Why we're all not running 2:22?

Too many of us think we need to get married and have children and settle down with a cushy 50+ hour a week job. If you are working 50+ hours a week and have a wife and kids then those are your priorities, not running. If you are single then it's very easy to put in the time and energy into training for that 2:22, or 2:20, or 2:18 for that matter. Somewhere along the line 10-12 hour workdays became the norm, instead of 8. That's another problem. We work more than any society in the world. If you work less and run more than you'll reach 2:22 and faster.

Alan

tryon creek,

please drop me an e-mail so i can pick your brain.

BWJ,

i'm going after 2:22 over the next few years. my pr is 2:38. only run one though, and i wasn't really prepared.

dunes runner, what exactly is it that you do??? How do you claim to know more than everyone about everything? You have argued with me about the environment, when that is my field of expertise. Now, I'm no expert in economics, but it seems to be Kartelite's expertise. Now, how come you can you read something from a liberal newspaper and suddenly claim to know more than people who are actually in the field?

What is your job and what are you degrees in?... Or are you just a soccer mom?

I've thought a lot about "pipe dreams" and "concrete attainable goals." In my first "serious" marathon (2:48, 2:42 back in '92 & '93 off of 33 miles/wk), I ran 2:30:49 @ Chicago two months ago. I felt I was in shape to run in the 2:24 to 2:26 range. So, in my head at least, 2:22 isn't a pipe dream for me. If I can stay healthy and continue to improve my strength and AT, I'm confident that 2:22 will become a concrete attainable goal.

After suffering through lots of small injury/structural issues in past years, I've now gradually developed the ability to handle an increased training load. So with that and the improvements I've made in the last year, I feel like I have to take a shot at the Trials. In my mind, I'm close enough that I'd be cheating myself by not going after it.

I'm not sure how old you are, but if you've run a 2:35 off of only 4 years of training, I'd say that you might have a shot. Obviously, the marathon is a patient runner's sport. Keep training, keep getting stronger, keep all possibilities in mind, and you never know how fast you might run.

And if I haven't made the point clear in my previous posts:

Yes, sub 2:22 is a HUGE accomplishment that any runner should be proud of. Period.

Live the Life,

BDG

BWJ,

I also went from 2:34:00 to 2:22:03 in exactly 1 year (same race), so it is possible. Go after it, don't give up. At least go after chunks. Try and go sub 2:30, if you do that, then go after sub 2:22. If I can do it, just about anyone can.

RunningArt,

I will NEVER work 10-12 hours per day. Never, never never. You're not supposed to say "never", but I'm saying it. Never freakin' ever.

Having a logical debate with dunes runner is an exercise in futility, don't waste your energy.

kartelite wrote:

The Fed? LOL. You're hilarious. The Fed doesn't run the government, it's an independent agency. It's NOT owned by the Bank of England. Oh, also it doesn't LEVY TAXES.

kartelite -

I thought you said you knew about these things.

third choice wrote:

dunes runner, what exactly is it that you do??? How do you claim to know more than everyone about everything? You have argued with me about the environment, when that is my field of expertise. Now, I'm no expert in economics, but it seems to be Kartelite's expertise. Now, how come you can you read something from a liberal newspaper and suddenly claim to know more than people who are actually in the field?

I'm surprised to hear the environment is your area of expertise. Do you work for GE or Monsanto?

I don't read any newspapers or watch any "news".

I prefer to think for myself, observe well, listen, and find information from various sources. I have a bachelors in kinesiology and a masters in exercise science. I'd rather not say what I do as they might be watching. : )

Lets see... the ego thing... nope... I have a string enough one without being surrounded by my friends.

Yup... never broken 4:00 or 15:00... this much is true and I admit it. Its not a big deal to me. I wish I had run faster, but what are you gonna do, right? Maybe if I saw more success than I did I would still be running... beats me and its impossible to tell since I didn't.

I never said that 2:20 would be easy. I actually said that if everything went well, that I had years of training without getting injured, that if put my whole life into it, and I HAD THE HEAD FOR IT (all things I may not have and will never find out if I have) that I think (I... not you, or anyone else) that I think I could run 2:20. Regardless, it will never happen so its a moot point.

Can't say I remember telling everyone I was running 90 miles a week if I wasn't. As a matter of fact with the excpetion of the summer after my freshman year, I NEVER ran that much... as my teammates and training partners will attest to. I was streaky with my training at best... everyone I ran with knows that. And struggling to break 4:30? Not sure about that. I remember one race indoors after I ran 8:40ish at Mets in the 3k went to Valentines and got my butt spanked running like 4:28... but such is running. If you can't tell, I'm not embarassed by such "failures" and I don't try and hide much. Kind of reminds me of the last scene of 8 Mile when Eminem is rapping about his own life, no ashamed of anything and just letting it out there... so tell me something about me that I don't willingly talk about.

16:30 on the track. I assume you are talking about my first 5k at Princeton when I cramped up... and if that's what you're talking about... you must stalk me because I barely remember that race. I do remember hating the experience and getting back to CU and having JS pace me to an 800 on the blue bad boy... just me and him... to a crappy 2:02. It felt better than whatever I ran at Princeton, though. BTW... that same year I ran a string of 4:03s and 4:04s in the 1500 and prd in the 800 with a 1:56, most of the heats I won. Take the bad with the good, eh?

Yes, primarily it does mean I talk to my friends about their running. And when I can, offer my advice. Sometimes they take it, sometimes they don't. Ether way, I support them 100% and they know that and that is beneficial in and of itself. I have also offered financial assistance to at least one of them so that he can get to Europe to race if he needs to. That is one way I feel like I can help.

