I want to be realistic. Am I ready to attempt Sub-3 or should I aim lower or higher?

You took 4 minutes off your half time between May and August? That's impressive.

Yup! The 1:28:18 was before I started the training block for the marathon, but it definitely showed that my training was paying off. Now I'm just hoping for respectable marathon time. I feel I have much more room for improvement as a runner and am excited to put the work in again after I recover from Chicago.

It def looks like it but if can’t break 3 on that type of mileage there’s something very wrong with your training.

I'd guess you're ready for 2:55. You've put in the work.

I'm leaning toward yes. I guess the 1:24/1:25 is worth ~1:22, but hard to say. Your workouts seem kinda slow to me, though. How hard was the threshold effort?

Assuming good weather, I think you can run 2:55.

I definitely felt I could have gone faster in the workouts, I was pretty conservative and didn't try to push it too hard as I was running higher mileage than I was used to too, so I didn't want to chance overtraining. I'm from Illinois and we had a very humid summer, so that has masked a lot of my fitness gains and caused me to not really know where I am at timewise.

With a SMART TAPER, yes, the fitness is definitely there.

If you don't run a sub-3:00 I'll be surprised. You definitely have a solid training block in you. Just don't screw up and have a proper taper, esp. with your high mileage it's super important not to "overdo" it in the last 2-3 weeks.

Good luck, I'm running in Chicago, too. I got my sub-3:00 out of my way this weekend in Berlin, so I will take it easy, 3:15 tops;)

OP

Just remember, you can't just double your half time. The second half, you are literally running another half marathon with 13.1 in you. You must plan for fatigue.

2:55 seems about right. I would go out in 1:28 and see how you feel. You should know by mile 20 if you can pick it up to go for sub 2:55, or if you just have to hang on to get the sub 3.

Sub3orNOTttt? wrote:

So the .

The last 18 months I have trained consistently and seen great improvement. I struggled with injuries in early 2018 but still ran on and off.

This is my mileage for the last 18 weeks(starting with most recent): 100, 75, 100, 108, 90, 60, 100, 103, 73, 72, 84, 80, 78,

59, 72, 73, 60, 61

: 3:53, 3:56, 3:54, 3:58, 3:59. 3:52.

Long Runs:

19mi @ 7:28/mile

20mi @8:16/mile (aimed for 85% MP effort, this is why it was slow)

If it helps, I am 27 y/o. 5'8 and 145 lbs.

Are these miles per week?

Easy Peasy wrote:

2:55 seems about right. I would go out in 1:28 and see how you feel. You should know by mile 20 if you can pick it up to go for sub 2:55, or if you just have to hang on to get the sub 3.

I’m going to steal this idea. I have a sub-3 attempt the same day. Recent races:

HM May 1:21

10k Sept 36:xx

5k Aug 17:xx

20m Sept (eased into m pace): 2:15:xx

However, I’m at 52 MPW average, but have ran 11 16+ milers. Including 3 x 20 milers with big chunks at M pace.

I like the 1:28 advice. Although a neg split it really hard to pull off.

Me me me wrote:

Easy Peasy wrote:

2:55 seems about right. I would go out in 1:28 and see how you feel. You should know by mile 20 if you can pick it up to go for sub 2:55, or if you just have to hang on to get the sub 3.

I’m going to steal this idea. I have a sub-3 attempt the same day. Recent races:

HM May 1:21

10k Sept 36:xx

5k Aug 17:xx

20m Sept (eased into m pace): 2:15:xx

However, I’m at 52 MPW average, but have ran 11 16+ milers. Including 3 x 20 milers with big chunks at M pace.

I like the 1:28 advice. Although a neg split it really hard to pull off.

Dude, 20m in 2:15 is 6:45 pace for entire run.

dork_rothko wrote:

Me me me wrote:

I’m going to steal this idea. I have a sub-3 attempt the same day. Recent races:

HM May 1:21

10k Sept 36:xx

5k Aug 17:xx

20m Sept (eased into m pace): 2:15:xx

However, I’m at 52 MPW average, but have ran 11 16+ milers. Including 3 x 20 milers with big chunks at M pace.

I like the 1:28 advice. Although a neg split it really hard to pull off.

Dude, 20m in 2:15 is 6:45 pace for entire run.

Yeah, it was a race...

Me me me wrote:

Easy Peasy wrote:

2:55 seems about right. I would go out in 1:28 and see how you feel. You should know by mile 20 if you can pick it up to go for sub 2:55, or if you just have to hang on to get the sub 3.

I’m going to steal this idea. I have a sub-3 attempt the same day. Recent races:

HM May 1:21

10k Sept 36:xx

5k Aug 17:xx

20m Sept (eased into m pace): 2:15:xx

However, I’m at 52 MPW average, but have ran 11 16+ milers. Including 3 x 20 milers with big chunks at M pace.

I like the 1:28 advice. Although a neg split it really hard to pull off.

And what was the rest for the 3x20 workout? I prefer 5x18, but you have to work up to it. Maybe in 2-3 cycles.

David S Pumpkins wrote:

Me me me wrote:

I’m going to steal this idea. I have a sub-3 attempt the same day. Recent races:

HM May 1:21

10k Sept 36:xx

5k Aug 17:xx

20m Sept (eased into m pace): 2:15:xx

However, I’m at 52 MPW average, but have ran 11 16+ milers. Including 3 x 20 milers with big chunks at M pace.

I like the 1:28 advice. Although a neg split it really hard to pull off.

And what was the rest for the 3x20 workout? I prefer 5x18, but you have to work up to it. Maybe in 2-3 cycles.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to post that. I was busy fingering my brother and his slobber caused a short on the keyboard and the post got posted before I wanted it to be posted. What I meant to say was your awesome and I’m a nonce.

Lord Lucan. wrote:

dork_rothko wrote:

Dude, 20m in 2:15 is 6:45 pace for entire run.

Yeah, it was a race...

Righto. My point was you wrote you're trying to break 3, but you're actually going for something a bit more, no? Low-2:50 maybe?

dork_rothko wrote:

Lord Lucan. wrote:

Yeah, it was a race...

Righto. My point was you wrote you're trying to break 3, but you're actually going for something a bit more, no? Low-2:50 maybe?

Hey Dorko, nope. I don’t have the courage to go out at that pace. I’m at the higher end of masters running, so will be happy with sub-3. I know I could go quicker, but have very limited marathon experience, so just don’t want to risk blowing up after 4 months work.