my journey to sub-2h30 Marathon. help me with workouts

i do not consider those 10k as a PR though, as they were all done in the road. So my 15:56 and 33:16 were both 5000m and 10000m track races. I was in muhc better shape in the 5000 than in the 10000m so thats why I mean i could barely run under 16 in my best shape, but could go down 33 for 10k (in road races, and probably could have gone under 33 as well in track had I raced in that under 16 shape).

I think I'm pretty qualified to speak on the subject, since I was once in your shoes.

College PRs (graduated in '10): 15:23, 25:56

2010 Fall Marathon: 2:52 (horrible training, sick week of race, raced stupidly)

2011 Fall Marathon (running 75 miles/week in grad. school): 2:39

2012: poor training, burned out for most of the year. I ran a 1:16 half in the spring, but I started to come around in the fall with a 1:12 half.

2013 Spring Marathon: 2:30

2013 Fall Marathon: 2:25

Since then, I've run PRs at shorter distances and come close in the marathon.

What worked for me was consistently running 90-100 miles/week with longer tempo runs and a solid long run every week or two (18-22 miles with the last hour often at 6:00 pace or faster). I found it immensely helpful to join a racing team to have help on workouts and long runs, as well as to have people to help hold me accountable with training.

I don't think you'll be able to run 2:30 off 75 miles/week. The only way I se that being possible is if you do hard long runs often and focus on running longer tempos at threshold or faster.

Ran the 6K race today. Finished 20:12. I have run most of the race with elite women, including two kenyans. passed 3:15 first k, and 6:32 2k. If i had passed the 2k 10-15s slower, i believe i could have approached 20:00, but in the end, that's the level i am today. Couldn't have gone much faster. Passed 16:45 at 5k. Died in the end, 3rd woman overall passed me with 100m to go and i had no legs to answer.

2-3 years ago i could run the same distance 01 minute faster.

I need to get back to that level, plus cut more 30s (total of 01m30s) for this distance, to be able to run a sub2h30 marathon.

committed to my goal, i will keep training hard to be able to run a sub2h30 in 8 months. My journey has just started.

because of the race, i have run only 40-45 miles this week, but get back to the 55-60 of last weeks.

finished one more week.

around 55 miles.

highlights:

wednesday i tried 5 x 1000 resting 90s, a workout i used to do in the past in about 3:07-3:08 avg. Finished the first in 3:07, second in 3:07 again; third was a very hard 3:11, and I died in the 4th with a 3:14. Didn't even start the 5th, i was totally spent.

friday: ran ~13.5k in 49:50. The course I run has this weird distances from home (like 2.7k, 5.4k and 13.5k). I went 25:30 and 24:20 for each half, so a progressive pace. It felt good in the end.

sunday (today) i did 14 miles in about 7 min/pace, with some hills. Temperature was close to 100F as I left home about 10 am (I live in Rio de Janeiro and the weather is getting crazy).

Overall, looking good. Was able to finish 6 weeks avg a decent mileage, a 6k race and a few workouts with some intensity.

ready for xmas.

Interesting thread. As i read it the advice of reed stands out as the best IMHO. try to steer clear of too many workouts until you get up past 70mi per week and 60 min runs at a steady pace go a LONG way to improving aero fitness.. Long way till mid 2016 so why rush into racing hard?

just my observations

Will follow your progress with interest