MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SKIN A CAT (MARATHON TRAINING)

yikes. 14.3 hrs a week of running is a volume bomb and you are likely to be more efficient if you have a structured program with intensity + easy + rest.

you could probably skin a cat with a vegetable peeler if you tried hard enough but it will take a lot more effort and the outcome wont be the same.

Why would anyone want to skin a cat? I’m assuming this is referring to a domestic cat? Do people wear domestic cat skin coats? Is that legal?

Firstly, your improvement is far from dramatic, losing weight would make a bigger difference.

Too much slow running, too little rest imo.

When I was in 20's I had a far more rapid improvement, hit 2:45 on 70-80km/wk (45-50M) already, few years later sub 2;30 never more than 110km/wk (70M)

Two speed sessions, one long run, one or two medium runs and race (real racing). At least one rest day. Speed 10-15 x 400 @ 62 /or 20-30 x 200 sub 30, and 5 x 1km @ 3:05

At least 40% at MP race pace.

I weighed 53.5kg (<120lb) at PB(1.65m height)

Don’t listen to those people. Keep doing what you are doing. Mileage, tempos, races as speedwork. Old school. The only thing I might do is add surges and progression runs but 8:00 pace is not too slow on its own. You are building aerobic capacity.

I would think that in 4 years of doing pretty much the same training year in & year out, that plenty of other runners you know have tried to sell you on periodization, benefits of threshold workouts, some track stuff, a more conventional taper....If you haven't been swayed by now, I'm thinking that you're not really gonna change things up based on what some anonymous poster has to offer. Aren't you even curious to see how much quality you can stack on to your already wide enough aerobic base?