Marathon Training Thread - Week Ending 10/17

On the plus side Abu at least you can see the corresponding change. If your mileage was the same since college and your performance suffered then that would be very troubling. If 2011 gets back to around 3k (maybe 2.5 in '11 and 3 in '12) you should see a return to previous times.

From my log I see:

Nov 1990 - Dec 2003: Fat, sedentary blob.

2004: 410.3

2005: 1278.1

2006: 2009.5 (3:06 @ New York, 1:29 NYC Half)

2007: 807.7 (maybe 1,000) Off for 3+ months due to illness. Start from scratch

2008: 2708.0 3:20 @ Boston, 3:14 @ Chicago

2009: 2810.9 3:01 @ Houston, 2:58 @ Boston, 2:55 @ Chicago. 1:26 Half

2010: 2607.4 (YTD) 1:38 25k, 1:23 Half, 2:52 @ Boston, 2:53 @ Wineglass.

My weight has also come down. My average weight in '07 was 186.2, this year was 161.3

I'll be lucky to hit 3,000 this though. 2 weeks off after New York for me...

besides Orville, i am the second oldest guy here (mid 40s) and have zero miles before 2006.

2006 - 950 (from March)

2007 - 1150

2008 - 2350

2009 - 2600

2010 - over 3000, hopefully 3300

Reading all of your posts makes me always wonder - what if?

Why didn't i start running earlier!!!?!

CTA - you are a perfect example of someone that can continue to improve for a few more years IN SPITE of being mid-40's!! My training partner that I mentioned before is 50 now. He has run for 35 years (at least), but didn't really start running serious mileage until about 4 years ago. In that way, he is similar to you. He kept setting PR's at 1/2 marathon distance every year from age 46 to 49. He finally didn't get faster at 1/2 marathon this year but he really focused on the 5k this year and had his best age-graded performance of his life at nearly 92%. 16:08 at 50!!! Anyway - based on what he has done I know firsthand that 45 is not too old to keep improving! Consistent mileage day after day, week after week, year after year is the key... Good luck!

Man, I've missed some good discussion this week!

VF Runner and Road Racer, Congrats on some excellent races! Great reports as well, makes me want to get back to training.

blaznbison - Holy crap...Awesome half! I had a feeling you were due to run something like this after you ran 32:0x for 10k a few weeks back. Nonetheless, that is a damn impressive time. Glad to see you've adjusted your goal to 2:30. If you remember, I ran 1:10:43 five weeks before I ran 2:31:05.

NoleRunner - Looks like an awesome week to me!

4TM - Even though I'm not running a spring marathon, I've narrowed my fall marathon 2011 choices down to 2...Chicago or NYC. I qualify for both of their sub-elte/elite development programs, so it all depends on what I ultimately want to do. Right now, I'm leaning more towards NYC but nothing is set in stone yet.

Good to see the discussion of cumulative mileage here. FWIW, I totally agree with Road Racer's philosophy. Consistency is the key...year after year. I'm also a young guy at 24, but here's my mileage progression with associated PR's in each year.

High School

2001 - 1,041 miles (5k - 18:42)

2002 - 1,559 miles (5k - 17:27, 1/2 mar - 1:23:43)

2003 - 1,822 miles (5k - 16:48, 1/2 mar - 1:19:48)

2004 - 2,080 miles (5k - 16:22, 3200me - 9:46)

College

2005 - 2,400 miles (5k - 15:56, 1/2 mar - 1:15:28)

2006 - 2,919 miles (5k - 15:32, 1/2 mar - 1:14:53)

2007 - 2,765 miles (5k - 15:12, 10k - 31:46) - injured for 3+ months

2008 - 2,145 miles (5k - 15:20, 3k - 8:52) - injured for 4+ months...only year of running with no PRs

Post-College Marathon Training

2009 - 3,282 miles (1/2 mar - 1:13:55, mar - 2:34:51)

2010 - 3,451 YTD (projected 4,000+) - (1/2 mar - 1:10:43, mar - 2:31:05)

P.S. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that Boston closed in 8 f**king hours! If this isn't a sign to tighten the standards, I don't know what is. At least have some sort of "guaranteed entry" time standard like NYC does. Boston rant over.

