My running career so far. How much better can i get?

There's a documentary where a overweight fat dude who was never athletic as a child went from barely being able to jog and over the course of a few years and hundred mile weeks he got down to a sub 70 min half marathon and in the 2:2xs range for the marathon.

Wishfulguy wrote:

23 years old male. Been slightly overweight and never did any sports besides childhood playing until i was 21. I decided to change my life and i took up running. I began with some easy running 10-15mpw. I ran a half within a month in 1:54. I was embarrassed and didn't run another race soon. I trained continuosly getting to an average of 25mpw within 9 months. (I'm posting from a mobile phone and i can't separate into paragraphs)

Trained continuously for a whole 1/2 hour each day? LOL

Wishfulguy wrote:

23 years old male. Been slightly overweight and never did any sports besides childhood playing until i was 21. I decided to change my life and i took up running. I began with some easy running 10-15mpw. I ran a half within a month in 1:54. I was embarrassed and didn't run another race soon. I trained continuosly getting to an average of 25mpw within 9 months. (I'm posting from a mobile phone and i can't separate into paragraphs)

I ran a half again in April 2017 and ran 1:35. I was happy and increased my mileage over summer averaging 30-35 mpw. In september i ran 1:29:10. After that i ran all winter and averaged 40-45 mpw for 6 months. Ran a half in March 2018 and got 1:21:41. Since then i ran more, did quality workouts, 4-5 long runs of 15-17 miles, averaged 50mpw for the last 6 months, peaked at 70. I have a half coming in 10 days. What should i aim for? I would go for a 1:18. How much better can i get? Next year i might debut in the marathon. Am i talented by any means having done this in 2 1/2 years in which i averaged 30-35 mpw?

After this race i plan on running all winter. 6 days a week, 3 easy days, 2 workouts(one with km repeats and one with a continuous interval in the middle 3-6miles) + a long run every week, starting at 15 miles building to 18-20. Starting at 60mpw building up to a peak of 80-85, averaging 70mpw for the next 5 months. I want to run 1:14 by April 2019.

Sand Dunes wrote:

There's a documentary where a overweight fat dude who was never athletic as a child went from barely being able to jog and over the course of a few years and hundred mile weeks he got down to a sub 70 min half marathon and in the 2:2xs range for the marathon.

no theres not which documentary?

Wishfulguy wrote:

After this race i plan on running all winter. 6 days a week, 3 easy days, 2 workouts(one with km repeats and one with a continuous interval in the middle 3-6miles) + a long run every week, starting at 15 miles building to 18-20. Starting at 60mpw building up to a peak of 80-85, averaging 70mpw for the next 5 months. I want to run 1:14 by April 2019.

Progress is not linear

-RunnerSam

Wishfulguy wrote:

23 years old male. Been slightly overweight and never did any sports besides childhood playing until i was 21. I decided to change my life and i took up running. I began with some easy running 10-15mpw. I ran a half within a month in 1:54. I was embarrassed and didn't run another race soon. I trained continuosly getting to an average of 25mpw within 9 months. (I'm posting from a mobile phone and i can't separate into paragraphs)

This is the key fact. You'll go far. I don't know if that means anything more than elite hobbyjogger status and winning all the local 5Ks, but even that can be fun. Also, don't ignore the short races. Training to run a fast mile can be both fun and useful for other distances.

alsal wrote:

Sand Dunes wrote:

There's a documentary where a overweight fat dude who was never athletic as a child went from barely being able to jog and over the course of a few years and hundred mile weeks he got down to a sub 70 min half marathon and in the 2:2xs range for the marathon.

no theres not which documentary?

do you mean the one from the brit?

PR's as of Oct 2018

Half Marathon 1:21:41

10k 37:31

5k 18:05

Mile 5:26

So you want to run 5:44/mi for a HM in April when your current 5k pace is 5:49/mi?

Definitely, i haven't been training properly at all since lately. I'm utterly confident i will smash all my PR's. I could lower my 5k PR tomorrow if i wanted to..it's since august and is weak i guess.

I guess with my comment I was thinking along the lines of a more long time runner not newer runner (and thus can improve quicker, and PRs are less 'solidified'). I am happy you have been improving and found success in running. I just wanted to get the point across that at some point your progression will slow down. I believe it will happen sooner than you think, but would be happy to be wrong.

If you ran 1:21:41 last spring on 45MPW, and increased volume and quality I'd say its reasonable to shoot for 1:20-1:19. Hopefully you are logging your workouts/longruns so you can narrow in on good goals for future cycles.

-RunnerSam

Finished my last workout before race today.

I did 10 miles with a fast 5k segment in-between some moderate running.

Overall pace : 6:49/mile

5k tempo in the middle : 18:57 ( 6:06/mile )

Wishfulguy wrote:

Finished my last workout before race today.

I did 10 miles with a fast 5k segment in-between some moderate running.

Overall pace : 6:49/mile

5k tempo in the middle : 18:57 ( 6:06/mile )

I'm like in 1:19 shape (as of Sept). In my most recent comparable workout I ran 2 x 5k @ 6:00 pace as part of a 14-15 mile run. I think I'm still in 1:19 shape for another race soon for reference, though I may go for 1:18.

Im like a 1:19 guy wrote:

Wishfulguy wrote:

Finished my last workout before race today.

I did 10 miles with a fast 5k segment in-between some moderate running.

Overall pace : 6:49/mile

5k tempo in the middle : 18:57 ( 6:06/mile )

I'm like in 1:19 shape (as of Sept). In my most recent comparable workout I ran 2 x 5k @ 6:00 pace as part of a 14-15 mile run. I think I'm still in 1:19 shape for another race soon for reference, though I may go for 1:18.

I run like 40-50 mi/week.

Seems like a great workout, well done! My hardest recent workout was a 12-mile run with a continuous 10k segment in the middle at 6:04/mile, with a negative split. This workout gave me a lot of confidence i can shoot for 1:18.

Wishfulguy wrote:

Seems like a great workout, well done! My hardest recent workout was a 12-mile run with a continuous 10k segment in the middle at 6:04/mile, with a negative split. This workout gave me a lot of confidence i can shoot for 1:18.

Might as well go for it

Forecast changed and is turning into a mess.

Already predicting 64-68F, cloudy with 20mph winds and pretty high humidity. How much should i adjust my goal?

My PR was set in 40F, sunny and 10mph winds.

Depends how much you just want your goal Vs a good time. If I am dead set on a goal time I just go out at that pace regardless of weather etc, if I blow up I blow up but if it turns out I am good then I hit the goal. But if I was after the best time I could possibly do on the day owing to conditions etc then I would slow my goal pace accordingly.