3:30 Marathon on lower mileage?

Probably not. I predict you go out too fast and blow up in the last 6 miles, blaming it on some injury again rather than running higher mileage.

In my limited exp of watching how people train and how I have trained in the past, the number of miles is not the end all be all when it comes to injury.

It is usually weight. Say you are 190 and get injured at 45 mpw.. at 155 i am sure you could do 70+ no problem.

Slow down by a minute/mile on all non-speed sessions (80+% of miles) and your injury issues will melt away.

I'm 5'3, 120 pounds 24 year old female. I wasn't a competitive runner in high school or college so I don't have years and years of base training, I've just taken up distance running in the past few years. I recognize that trying to qualify for Boston is ambitious but I don't think 3:30 is impossible. Just looking for what has worked for others if they have also had success with less mileage. Was going to try and go out right at 7:55-8 minute pace and try to keep it as even as possible.

WantBoston wrote:

If I ran a [redacted] and felt really strong the whole race

I notice this is a common claim. Probably very rarely true.

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Shhhhhhhh wrote:

WantBoston wrote:

If I ran a [redacted] and felt really strong the whole race

I notice this is a common claim. Probably very rarely true.

You're right.

And now that we know you're a 24 year old who's been running for 2 years we know you have no idea what causes injuries. It's not the "magic number" of mileage.

Its absolutely doable with what you describe. I coached a female who went 1:37 in a half and 6 months later 3:29 in their first full marathon, all off ~40-45 miles per week (Their schedule only allowed for 45-60 minutes of running 5 days a week and one open weekend day). At this point you're too close to the marathon to meaningfully up your mileage even if you wanted to.

I wouldn't keep on doing a 15-20 mile run every weekend, that most likely requires meaningful recovery times after the fact. even at an easy pace, a 2:30-3:00 run is WAY too long on your feet at once every week. I'd have 1 more week in the next 5 where you do an 18-20 miler, 1 week with a 15-16 miler (not in subsequent weeks), and keep the rest of your long runs around 90 minutes.

On a schedule like yours, I'd have substituted the every other tempo run with something in the 5k to 10k pace range, but at this point you won't be able to log enough of those workouts before the marathon for it to be worthwhile.

Race day remember to run relaxed and not get ahead of your goal pace no matter how good you feel. With your mileage base (or lack thereof) around mile 20-22 things will catch up to you pretty hard, and if you're already hurting cardio wise from pushing the pace early, it will be all over.

Be sure to practice refueling with gu or chews or whatever you plan to use on race day, you'll need to be good about getting calories every 5-6 miles to have much left in your legs past 20 miles.

Lastly, if you're consistently running into injuries going past 40-45, its probably in how you're going about doing it (long run too long, workouts too hard, easy runs too hard, etc). Its very unlikely that is really your body's cap on healthy mileage, even as a relatively inexperienced runner.

Thanks a lot for your helpful advice. I agree that in the future I may be able to do a better job of slowly building up higher, but I think the reason I reached out for advice is because I also very much recognize that I'm not going to be able to go much higher in the next month before the race anyway. I've been practicing with gu every 45 minutes on my long runs and my stomach has never had a problem with it. At mile 22 I'll think about the guys on here who think I'm too young and dumb and fat as motivation :)

A 1:38 half works out to between a 3:24 (McMillan) and 3:26 (Daniels) marathon equivalent. If you've been banging out 15-20 mile runs successfully each week I don't see a reason why you wouldn't be able to get under 3:30 on fresh legs.

Serious Answer wrote:

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I will second this advice. I know it's heavily promoted on Runners World and therefore uncool, but it sounds like the training philosophy that will get you to Beantown.

WantBoston wrote:

Thanks a lot for your helpful advice. I agree that in the future I may be able to do a better job of slowly building up higher, but I think the reason I reached out for advice is because I also very much recognize that I'm not going to be able to go much higher in the next month before the race anyway. I've been practicing with gu every 45 minutes on my long runs and my stomach has never had a problem with it. At mile 22 I'll think about the guys on here who think I'm too young and dumb and fat as motivation :)

I second "some advice" on not doing 20 milers every week. You're overtraining. I'd do them every other week at most. Here's a great recent thread on the subject:

If you do a 15 miler with the last 2-4 miles at close to or under goal pace you will also get good gains.

Good luck.