5k, sub 30:40 10k) collegiate runner five years out of college. I took a hiatus from competing due to a combination of work and injuries, but slowly worked my way back to fitness that would not COMPLETELY embarrass the college version of myself the past year. I've been training without a coach during this time, which went fine up until a disastrous DNF during my first marathon, so I'm trying to crowdsource advice on what to fix the next time.
I followed the Hansons "advanced" plan basically by the book, with a few adaptations:
1. Substituted the shorter weekend run for a bike ride (either 60 min spin class or about 30 miles outside). 5x a week keeps my pesky achilles happier than six.
2. Swam two mornings a week (usually workout days).
3. Ran a little longer than prescribed on some of the easy days and long runs (they top out at 16, I got up probably to about 19 but stuck to the philosophy of de-emphasizing in favor of quality workouts during the week).
As far as the workouts went, I followed them pretty much to a T, with a few weeks of just doing one workout either to race or for weekend trips (probably 3-4 weekends of this sort over the course of the training cycle). I've always been someone who works out very controlled, and was pleasantly surprised when I found myself comfortably getting through 10 mile tempos at 5:50 pace and workouts like 3x3k with 3 min rest and averaging under 10:10. While the race itself was a disaster, I loved the training plan because of how much overall running fitness I gained over the course of it.
I raced twice--a 33:10 10k on a VERY hilly course in March and another hilly half marathon three weeks out, where I ran a very controlled 1:14:35 by myself. I estimated I probably had about 90 more seconds in me based on how I felt during that race. Based on all this info, I thought I was in 2:33 shape.
Race day comes, and it's HOT (I did VT city). I figure 2:33 isn't happening and I give myself strict instructions not to hit 10k in under 37 min. We go through in 10k 37:15 and 10 miles in I can keep up a conversation. The half is at 1:18 and still fairly comfortable. Everything seems to be fine until about 15 miles in, where out of nowhere I almost collapse. I back off a smidge and am fine until 17 when I totally bonk. Walk jog to 23 (still potentially on pace to BQ) until my calves cramp so bad I can't walk anymore. As far as fueling, I took water every 2 or so miles, Gatorade every 4 and a gel every 6 (didn't take gatorade and gel at same aid station though).
Here are my theories about what went wrong:
1. I was a little bullish about my potential over the marathon on low mileage. A 50-55 mpw guy in 1:13 shape is probably going to convert to something closer to 2:36 than 2:33, no matter how fit he feels.
2. I didn't adjust properly for the conditions. Given the temps at the end of the race were 10 degrees higher than the beginning, I should have adjusted based on those conditions and not where the race started at, so instead of adding 7 seconds per mile 10-12 would have made more sense.
3. I needed more salt. Calves were cramping up and I could keep fluids down but wasn't absorbing them that well.
Ideally I'd like to train a LITTLE harder going into my next marathon, maybe getting to 60 mpw (consistently) on five days with more aqua jogging and the same long bike ride (any more makes my foot unhappy).
As far as I can tell, here's what it would take to actually do the whole marathon thing well:
1. Add 3-4 minutes to whatever shape I think I'm in when figuring out what pace to go out at.
2. Find a race with good weather!
3. Take salt tablets in addition to gels.
4. Do more tempo workouts/long runs without fuel. I took gels on them to practice fueling but I think it masked the difficulty of maintaining the pace with glycogen stores low that will help me better assess my true fitness.
Two questions for the kind men and women that have read this far:
1. What signals do you use to determine marathon race pace? I've always run by feel based on aerobic effort and it has served me well at everything half marathon and down, but clearly that wasn't effective for the marathon ( I was keeping up a conversation 10 miles in).
2. Anything else you'd recommend besides steps 1-4? All I'm really looking to do is run sub 2:40 on a nice day in the future--this experience taught me not to get too greedy!
Thanks in advance everybody.