Wasn't he on pace for 2:06.40 at the half? Did he give a reason as to why he couldn't hang on to that? Instead he went backwards quite a bit. Despite the fact that he said he was running a 4:46 marathon pace comfortably in training.
His strava simply explains "blew up last 4k" so I guess that was pretty much it, training runs didn't go nearly far enough to prepare him for the last two miles and the wall hit hard.
I’d be curious to hear others’ thoughts on this as well. I’m a big fan of Nate Jenkins’s blog and, following Mantz and Young on Strava, it kind of feels like what Nate talks about when he says that many Americans train like ‘10k runners with a long run’ rather than doing a lot of marathon specific work. But… who am I to question the training of the coach of the only two runners to have hit the standard.
My observation is they do some marathon specific work but not enough to stress the relevant systems enough to be well prepared for the final miles. Long runs are long enough, did quite a few at 25 miles. From what I noticed, the most volume at marathon pace was one workout of 10 miles, the rest or 8 or shorter. They also did pickups at the end of the long runs but kept those at 4 miles. They seem well prepared for a 35k.
I do wonder if eyestone is being conservative with his training. Mantz especially has many years ahead of him in the marathon. Could be a way of keeping away from risk of overtraining and injury now with potential to increase the volume later
I’d be curious to hear others’ thoughts on this as well. I’m a big fan of Nate Jenkins’s blog and, following Mantz and Young on Strava, it kind of feels like what Nate talks about when he says that many Americans train like ‘10k runners with a long run’ rather than doing a lot of marathon specific work. But… who am I to question the training of the coach of the only two runners to have hit the standard.
Mantz runs a lot of miles. He does not train like a "10k guy." With that said, just because he runs a lot doesn't mean he's guaranteed anything.
Marathons are not an addition problem. It's not "x+y=z." It's more like a statistical calculation. "x+y= greater chance of y."
Training correctly can give you much better odds at not bonking, but it doesn't eliminate the chance. Ask the several east african athletes in each elite field who bonk or drop out. It's more common to hit the wall than not.
My guess, knowing what I know about Connor, is that he "went for it" today based on his A goal and just wasn't quite there yet. Give him a break, the guy did run 18-20 miles at 2:06 pace.
I’d be curious to hear others’ thoughts on this as well. I’m a big fan of Nate Jenkins’s blog and, following Mantz and Young on Strava, it kind of feels like what Nate talks about when he says that many Americans train like ‘10k runners with a long run’ rather than doing a lot of marathon specific work. But… who am I to question the training of the coach of the only two runners to have hit the standard.
Mantz runs a lot of miles. He does not train like a "10k guy." With that said, just because he runs a lot doesn't mean he's guaranteed anything.
Marathons are not an addition problem. It's not "x+y=z." It's more like a statistical calculation. "x+y= greater chance of z."
Training correctly can give you much better odds at not bonking, but it doesn't eliminate the chance. Ask the several east african athletes in each elite field who bonk or drop out. It's more common to hit the wall than not.
My guess, knowing what I know about Connor, is that he "went for it" today based on his A goal and just wasn't quite there yet. Give him a break, the guy did run 18-20 miles at 2:06 pace.
Wasn't he on pace for 2:06.40 at the half? Did he give a reason as to why he couldn't hang on to that? Instead he went backwards quite a bit. Despite the fact that he said he was running a 4:46 marathon pace comfortably in training.
Yeah well you can run 4:46 pace (or maybe in your case 6:46) comfortably in training without necessarily being able to run 26.2 consecutive miles at that pace. Surely you can grasp this?
Wasn't he on pace for 2:06.40 at the half? Did he give a reason as to why he couldn't hang on to that? Instead he went backwards quite a bit. Despite the fact that he said he was running a 4:46 marathon pace comfortably in training.
Yeah well you can run 4:46 pace (or maybe in your case 6:46) comfortably in training without necessarily being able to run 26.2 consecutive miles at that pace. Surely you can grasp this?
Not really. When I ran my long runs (20 milers) at 6:24 pace and said I was comfortable with it, I finished in a 6:22 pace.
Yeah well you can run 4:46 pace (or maybe in your case 6:46) comfortably in training without necessarily being able to run 26.2 consecutive miles at that pace. Surely you can grasp this?
Not really. When I ran my long runs (20 milers) at 6:24 pace and said I was comfortable with it, I finished in a 6:22 pace.
This is amazing to hear about because I raced much faster than that and I never would have run a long run even within 30 seconds per mile of my marathon pace. I guess I was a slacker.
Wasn't he on pace for 2:06.40 at the half? Did he give a reason as to why he couldn't hang on to that? Instead he went backwards quite a bit. Despite the fact that he said he was running a 4:46 marathon pace comfortably in training.
Yeah well you can run 4:46 pace (or maybe in your case 6:46) comfortably in training without necessarily being able to run 26.2 consecutive miles at that pace. Surely you can grasp this?
Yeah well you can run 4:46 pace (or maybe in your case 6:46) comfortably in training without necessarily being able to run 26.2 consecutive miles at that pace. Surely you can grasp this?
I don't think he can, actually.
Well we are engaging in semantics here. Marathon pace for elites is by definition not comfortable in comparison to a leisurely stroll.
Mantz runs a lot of miles. He does not train like a "10k guy." With that said, just because he runs a lot doesn't mean he's guaranteed anything.
Marathons are not an addition problem. It's not "x+y=z." It's more like a statistical calculation. "x+y= greater chance of z."
Training correctly can give you much better odds at not bonking, but it doesn't eliminate the chance. Ask the several east african athletes in each elite field who bonk or drop out. It's more common to hit the wall than not.
My guess, knowing what I know about Connor, is that he "went for it" today based on his A goal and just wasn't quite there yet. Give him a break, the guy did run 18-20 miles at 2:06 pace.
Oops. Fixed.
Good post. I believe he a actually ran about 24 miles at 2:06 pace though.
My observation is they do some marathon specific work but not enough to stress the relevant systems enough to be well prepared for the final miles. Long runs are long enough, did quite a few at 25 miles. From what I noticed, the most volume at marathon pace was one workout of 10 miles, the rest or 8 or shorter. They also did pickups at the end of the long runs but kept those at 4 miles. They seem well prepared for a 35k.
I do wonder if eyestone is being conservative with his training. Mantz especially has many years ahead of him in the marathon. Could be a way of keeping away from risk of overtraining and injury now with potential to increase the volume later