I do really love my job... its a nice change of pace after hating one for 2 years... not so sure why that is something that is bad.

Not dignifying the last sentence.

M

ps- Tonto, you know so much about me, why don't you shoot me an e-mail. Your insults are pretty spineless otherwise. What do you think I'm going to do? Beat you up? Sue you? Give me a break. I could probably do neither. I would like to know who doesn't kike me, however, just so I know who NOT to cheer for or route for next time I see you.

Conto wrote:

5 hours of sleep at a time if you're lucky, all to run what, 13 miles a day and be exhausted, run down, sick, non-productive at everything you do, etc.

Ahhh... yes.. they life of a runner for the service academies....

dunes wrote:

I prefer to think for myself, observe well, listen, and find information from various sources. I have a bachelors in kinesiology and a masters in exercise science. I'd rather not say what I do as they might be watching. : )

Translation:

I make $6.50 / hr. + commission training fat ladies at the local Bally's Total Fitness. I read "Men's Health", "FLEX", "Self", and "People" religiously.

dunes runner wrote:

I'm surprised to hear the environment is your area of expertise. Do you work for GE or Monsanto?

I don't read any newspapers or watch any "news".

I prefer to think for myself, observe well, listen, and find information from various sources. I have a bachelors in kinesiology and a masters in exercise science. I'd rather not say what I do as they might be watching. : )[/quote]

No, I don't work for a private company or corporation, but I'd rather keep it anonymous. Were you being sarcastic or serious?

IF I were KK I would run 2:05 for the Marathon.

IF I were Bill Gates I would rolling in money.

IF, IF, IF, IF

Needless to say Conto you AREN'T geting it done right? So why put down others that DO get it done or trying to get it done by making 2:20 sound like nothing? You don't have running goals? What only the person that breaks the world record is good? Then the rest of us should give up right? If you don't have a shot at a WR then your accomplishments mean nothing? I don't get it.

If you had a better kick you'd have qualified already! ;-)

Not to be ornery, but what do you mean, if he had a better kick??? How do you know he wasn't on pace for 2:23, but then had this unbelievable kick in the last 800?

It wouldn't be a better kick that he needed, but better strength, better pacing.

The marathon, of all races, is not about developing a good kick so that you can whittle 4secs off your final time.

I once had a friend say after I ran 4:21 in HS, "Man, if you just kicked, you would have broken 4!!" Pretty naive of him, eh? Pretty naive of you, too.

Anyway, Congrats, Miles and Miles, on a fine run. In my opinion, 2:22:03 is no different than 2:21:50s. Of course, I know you'll want that qualifier... I have no doubt you'll get. Sense you've made so much progress in the past year, there is no reason why you won't get the Auto-qualifying time.

You see that little winky eye thing ;-) after my post. its a common internet tool denoting the harmless poking of fun.

Actually, I did see your "winky thing" and I should have asked that you save your time in posting the response that you did becasue I knew beforehand you were going to do so.

I know you were joking (harmless fun), yet it still is a pet-peeve of mine, so don't take it personally, OK... let me have my little rant that I just don't like it much when people say, "you should have kicked" as if he wasn't all elbows and neck veins watching the clock tick as he approached the finish. (<;

Late to the thread, sorry busy week, but my name came up and I know lots of stuff, so I can address a couple of topics briefly, not that there's much value added any more...I hope the "hopefuls" as well as "Conto" see this

(1) "fullem" and my "peak period" schedule --

Close, Brian, but you flatter me a bit -- usually total abt 95-105 mpw, worked 45-55 hrs, commuted another 2.5 hrs/day total... typically ran 3.0-4.5 mi at 5:40 AM, ran 9-13 mi starting at abt 7-7:30 PM, lifted 3-4x per week 50-60 min per session. Usually 6-6.5 hrs sleep a night during the week, more weekends. No girlfriend at the peak times usually, but I was so tired I had not much sex drive either. If I can do that, it can't be THAT hard b/c I'm just one of those p---y Lehigh runners that got s--t on in another thread.

(2) "Sehon40", "Conto", "Miles and "Miles" et al.

The way I see it, having looked at "Statman Crothers" list (thanks, Mr. C), "M&M" has WAY upside, and "sehon40" seems to be able to get under 2:20 if he just starts to think he can be as good as I think he can. And know what? I am obviously out of consensus but I think "Conto" probably has the physical "goods" to break 2:20 if he went into full-on, big-mileage, single-minded-all-day mode for a year. It'd be a big stretch but it's feasible.

400

conto 50.9 --- M&M 51.0 --- JAM 57.6

800

conto 1:56 --- M&M 1:58 --- JAM 2:04 -- sehon40 2:04

1500

JAM 3:59.6 --- conto 4:01-- M&M 4:12

Mile

JAM 4:19 --- conto 4:20

5000m

JAM 14:48.0 -- sehon40 14:49 -- conto 15:12

5k road

JAM 15:01 --- M&M 15:12

10,000m

JAM 31:01.1 --- sehon40 31:09

half-mar

JAM 1:06:53 --- M&M 1:08:38

marathon

JAM 2:16:48 --- M&M 2:22:03

(3) "sehon40" and Dave B running coast-to-coast

Godd--n, am I jealous of you guys. Have a blast, as if I needed to tell you.

(4) Greenspan

He was a full-on Ayn Rand acolyte and has changed some but still seems to me to play very close to that theme.