12 weeks to go in a Sub 2:20 Marathon Plan, how would you write it?

Sounds like you're training to run a 20 mile race...

forcerunner wrote:

Hoping I am wrong - I really appreciate the words. I did post this thread to get some honesty from people who have some experience with targeting the sort of performance I'm hoping for. It's that time of the block where I have to decide whether to go out with others at a certain pace or target a bit slower and run something I'm sure I'm capable of. I totally see your view as something I should lean towards. As for the long runs, my coach wanted me to make sure I just get in the volume for this block. I protested a few times saying I should be doing more long fast stuff but he wanted to make sure I was healthy at the starting line first and foremost. I suppose that strategy worked but I did want to do more longer efforts.

I like your coach's reasoning. You're in fantastic shape right now, and I think you've developed into sub-2:20 form. Regardless of whether you hit the time, you've laid a sound foundation for future training.

Dude is going for it, hope he holds on. 1:08:30 through 13.1mi...

Still hanging tough at 20 miles. 1:44:38. 5:14/mi pace. Should be well under 2:20 unless he really starts to slow...

...sometimes having a group that large working together can pull you along and get the best out of you.

...sometimes it leads to a blowup.

Hope for this dude's sake it's option a.

A guy I coach is part of that group. It's got to be awesome to have 25 guys al withtin 10 seconds.

Holy $hit!

OP just dropped a 2:18! Major congrats.

Good job. Worked the plan.

Congratulations onexceeding he goal, and getting an OTQ. Impressive time.

Congrats!

Thanks everyone! I really appreciated the advice and feedback on this thread over the past weeks. Going into it I had some self doubt but decided that I made this trip to go for it so I did. The pack I ran in was fantastic. A lot of first time guys, a lot of veterans. We worked really smoothly. I led mile 14 and took my turn to help out. Got every bottle besides the one at 10k. Started falling off the pack heading into the bridge right around 22. No mans land that last couple miles besides passing/getting passed by a few guys. Started doing the mental math with 5k left to go and thought it was in range. Turned the corner and saw the clock just tick over 2:18. Decently emotional crossing the finish. I put in the work and it paid off. Thanks again to everyone who gave me feedback!

Hell yes! While you're lying around wondering when your legs will allow you to descend the stairs again, it would be really useful if you could summarize what advice from this thread you tried, and you think was the most useful.

This has been an interesting thread to follow. Big congrats man, hard work paid off!!

One of the best threads I've seen on letsrun. Congrats!

@forcerunner, congrats on your race and a few questions for you:

How did the jet lag affect you?

Did you take any measures to reduce the affects of jet lag?

How many days in advance did you arrive before the race?

force,

Do you have all of your training complied in one place that is easy to look at?

Congrats, forcerunner. Very, very few people achieve what you've done. Seeing this kind of success gives a lot of us hope.

Force- so proud of you man! hammering! have been following your training and progression since the Stonecutter days and it's great to see the hard work pay off.

Congratulations, incredible achievement! And bigger things to come.

support crew wrote:

Hell yes! While you're lying around wondering when your legs will allow you to descend the stairs again, it would be really useful if you could summarize what advice from this thread you tried, and you think was the most useful.

Good question. I'll go back through it. Really what I was looking for was anyone who had an outside view to point out "Hey dummy you're missing this thing." and also just to see how other people would schedule and write a training plan for those 12 weeks. I'm always fascinated to see how so many people can run a similar time but run their training so differently.

Smoove was very helpful with advice on how to build a progression of workouts involving marathon pace. Joseph McVeighs suggestion of alternating long runs is something I'm going to be doing going forward for the next few months over the winter. I completely agree with the being "greedy" part too. I know my limits and know when it's time to back off.

Stanton K brought up the good point of tempos with faster finishes. I didn't exactly do the faster finishes but I did add in some longer grinding tempo runs. Whipp made good points of more moderate running instead of fartleks, but I didn't want to change things too much. Maybe this next block. PrimoNumerUno referred to race day and I followed that advice. I didn't overtaper either.

AdrianMarriott brought up burning fat as fuel during the marathon. I definitely felt the last 4 miles get harder but I think I'm pretty efficient when it comes to fueling. I used the Maurten 320 drink and it did the job. I did start to include hard downhill running once a week based on the suggestion.

Sage always has good advice and it's a bummer he's running Houston instead of CIM.

Looking at my Half Marathon race result I did what everyone else probably does and plugged it into a calculator to see fitness.... It equates to 2:21:59 via McMillan and 2:21:11 via Jack Daniels. That made me worry but I also knew CIM would be better weather vs 68F 90% humidity like it was for the half marathon. I also was relying on running with a good pack the whole way and knew that would help. Doing the large majority of my workouts solo gave me the mental strength to be able to hold on to the pack since things felt so much easier.

The Turkey Trot did give me some confidence that I could really grind out a pace. 19:06 for four miles isn't setting the world on fire but for me anything under 4:50 feels fast.

I got a lot of insight from "Hoping I am wrong but..." who highlighted all of the insecurities I did have going into the race. It's something that we need to be cognizant of and respect the distance of the marathon.

I ended up just buying those small Dasani water bottles and using those at the tables. Speaking of, the tables were great. I got all my fuel except for the 10k table where someone had either knocked mine over or taken it. Those are my insights looking back!