Training Log for a 2:30ish Boston Marathon 2018

AndyDufresne2 wrote:

Jan 8-14 (42 miles)

- Tuesday 4x progressions each ending in the 5:00-5:20 range, total 10.6 @ 6:08

- Sunday Houston Half 1:10:54

From here on out I'll be hitting 70+ mpw and trying to settle back into a regular schedule of Monday speed, Thursday tempo, Saturday long/tempo.

Do you train alone for workouts? Thinking that I'll need to arrange more meetups for my workout days. For my last marathon I did nearly all of my workouts with a few guys all doing the same race within the same time range. And obviously in college I had training partners like 6 days a week.

I have friends for easy runs but not workouts. There are a couple of guys in town that I could arrange something with but we're all 30+ minutes away from each other so it's not really worth it. Dallas doesn't really have anything in terms of training groups.

5k tempo at 5:38 pace today. Fast for me despite tailwind and a slight drop. Did a 6M progression tempo on Monday - 3M above 6:00 pace (trail slightly up) and 3M back below (6:00 pace).

Next workout is Saturday - 12M @ 6:05 pace is the goal.

Shooting for 2:37 at LA in March, so less time left for me but less progression needed. Going to keep trying to get a bit faster the next few weeks and then get more focused on extending the MP in February.

Pantman wrote:

5k tempo at 5:38 pace today. Fast for me despite tailwind and a slight drop. Did a 6M progression tempo on Monday - 3M above 6:00 pace (trail slightly up) and 3M back below (6:00 pace).

Next workout is Saturday - 12M @ 6:05 pace is the goal.

Shooting for 2:37 at LA in March, so less time left for me but less progression needed. Going to keep trying to get a bit faster the next few weeks and then get more focused on extending the MP in February.

saw that your goal is 5mi tempo at 5:40 pace in 3 weeks. Dunno if doing 2 tempos per week is the best way to get there though. If turnover is your problem, why don't you do more shorter intervals? You ought to be able to do something like 12x1min on, 1min off starting around 5:30 pace and dropping down to 5:00s

my week is going well so far. did just 6 x 2min on/1min off on Tuesday because I was having trouble focusing on speed with the darkness and road conditions plus I started to feel my groin nag me. Had been running about 5:20 pace for the ons and 6:40 for the offs. Next time I'll find a simpler route for my evening workouts so I don't have to worry about sharp turns, bad pavement, or getting kicked out of a closed cemetery...

next workout is a 24min tempo tomorrow morning. Will probably try to negative split it as it's a group workout and I'm not sure if anybody will be running under 5:40s. My goal is 5:40 or faster

I agree with the two tempo comment although if I would take a different path to get to the goal 5M tempo. I'd go even shorter for the short stuff like 15-30 seconds of either sprints or hills. Since you say you don't have great turnover, sprints is not a great idea because you're likely not great at recruiting your fast twitch muscles. Hill sprints will help you do that.

Second 5k of "tempo" is not just not enough time to get good aerobic development for a marathoner. 3 miles of tempo seems more appropriate for a miler. 5 miles would be the minimum I'd do. Going longer and slower is a bit of a shot to the ego because you dont get to hit those faster paces, but is more beneficial given your target race. I would start at 5M, and do the pace that is appropriate now, say maybe 5:50 pace. I'd add on 1-1.5 miles each week. After 3 of those, I'd return to the 5M tempo and would most likely hit my goal of 5:40 pace.

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

Reed, Not much chance of shorter intervals - not gone anaerobic more than once or twice in the last decade and no desire to do so. AnT is max for me for the time being. Just how I roll. Coming off years of mostly running high mileage at 100bpm or so.

Heyyo, Alactic hill sprints makes sense for sure. Should probably incorporate some. Again, just not my thing but I do understand the physiology of it.

As to the 5k being insufficient - totally agree! But, again, years of plodding make this a real challenge - building up to 5M+. Obviously I could do 5M if I slowed a bit, but I feel that between AnT and AeT is a bit of a no man's land - heavily influenced by Hadd and that was his thinking on the matter.

This spring marathon is quite a challenge to even do any tempo / AnT running at all! Would rather do nothing faster than MP! LOL! I figure I'll do what I can this time and for an autumn marathon I'll get some faster intervals done and shoot for sub 2:30. Step at a time. Shifting from plodding too quickly will just set me back. Gotta be patient. I'd rather progress a little slower without interruption than overshoot.

I might probably come here as well for a couple times.

History: I have some solid PRs (2:18 marathon and a 30ish 10k). Was pretty lazy and working big hours (yeah I know... excuses) last summer but starting to ramp it up a bit more since November. Decided to run a smaller marathon a week after Boston. I am 33.

Actually I am hovering around 75-90ish MPW and always take every 3rd week as a down week to make sure I am recovering and staying happy and balanced.

I would be very happy with 2:29. Because of my older PRs I sometimes start to dream of a comeback at that weekend warrior level but it might be unrealistic.

Usually I just go out and run.

Most days are around 6:30ish and a bit hilly.

Started to incorporate some more structured workouts since December and last week I did a couple miles at 5:10ish pace with 2-3' rest and a 10 mile alternation workout (that was tough I admit it) at 5:40ish average (alternating some faster stuff at 5:34 and some easier stuff at low 6s. Haven't run longer than 16-17 miles since one year. Longest session basically was that 10 mile alternation workout that totalled 16 miles. I honestly have no idea in what kind of shape I am... we'll see.

Wish you all a great marathon training!

@andy, I'll be curious to see if you actually run faster.

I cannot believe that I - a product of the early 90s collegiate era when college athletes raced 8-10 times per season for each of cross country, indoor and outdoor - am going to say this, but Andy, I think you might benefit from racing less.

