dirtymangos wrote:
I dislike failure.
But here goes.
The attempt was a failure .
I managed to hold 6:27 pace for 20 miles. Then approx:
Mile 21- 6:45
22- 7:15
23- 7:30
24- 7:45
25- 8:15
26 - 8:30
(7 minutes off goal)
To be fair I "chose" this outcome. I might have run 2:52. A "small PR."
But "who needs a small PR - better to go for it or die trying" I thought.
What advice I followed:
1) Increased my mileage: 45 to 75 mpw
2) Greatly reduced bike and swim
3) Did not do long- long runs
What advice I did not follow:
1) Loose weight- 75 mpw of running is less calories burnt than my triathlon training.
I did not diet. My swim/bike muscles turned to fat and my weight stayed constant.
2) Eliminate long runs - or split them up. My long runs were 15-19. Less than I had done in the past, but still longish.
Failure:
I was only 6 miles off of goal pace or 7 sec/mile (if I had paced correctly).
I believe the following to be THE most significant weakness:
1)I needed EITHER a long long runs- 22+ miles
OR a very long marathon pace tempo run 12-16 miles
And I needed this CONSISTENTLY.
I was comfortable running 6:10 for 8-10 mile tempos. I was comfortable running 13 at 6:27 in training (but only did this only once). I was even comfortable racing 6:27 for 20 miles. (I think I could of held 6:22 for 20 miles).
I was NOT comfortable running 26 at 6:27.
Jack Daniels recommends lots of marathon pace 12-16 mile runs.
That might have worked.
I think a couple of 22+ runs might have helped instead.
Obviously- been faster, fitter, thinner, less foolish, or had another month in the training cycle - would have helped.
Funny moment- this race had a simultaneous 13.1 and 26.2 start and a common finish line.
You know things are going terribly wrong - when half marathon runners are outrunning you near the finish!!
It is easiest to Monday morning QB this but here goes. Yes, I thin you were a bit heavy...5 lbs lighter would have gone a long way in the last 6 miles. I think if you ran the first 20 miles at 6:39 and given away say 20x10 seconds (say 3.5 minutes), then in the last 6 miles you may have had an easier time staying sub 7....
Speaking from experience back in the day, my best marathon was 1:23+1:25 for which I was the leanest. I ran several in 1:22 to 1:25 and did the second half in 1:30-1:33. There was around 10 years of running sub 3 every year but the second half was always a positive split because I was too heavy for my first half split. Just getting lighter and running almost 1:24 in the first half instead of 1:22 made a big diff. I think I mentioned one marathon where I just went all out and ran the first half in 1:19 to see what I could sustain and as expected blew up in the tail end...but if you move fast enough early you still end up with a good time on paper, but not a good time relative to fitness (that day was 2:51).
At some point for age grouper triathletes wanting to run sub 2:50 you can't sustain more mileage, so the path to the fast time is dropping a pound per week by eating less in the last 6 weeks...endurance is not going to change that much, so then you show up lighter on race day with a decent engine and wheels and you just run a bit more conservative...using a biking example, you go at slightly lower speed but since running is like uphill cycling you are using a lot less watts to go slightly slower because you are lighter....so you're going at a lower percent of your FTP, but since your watts per kilo is better due to dieting, by the time you reach mile 20 you have more overall joules left in the tank for the last 6 miles....and since you are lighter you can move at the same speed off less watts, meaning you get to the finish line needing less joules.
People on ST get caught up too much about mileage and perfect workouts,,,there are a zillion workout ways to skin the cat, but the big trump card in marathon running is weight. More weight hurts you on push off with less stride length for the same force and hurts more every stride when you land. When you want to run a marathon at a high percent of your Vdot, you gotta shave every ounce of useless fat and muscle. All that upper body swim muscle is excess baggage....big glutes and big quads also excess baggage. But it CAN be easier to shave that off by reducing carb and also protein intake than trying to add 20 more miles per week. Gotta go hang out with some supermodels and get on their diet (LOL). As you mentioned running volume is too low to really burn the same caloric intake as we may for tris on a daily basis!