I'm running my 4th marathon this Sunday and was hoping to dip just under 2:55... Did Brighton Mara in 2016 in 2:59, Abingdon 6 months later on zero training with my wife in 3:30. I followed the same training plan for London 2017 as I had for Brighton 2016 but got caught short, needed a toilet break, had to weave through the crowds to get back on target and bonked at about 18 miles or 3:09.
So this year I thought I;d follow the same P&D Advanced program (18wk, 55-70mpw) as I did for my sub 3 at Brighton, but swapped the mara pace workouts for 6:35s rather than 6:50s. All was going well, came 3rd in an off-road very hilly 20 miler in early March, parkrun in 17:50 feeling comfortable and 10 days ago got a 10mile PB of 62:07.
The problem was, I hurt my Achilles just after the 20 miler in early March and had to take a full week off, followed by 2 weeks of gradually building back (20mpw then 58mpw). By that point it was 2 weeks out from race day and technically, taper time. So I did a final 18 miler and have since wound down (40 miles last week, 25ish this week).
Question is - do I still have a shot at 2:55? My 3 weeks of injury and building back should have been my 3 weeks of peak milage and intensity.
Or should I hedge my bets and take it a bit easier?!