A marathon followed by a half marathon a month later, followed by two marathons within 6 months of the initial marathon - so three marathons and a half all within 6 months - is a whole lot to recover from. Normally I would discount the need to recover from a half, but when it follows a marathon a month earlier, it takes its toll.

Again, I know we all see things through the bias of our own lens - and in this case, I am seeing things through the eyes of someone who needs a fair amount of recovery after a marathon - but I would think a marathon every 6 months would be the most that the average good runner could do while trying to get a max effort.

You know your body best, and you dropped me that last couple of miles at Houston, so you do what is right for you, but just some food for thought.

Hey! I had a pretty good week and have 14 weeks to go to my marathon. I 90 miles and did a local 10k race yesterday in 33ish minutes on a hilly course. Next week I will do a bit less overall but still try to hit my first 18 miler at hopefully under 6:30-pace on the upcoming weekend. Hope you all had nice weeks :)

After running Houston last Sunday, this week was a bit of a balancing act for me. I was balancing recovering from Houston,

Preparing for Boston and scoring some points in my local race series.

60 miles total with one day off, one day of doubles (6 and 6), one 11 miler, a low key 5k yesterday and 18 in the hills today

Ran 16:04 for the 5k but just ran for position and points. Went with my competition through 2 miles (5:10, 5:15) then applied pressure over the third mile (5:03) to secure my 2nd place finish.

12 weeks until Boston, I will now shift from a vo2max focus to an LT and volume focus.

Smoove wrote:

After running Houston last Sunday, this week was a bit of a balancing act for me. I was balancing recovering from Houston,

Preparing for Boston and scoring some points in my local race series.

60 miles total with one day off, one day of doubles (6 and 6), one 11 miler, a low key 5k yesterday and 18 in the hills today

Ran 16:04 for the 5k but just ran for position and points. Went with my competition through 2 miles (5:10, 5:15) then applied pressure over the third mile (5:03) to secure my 2nd place finish.

12 weeks until Boston, I will now shift from a vo2max focus to an LT and volume focus.

smart to take that down week. nice long run too, although if your GAP on strava isn't at least a minute per mile faster than your actual pace, it wasn't a hilly run. jk

my week, my best of the last 11 weeks since I tapered for my 50 miler that I didn't end up starting back in November.

M 8.6 easy w/ strides. felt good on the strides for the first time in a while

T easy 6x(2min on, 1min easy/moderate). better than nothing.

W 8 easy

Th 8 easy

F 8.7 easy w/ 10x20sec strides in last ten minutes

Sa 18.8mi on hilly trails, 2:28 with 3400' climbing. hard run, felt great. fast considering the terrain

Su 12 easy with a bit of moderate running in the last few miles. felt pretty good

total 72 miles, 8h47m and 5000' vert for the week

I skipped my tempo run on Friday when I agreed to do my long run on saturday with a local pro trail/ultra runner. I knew that I'd be hitting LT effort or higher on a few big climbs so figured it was worth being rested for. Very happy with that decision as it was a great run, and very specific to the 50k I'm now doing in 4 weeks.

Plan for next week: (10k in 2 weeks, 50k in 4 weeks)

75 miles would be great but quality is more important for me. I want to get in a solid fartlek session on Wednesday plus another hard long run on Friday or Saturday. If the LR is Friday I'll try to throw in some quality on the Sunday run. I also intend to do strides more than twice next week.

First real marathon specific workout of the cycle tonight: 4 x 3200 on the track at 10:41 average with 2:00 passive rest. My other quality day will be an easy 20 miler this weekend. Should hit 85 miles for he week, hopefully 90.

Only 19 quality days left until the taper!

On what planet is 4x3200 at faster than half marathon pace a “marathon specific workout?”

Not at all uncommon for people to do a fair amount of work at threshold pace as part of their marathon training . If I did these on the road, they would've been a little slower, but as cruise intervals on the track, they ended up a touch faster than my Daniels-prescribed threshold pace.

4th training cycle using this approach, and it hasn't failed me yet.

I think his point is not whether such a session will be an asset to your marathon training, but rather the term "marathon specific" - that such terminology should be reserved for actual marathon pace, or at least closer to it.

Nice to follow this thread, I also think I've met some of you in Strava so great to know what have you been up to.

It's been a week since I started real training.

End November - Ran a 2h39:10 Marathon in poor weather conditions, was probably in 2h35-36 shape.

December - basically did not train; only twice a week or so.

January 1st week - as December, basically did not run

January 2nd week - started with a ~90 km week

January 3rd week - got sick and did not run for three days in a row. Came back for the weekend.

Now I've run roughly 90 km for the last 5 days.

Aiming to finish the week with 120-130 km and keep that range for the upcoming weeks.

For now I am basically just interested in accumulating easy miles.

Yesterday tried my first workout with some intensity - did a 25 min tempo run, for which I was able to run ~ 7.2 km so roughly 4.5 miles, just under 5:30 pace. Hard effort but doable.

Will go easy for the next two days and maybe try a workout on Saturday, something like Smoove has done (4 x 2 miles or so).

February 11th will run the Half Marathon in Barcelona, but it will be more of a touristic trip and am not expecting great things.

Still unclear which Marathon will be running later in the year.

good luck all!

I would say a workout is marathon specific if it is something that is designed to address the needs of marathon training. High volumes of work at LT pace are designed to lower your LT and thus allow you to stay aerobic at faster and faster speeds, which makes it a marathon specific workout. While I do LT work all year when training, doing this much volume of LT is something I only do for marathon training. This my assertion that it's marathon specific.

Besides, by that more narrow view of marathon specific, I would only do 3 marathon specific workouts all training cycle.

By your broad view of specific training, taking a dump is considered a marathon specific workout.