Sub 2h30 Spring Marathon - The Quest For Amateur Glory Rides Again!

I did it on a flat 3.5 stretch of road. Two times out and back, so the net elevation was 0. The whole thing had less than 200 ft. climbing, and the weather was pretty near perfect (45 degrees with a slight crosswind).

Tyler, good work on the 10 at MP. How are you planning to adjust due to the cancelations? Assuming you decide to run Grandma's, what's your training plan look like from here?

If Green Bay gets canceled, I may consider Grandma's. But this is turning into the longest marathon block ever...

Popping in for the first time in over a year. Had a bad knee injury at the end of 2018 (stepped in a pothole and ripped my meniscus), so 2019 was filled with PT, surgery, more PT, and slowly building back fitness. I had been registered for Boston, and I was getting pretty excited about it, as I was finally getting back to doing the kind of workouts I had been doing in late 2018. Instead of letting the fitness go to waste, one of my teammates and I decided to run a marathon yesterday on a USATF certified course on a tow path. We had three (socially distanced) hand timers in accordance with USATF rules, and another referee at the turnaround point. We both came away with PRs: 2:28:45 for me, 2:28:54 for him. First time under 2:30 for me, first time under 2:40 for him(!).

It was a little weird not being in a real race. Definitely harder to dig deep in the last 6 miles. The tow path surface was a little slow, and we were both kicking up a bit of dirt and gravel with every stride. There are a few short paved sections, and when we hit those, our pace immediately got faster with no difference in effort. On balance, it's probably evened out by the fact that there were zero turns other than three hairpins (it was a double out-and-back), and the course was pancake flat other than a couple of little rises at the locks. Splits were pretty even, with a slight acceleration down to low 5:30s for the last quarter.

It wasn't how I planned going under 2:30 for the first time, but I'm really glad I went for it. Hopefully the next time I toe the line, I'll have a lot more confidence knowing that I've been there before.

If you're feeling fit and despairing of the lack of races, I'd strongly encourage you to try staging your own. Just search the USATF database for already certified courses in your area. Chances are something has been certified on a path closed to traffic. If you start early in the morning (we started at 6:15), you won't have to worry about crowds.

Congrats! Any chance it was the C&O canal in DC?

runnerchef wrote:

Congrats! Any chance it was the C&O canal in DC?

Indeed, it was! Thanks!

Time to revive this thread.

I've been MIA, popping in and out every six months in this thread...

got hurt last fall during xc season and didn't really get healthy until February. did a mix of cycling and running through the end of May, at which point I was at around 70 mpw running and 100-130mpw cycling. I had 8 weeks off of work due to the virus but went back to work at the end of May and basically quit cycling at that point.

I've had a pretty good stretch since then. I've run more miles each week every single week since February, just adding a few miles each week. Some weeks I add just one mile, but I've kept the momentum going and hit 90 and 91 the last two weeks.

Like many I've gotten into the Time Trial game. My local club has organized a series of unofficial TTs on XC courses. We do staggered starts, one person starting every 20 seconds or so. First one was June 6th, did a 5k road TT June 13th, another xc meet June 20th, then waiting until July 18th for the 4th race. Last one is tomorrow morning. The races are all ~6k on varied courses, all dirt or singletrack. Times were 20:25, road 5k in 15:55ish, 21:00, 20:40.

You can't really convert those marks to road/track marks except the road 5k (actually 15:43 on short course) but I am hoping to run 19:30ish for the last race tomorrow, which will be the easiest course. I think I'm in about 15:30-15:35 5k shape.

As this a marathon thread...I obviously have plans to take a stab at time trialling a marathon this fall. Not sure when that may be, but probably around the time that CIM usually runs. Might work the weekend before Thanksgiving.

As for training, I've taken this week as my first down week since February, will race tomorrow, and will take next week easy as well. Then it'll be back to 80+ mpw.

I haven't really done too many workouts worth mentioning. Just doing one workout per week, plus all those races. Paced some friends to a 16:30 5k at one point which felt like 10k pace. I've mostly done workouts pacing people, so not really testing my thresholds or anything. I've kind of considered this as a pre-season.

Anybody else planning any TTs?

my race schedule is basically doing a TT every 2 weeks, from events from 800m to maybe 30k, and then the marathon. The only TTs I'll be really caring about are ones where a PB is possible, like 10mi, 10k, 1mi.

Great to see this thread again! Good stuff @reed! I just ran one of my harder workouts in the plan: 32km with 16km at marathon pace. Averaged just under 3:33/km (5:43/mi) for those 16km. The first 14 went in around 6:24/mi. Was really surprised that I could sustain this despite bad weather (got soaked). I don’t know whether I can maintain this pace for a full marathon yet, but one day I will!

reed wrote:

My local club has organized a series of unofficial TTs on XC courses. We do staggered starts, one person starting every 20 seconds or so. Last one is tomorrow morning. The races are all ~6k on varied courses, all dirt or singletrack. Times were 20:25, road 5k in 15:55ish, 21:00, 20:40.

