The sub 3 hour marathon training thread

YKK · Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Posts: 317 Location: North&West london

Yep, that is bad timing, but hopefully it is early enough that you have time to shake it.

I went to the expo weds eve which meant 2 1/2 hours on tube/dlr. Most paranoid of a cold I have been in years. Thought I felt something on Weds eve, but it has subsisded.

I even skipped running today, so I am taking this taper seriously this year...

Good luck to all.

stenard · Joined: 04 Sep 2013 Posts: 2063

Yep, pretty gutted about the illness hitting. Gave it a go but had to bail at 29k. I felt really good for the first 5k, but by 8 miles it was already beginning to feel too hard. By halfway I was in a bit of a mess but tried to keep it going until Sub3 was officially not possible. But in the end I couldn't even do that. I just crumbled to a stop. 15mins in the medical tent before feeling able to evn just walk to the tube says I wasn't in a good way.

The hardest bit was actually quitting. I've never done it before. It helped that I'd had a conversation with my coach last night who told me that was the right thing to do if it came to it, and with other stuff on the agenda for the rest of the year, there was no point being a hero and slogging it out for the final 8+ miles. Tough outcome to take regardless.

Sub3 may well now not be achieved. I just can't see me doing another one with this level of commitment again. I genuinely don't enjoy "just running".
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Random stuff and race reports

Wheezy · Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 1889 Location: Sub 3 (elect)

mattsurf · Joined: 28 Sep 2016 Posts: 852 Location: Zug, Switzerland

Sorry to hear that you didn't make it today, but it was the right decision

Focus on tri for a bit and I am sure that the temptation for another 3h attempt will come again

Tupperware · Joined: 09 Oct 2012 Posts: 80 Location: Swindon

gingerbongo · Joined: 21 Sep 2012 Posts: 1733 Location: Devon

Yep, echo all above really mate. I had a similar thing a few weeks ago (though with much less dedicated build up). DNFd for the first ever time due to illness, 100% the right call but a horrible thing to actually have to do! Though i was only mopey for that day, and had come to terms by the next! haha

I wouldn't be surprised if the little itch comes back in a couple of years though! You're still proper young in endurance sports terms.

Silver lining though is you have tonnes of fitness and can carry that into your next goal, unlike an injury that will sideline you for who knows how long!

Some great racing by a few other Strava crew ... though i'm carp at remembering which strava names marry up to which TTers!!! sorry! But some relaly excellent times.

Oh and one other thing .... Kipchoge. I'll just leave that there!

YKK · Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Posts: 317 Location: North&West london

Sorry to hear that Stenard.

Right, over to me:

I had been in UK roughly 3 weeks pre London. This meant a lot of socialising and I am very bad at saying no to socialising. I can count the number of drink free nights on my thumbs...

Anyway, I knew I was in good nick, I didn't let any of the drinking get in the way of running any final long/fast runs, but did mean the diet was far from optimum.

Race day came and I was late into the champ start, which meant I had 10 minutes to get sorted. I am not an early person, so this was not to bad and I am not known for my warm ups anyway.

I decided to take 9 gels with me, 3 of those caffeine, I had also read the previous night that it is best to take caffeine later in the race, so I changed my strategy that morning. What could go wrong...

So started off, hr way higher than I wanted, normally I would slow, but this was kind of a #@?# or bust run for me. I was thinking I was aiming at somewhere between 2:40 & 2:45, after the first k, esp with the high hr, I settled to get a small buffer for 2:45. So around 6:14/3:53 dependent on your language

At around 1k calf ache appeared, I have had this on and off for 10 years and tbh, so I ignored it, then it moved to the achillies and then I had pins and needles in the foot. Anyhow, I continued. Finally it all loosened up around 11k.

To be replaced by a stitch, which went after a bit.

And then I had a while of needing a #@?#. Again ignored.

By this point, I am over Tower Bridge, hr still high and Garmin all over the place, so not completely sure of my overall pace. I decided to check at half way, if 2:45 was on, keep pushing, otherwise drop back and treat this as a training run for Gold Coast later in the year.

I think I hit half at 1:21:20ish. So not a great buffer, but I decided it was on despite the subbornly high hr.

I spent the second half expecting to fade, but it didn't come, in fact I sped up a little.

With 6 miles to go I felt strong, maybe the caffeine gels coming into play? I stopped looking at hr now it is all in the head.
Anyway I kept pushing.

At 5 miles to go, I tried to calculate how long I had spare to get under 2:45. To my dismay it worked out that I needed 6 min/miles to achieve this, despite thinking I was running well as the Garmin was screwed up I had not had way of validating this. Ars.

And this is the thing, I still kept pushing, which was great, as at 4 miles to go I realised I had looked at the wrong field on my watch and I actually could run at 7 min/miles and go under. Happy days!

So I just had to hold pace, I then really pushed from Birdcage walk and finished in 2:43:24.
Very happy with that.

My splits on the app to 40k other than the first fast 5k are all 3:53-3:55. The last 2k was 4:00. And this was achieved without a functioning gps.

This is the first time all my splits are under 3 hour pace.

This is the race in my mind I have been able to run for years, but I have always faded rather than the pushing and letting the HR elevate.

Of course, I need to mention the shoes. When I first commented on the 4% I mentioned a friend of mine said they were more about not fatiguing rather than running faster. And this I think is the point of them and why I could run this race and keep pushing rather than leg fatigue slowing me as it has in almost every other marathon I have run.

Buzz_ · Joined: 19 May 2007 Posts: 453

Wow. Way to get your excuses in early...
... and then not use them!

I kept waiting for the wheels to come off, but you just kept on trucking. Great run, great report.

Tupperware · Joined: 09 Oct 2012 Posts: 80 Location: Swindon

Impressive list if things to ignore during the run Smile

I walways find mental arithmetic a struggle late on in a marathon.

Great run! Congratulations Very Happy

Jorgan · Posted: Wed May 01, 2019 8:37 am Post subject:

Thread on NEW SITE

https://forum.tritalk.co.uk/t/sub-3-marathon-thread/111
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