2:36 Marathon Time Trial at the end of a 107-mile week with no prep - what could I run in a real race in ideal conditions?

Congrats on the solid TT. Did you race a half or do a workout like 16 miles @ goal marathon pace prior to this TT? Those may be better indicators of what you could race in a full when tapered.

2:29ish maybe?

Great job on that TT!!!

Givetallugot wrote:

Congrats on the solid TT. Did you race a half or do a workout like 16 miles @ goal marathon pace prior to this TT? Those may be better indicators of what you could race in a full when tapered.

Thanks! I was planning to do a half race or TT around this time in April before the Demoor Global virtual marathon popped on my radar. I was shooting for around 1:14.

I hadn't done a ton of super long runs in this block, but one of the better indicators was a continuous tempo / threshold interval workout where I averaged sub-5:50 for 14 miles.

interesting question. great job btw.

I think the nonexistent taper and the wind might be more important [or as important] as the lack of competition--people really seem to vary in how close to a max race effort they come in time trials. I'll guess you could go 10 mins faster, but not a confident guess

So thirsty!! Posting this all over the place.

What was the elevation profile like?

Aviator what's your running background? Did you start in high school?

2:17:24 +/- 0:00:10

Sub 230 seems realistic for you. That’s the point where you start getting comped entries into regional level races.

How could you not be at least 10 minutes faster- unless this was much harder and/or you had a lot more adrenaline than you are admitting to

Rhodium Nights wrote:

Aviator what's your running background? Did you start in high school?

I absolutely hated running growing up (my family did the local Turkey Trot every year, and I would throw a fit every time), but in 6th grade, my mom started asking me to run around the block after school to burn off some energy. I did XC for the first time in 7th grade and totally stunk up the place (l came in last every race except one), so I decided to double down, train hard that summer, and ended up being the best on the team in 8th grade.

After that, I was good-but-not-great at cross-country throughout high school (fairly high in districts, not so high at states), but was never anything special in track. Unlike many of my buddies on the team, however, I continued to run during my freshman year of college. In the summer of 2017, after my freshman year, I ran a slow marathon in a training run, which made me think that I'd to try a 26.2 race. I started pivoting towards the marathon and averaged about 62mpw that summer and early fall.

In Fall 2017, I ran a debut 2:52:00, then did Boston in 2019 in 2:47:XX, and then finally ran a November 2019 marathon in 2:44 about 8 weeks after a tibial stress fracture, so the mileage was pretty compromised there too.

Although I dabbled in high mileage leading up to all those races, always with a couple of weeks in the 85-100mpw range, the block leading up to this time trial has been by far my most consistently high-mileage and quality-filled cycle. Nice to have it pay off a bit!

joecrunner wrote:

What was the elevation profile like?

Not going to lie, it was flat as a pancake, haha.

Right now, probably 2:32-2:33.

A thread like this is worthless without Strava

You’re looking at a 2:0X in alphaflys and downhill CIM course. Keep it up!

At least 25-30 min wrote:

You’re looking at a 2:0X in alphaflys and downhill CIM course. Keep it up!

Could only find the size 6.5s on EBay, broke my feet going downhill in the process. 0/10, would not try again.

Wow you've improved fast! Looks like the marathon is definitely your race! Were you running for your college team or just training on your own?

Right now I would say you are capable of 2:29-2:31. Keep up the good work, chin up! Great job!