You can't really convert those marks to road/track marks except the road 5k (actually 15:43 on short course) but I am hoping to run 19:30ish for the last race tomorrow, which will be the easiest course. I think I'm in about 15:30-15:35 5k shape.

update - I ran 19:29.x so my guess of 19:30 was pretty close. 5:12s on dirt for 6k is pretty good! trying to remember what the surface was like for my 8k PR when I ran 5:09 pace, but that was a very competitive race, back in 2015. closed in about 5:00 for the last mile as well after getting out a little too slow.

runningineuope - to do 10mi at goal MP is pretty good as long as it wasn't getting too hard. I never did many continuous MP runs in the past, but I like doing one early on to get a feel for it. my first MP workout in 2016 was 2x5mi at goal pace and 10 weeks later during my race I ran 5 sec/mi faster than that for the whole race. so it's fine if it wasn't easy.

next up for me is an 800m time trial (or two). Kinda excited as I've never done a legit 800m race. this won't be legit I suppose but it will be hand-timed and on a track, so that's close enough for me. I'm more of an ultramarathoner than a track star...so 2:10 or faster would be a success. Probably could have run 2:03ish back in college off of 10k training, but never tried. Haven't ever run an all-out mile either so I have little bearing.

Favorite thread is back!

I am doing a half marathon TT this weekend. The past 2-week's trainining did not go very well and can't really tell what shape I am in right now. Hopefully can get close to 1:13.

After this I will do a marathon trial in September - need to run one no matter what...

Maybe I should create a Sub2h30 Fall Marathon thread?

Not like there will be any fall marathons to run outside of TTs, though.

I'm still recovering from a sacral stress fracture and going through a walk/run system right now.

I am still hoping for a fall marathon in Europe. I’m not entirely sure, but I can imagine a small race happen.

Reed: it was hard, but not hard like a race. I do think the last mile or two my HR was a bit high (similar to the last miles in a marathon), but on the other hand, this was a 90+ mile week and I am still 13 weeks out.

What do y’all do outside of running? I do strength once a week (light lifting, lots of core etc) and some yoga (strength and flexibility). Very little cross training (biking just takes so much time).

RunningInEurope wrote:

What do y’all do outside of running? I do strength once a week (light lifting, lots of core etc) and some yoga (strength and flexibility). Very little cross training (biking just takes so much time).

I watch bike races on youtube, does that count as cross training?

I do nothing basically

RunningInEurope wrote:

What do y’all do outside of running? I do strength once a week (light lifting, lots of core etc) and some yoga (strength and flexibility). Very little cross training (biking just takes so much time).

Ever since I got injured, I took up cycling and really enjoy it (even ending up on several Strava top-10s that I had no idea about), so I plan on continuing that & possibly getting into some duathlons in the future. If I can ever iron out my swimming stroke, another triathlon would be in my future.

We still have a couple of marathon options here in the UK, so I'm getting back into a sub 2:30 training block.

London *may* happen on 4th October in some form. Although more likely is a lower key marathon in Wales (Wrexham) that has opened entries to sub 2:40 runners only. Lapped course, no bag drop etc to stay within guidelines and on the provision that London is cancelled.

9 weeks to go and I feel in reasonable shape. Plan is to get back into some MP work over next month and see how it feels, building up to 90 mpw and a long run of 22 miles with 12 @ 5:40s. I've knocked mileage back a little during lockdown, but kept up a weekly 20 mile long run so feeling like endurance is still there.

Are there any smaller marathons surfacing in the US?

Alba wrote:

London *may* happen on 4th October in some form. Although more likely is a lower key marathon in Wales (Wrexham) that has opened entries to sub 2:40 runners only... on the provision that London is cancelled.

Are there any smaller marathons surfacing in the US?

Nothing like you mentioned in Wales. That would be awesome.

I'm new to the marathon and I am hoping to jump in a smaller one in November. I guess I'm going to try and run under 2:30 but I really don't know what is an appropriate goal since I've never raced the distance before.

Training has been going ok. I've had a few lingering aches and pains but they seem to be going away. Going to start trying to do some workouts next week.

Does 2:30 scale with any of your PRs? If it doesn't go well the first time, don't worry I think there is a large pacing/fueling/learning curve on your first one. Not saying you can't do it well the first time though.

Shane33 wrote:

Does 2:30 scale with any of your PRs? If it doesn't go well the first time, don't worry I think there is a large pacing/fueling/learning curve on your first one. Not saying you can't do it well the first time though.

Yeah, I've run 31 minutes for 10k and 15 minutes for 5k. Based on the calculators I should be able to do it. I tend to do better in the longer distances

Ganbatte wrote:

Yeah, I've run 31 minutes for 10k and 15 minutes for 5k. Based on the calculators I should be able to do it. I tend to do better in the longer distances

Based off of those times sub 2:30 (or even slightly faster) should be “easy” when you do a marathon-specific preparation. I can’t speak in general terms but what works for me is basically lots of running (high mileage) over a long period of time and quality long runs (occasionally with long sections at goal marathon pace).

Test your fueling/drinking. You can get away without that in your training runs but you can’t during the real thing. If things go right, the first 25-30k feels a bit like the “warmup” and the last 12k is where it gets tough. All the preparation, the fueling, the carb loading, the taper, the holding back in the beginning etc is to get through that final bit :)

(As I said, just my experience, no idea whether that applies to other people).