From the articles/interviews I have already seen it looks like the BAA is at least giving lip service to making real changes for 2012. Lets hope so.

Anyone here who didn't get in giving thought to entering the Gannset (Formerly Exeter) marathon they started last year in response to Boston's early closure? During my low points this past Sun I was thinking I would never run another marathon. Now, largely because of this weeks discussion here, I'm anxious to start planning what's next.

I'm not a usual contributor to these threads and have yet to run a marathon, but I'm starting to think about one for fall of next year. I came in here to poke around see the discussion. This is definitely one of the best threads I've seen on LRC. Just people actually talking about their running and supporting people with similar goals. Great stuff.

Pablo,

I'll most likely do NYC, so will see you there. Who knows, maybe I'll have some drastic transformation of fitness, bust 2:34 in Boston, and try for sub 2:30 with you in NY on a wing and a prayer. Hey, its worth dreaming until my fitness tells me otherwise! I'm hoping that spending 2 months getting super efficient and "fast" again will magically transform me. Of course, it could just as easily break me. We'll see.

Having said that, I'll be more then content with 2:37-2:38 in Boston and 2:35 in NY. A small part of me wants to race Chicago again, and then come back for NY (I know, crazy). Get one last shot at a fast one before my swan song in NY. I guess these next few weeks until NY I'll pay close attention to how I feel and try and gauge if it would have been possible this year. That will give me an indication of whether I should try it next year.

I thank all of you who post here and make this thread possible. I enjoy it! I was lucky to have run marathons before professionalism. We were all amatures. You could be banned for jogging with a professional athlete. Track racers had not found the sport yet and marathon runners were older. Times were so much slower. I ran my first marathon at age 24 and was asked by coaches and runners several times if I did not think I was too young to be moving up to the marathon. I was lucky that I did not have to run for time. I raced to win. Year/annual mileage/best time for the year. 1961--1969 miles--3:01--It was 92 degrees--second place

1962--2720--2:31:17----1964--1762--2:37----1965--3878?--2:34----1966--4,445--2:43----1967--3,000--2:30:26----1969--2008 miles--2:42----1970--1745--2:38----1971--3363--2:31:07----1972--2526--2:35----1973--2738--2:28:22? for 2nd on a short course----1974--2686--2:24----1975--2698--2:36----1976--1696--2:55----1977--2613--2:55----1978--2610--3:10---From then on, I just ran with my buddies until: 1985--1311 miles--3:32----1987--1473--3:29

That's all folkes!

The sport is my hobby. It was all great fun. Thank you all for adding to the fun.

CTA wrote:

besides Orville, i am the second oldest guy here (mid 40s) and have zero miles before 2006.

2006 - 950 (from March)

2007 - 1150

2008 - 2350

2009 - 2600

2010 - over 3000, hopefully 3300

Reading all of your posts makes me always wonder - what if?

Why didn't i start running earlier!!!?!

Hate to have to correct you, but at 54, I think I am the second oldest guy here (what do I win???!). I don't have access to all my training logs but I think, since I got into this back in the summer of 2003, I've averaged about 1,200 miles/year, with at least one marathon a year. I have the best of each year listed below. (yeah, I know the times are weak. I'm just a poor boy, along way from home....)

Cleveland 2004 3:53

Huntingdon 2005 3:43

Richmond 2006 3:52

Flying Pig 2007 3:53

Columbus 2008 3:31

Boston 2009 3:59 (had fun though!)

Richmond 2010 ????

I just wanted to pop into this thread and thank Pablo for keeping me straight a few months ago when I really thought the heat and humidity of Florida was destroying my training. He made excellent points and talked me down from the ledge. I sometimes posted in the thread, but always read it- it is sometimes a bit much to post in a thread when you feel like your times and workouts are slower when compared to the impressive times and workouts of others who post here- I wasn't worthy.

