I haven't read the replies here, but I think you would hit that target easily if you run a smart race. I think you would do even better with more mileage, but as long as you don't blow up or injure yourself it probably won't be an incredibly hard run.
Grenio wrote:
mileage-vs-speed wrote:
Would it be sensible to pace the first half of the goal M at 1:32 and see how the endurance holds up from there to either maintain or accelerate?
YES! As someone else said, with your speed and youth, you will feel great at the beginning. 6:50 will feel absurdly slow. Tick off miles as long as you can at 6:50 (never faster) and if you're good at mile 22, pick it up a little.
Wildcard: fuel. Are you used to eating during runs? Not just sport drink, but Gu or something similar. Start feeding early and keep shoveling it in. Maybe a Gu every 3 miles - 800 calories during the race.
Okay I read through the replies and I would be hesitant to take that much fuel if you're running at lower intensity.
[quote]mileage-vs-speed wrote:
browski The marathon I'm running has 3:00 pacers, I think if I could force myself to stick with those guys for the first half I could bring up the restraint not to start too fast. I've read on here before that 2Q is generally very aggressive, but so far the workouts to me are mostly tough-but-fair, perhaps the lower mileage version of the plan isn't as bad as what most people will have experienced - the higher mileage plans. Also, I have used goal VDOT for a 3 hour marathon for the paces, which is lower than my 5k/15k VDOT, perhaps this has kept them doable for me.
This is a great approach, both with the pacers and the paces. In both cases, better to be a bit slower than too fast. Keep us updated on how you do!
About 2 weeks out from the marathon so I thought I'd update with my progress. When I make my planned 50 miles for this week, I'll have run 47 miles average over the seven weeks from my first post. Peak mileage was 53 miles, with one lower mileage week of 39 miles due to a skiing holiday. Out of 14 Q-workouts, I completed 13.
This weekend I'm doing 8 @MP with 1 rest and then 6 @MP, can this be treated as kind of a predictor workout?
I've been practicing nutrition a lot on the long runs (anyone know how not to get sticky fingers from squeezing down gels?) and feel quite confident with that area now as well. Fuelling strategy will be 6 - 9 gels with water, pacing strategy will be as stated before, following the 3:00 pacers up to the halfway point.
Overall feeling very glad that I upped the mileage - it's made me much more confident going into the taper that I can at least have a solid race. Thank you to everyone who replied in the initial discussion, I will be sure to update after the marathon and good luck to everyone else racing in the coming weeks!
I did a 2:58 off of 45ish mile average a week. it was a 16 week plan on which I PRed my half at 1:24 on a training run. 3 interval type speed sessions a week with of course LSD and towards the end adding MP efforts into the long run at increasing amounts of time every week.
The goal race was two days ago, thought I'd update with the results if anyone is looking for a review of the low mileage 2Q training plan.
It was pretty warm on the day (20C), but I felt confident with sub3 after a 28k long run at goal pace a few weeks before. I went out looking for the 3h pacers (they'd started about 40 seconds ahead of me). After catching up with them, I found a huge crowd directly following the pacers. This made it hard to hit the tangents of the corners and caused pace fluctuations around narrow parts, so I passed them a bit to get some space. I ended up running the half in 1:28 low feeling pretty good.
After about 25k the fatigue started setting in, with the hard going really starting after 32k. My pace dropped a bit in the last 7k, but was still able to hold on for a 1:29 low second half for a 2:57 overall.
Reflecting on the training plan, I think the workouts in 2Q are really excellent. Due to the extensive explanations of the purposes of each pace, it really felt like each workout day was about attacking a certain system to boost it, which I found particularly motivating. Average mileage over the 18 weeks was about 36 miles, but with some weeks over 50 after consulting LR with this thread. If I were to run another marathon, I'm inclined to use JD again but with a higher mileage. I felt I really had the target speed down, but with only a bit of endurance lacking. 2Q in general I highly recommend, I might have gotten a bit lucky with hitting my goal on the low mileage, but it does seem that it's possible to sub3 on it with a few peak weeks.
I did 3:03 on 25 mpw with 3 long runs.