Anyways, 2 months after emailing pablo and despite having to take 10 days off about 5 weeks before the race, I ran a 2:50 in the Columbus Marathon (a 5 minute pr) this past weekend. Wasn't as flat as I thought it would be, because by living in Florida we know "flat" courses, but according to midwest standards, perhaps it was to many.

It was my third marathon in 10 months (2:55 (jax)/ 2:56 (boston) 2:50 (cbus) so I am ready to take a nice long marathon break.

I just wanted to post and thank everyone who posts on a normal basis, reading about your training is really interesting and again, thanks pablo.

Damn! If I'd gotten to Columbus we might have ran together. Congrats.

As one who's in the same pace/workout range as you, I hope you keep posting in the future. I had those doubts occasionally too but everyone here is very welcoming and I feel like an accepted member of the group - you should too.

suar - Congrats on a great PR!! I agree - Columbus isn't flat. It is still decently fast, but nothing like Chicago!

Sidenote: you are more than worthy to post your workouts!! Only self-centered egotistical people would disagree... and thankfully nobody in this thread is like that! There can always be something learned from others... regardless of how fast they are. For all we know they are getting more out of themselves with their training than a 2:15 guy! And, actually - I am interested what everybody does because I like to try new workouts so I don't get stale or in a rut.

Road Racer wrote:

And, actually - I am interested what everybody does because I like to try new workouts so I don't get stale or in a rut.

Agreed. I've tried workouts that have been posted here, some worked, some didn't...but the point is that I learned something new about marathon training.

suar - Awesome race! A 5:00 PR at any level is amazing. Like Road Racer said, don't feel like you're not "worthy" of posting here, that's why it's called the "Marathon Training Thread", not "Marathon Training Thread for sub 2:40 guys only". There's lots of folks here that are quite knowledgeable and haven't broken 3 hours...or 2:50...or whatever. We've all got one thing in common, we all train our asses off to race the marathon as fast as we possibly can.

None of us here are professionals, we're all Average Joes (or Janes...sorry FARMette), and we could all use a little extra motivation to get out the door. I know that's why I keep coming back to this thread.

P.S. suar is a good example of why I've put my email out there in a public forum. I routinely get emails from guys on here, and most of them never post to the thread, but this is one of the few threads left on LetsRun that doesn't involve bashing everyone or trolling attempts (granted, sometimes those are hilarious, but they get old).

Thanks Pablo, VF Runner, Road Racer.

To be honest, there were a couple normal posters who, after looking over their training, measuring it up against mine and then seeing their marathon finishing time or goal, are another reason why I decided to give it a run.

And of course you are correct, reading others training does give you great ideas on different training techniques and helps to get you out the door.

Nice job in Columbus, Suar! I have great memories of running there.

I've been following this thread but have never posted here. Good stuff.

Here's my story.

Age: 43

Marathon history

Portland (Oregon) 1994 2:44:28 (debut)

Coeur d'Alene (Idaho)1995 3:11:15 (a crash and burn more out of boredom than anything else)

Portland 1996 2:36:57 (20 in 1:55:56)

Memphis 2009 2:59:31 (went through the half in 1:23:XX before the wheels started to fall off around 18)

I've never ran more than 68 miles in a week in my life.

When I ran the 2:36 I had run PR efforts that year at 5K (15:35) and half marathon (1:12:57). A lot of high quality stuff, but I just don't have the time in my life to do the mega mileage.

Next up: New York marathon 11/7/10

Goal: 2:49:59

Currently running about 40-45 miles per week, maybe 50 some weeks. Ran a decent 20 miler a couple of weeks ago, first 10 at about 7:10 pace, then 6:50 or so for the next 10. I try to do a longer tempo session every week. Last week was 11 miles including 5 X 1/2 to 3/4 mile uphill efforts.Planning on getting out for my last long run this weekend, an easy 2:30 or so. I've also registered for Boston in the spring (if New York doesn't kill me !)