I'm training for the wineglass marathon on Oct 2nd, it's my third marathon. Did my first marathon in 2001 and a trail marathon this memorial day. Hoping to run sub 3:05, but I'm really aiming for sub 3. I'm using Higeon's Advanced 1 plan maxing out with 65mpw. The first 2 weeks went good but I got the flu last week and was laid up on the couch from Tuesday till Friday. Hope to get back on schedule starting tomorrow and I hope it doesn't impact anything too majorly. Thanks for starting the tread

In lieu of a dedicated marathon plan, I've been doing a modified version of the BarryP plan. My typical week consists of 3 easy runs, 2 tempo runs and 1 long run.

I've built my mileage back up into the high 40's after doing some races in May and early June. This past week's runs were 6 miles easy, 9 tempo and 14 long. I may just stick with this plan for a while.

My biking has definitely taken a back seat to my running recently. I need to learn how to balance the two better.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I'm doing my first marathon, an early fall marathon for me on 9/11 in Pennsylvania. Hoping to qualify for Boston 2012 and go under 3:00. I only have eight weeks to go and am currently around 55 miles per week. I'm also doing AG Nationals on August 20th, so I'm heavily favoring run training and getting in around two swims per week and around 125 miles/week on the bike.

I'm using a modified Jack Daniels plan that I wrote from his book, Running Formula. I needed to include a few tris (including a HIM) in the plan, so my mileage has varied from a low of 38 miles to a high of 65 per week.

The plan has two 'Q' runs each week that usually include some threshold work, and I just logged my first 20-mile run this past week. Everything is going well so far (currently knocking on wood!).

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule? Yes
2. Which marathon are you doing? Chicago
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? 8-week plan, 55mpw starting after multisport season ends on Aug 7. Basically, I do strength training on Mondays & Fridays, with three 1-hours runs between T, W, TH. Weekends are a 10 mile trail run and a long run ranging between 25-35K, 35K will be my long run. During 8-week program I only run - no cycling or swimming.
4. How's your training going? During multisport season, I run about 25-30mpw, running much faster than build-up for April marathon (Boston) so feeling pretty hopeful.

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule?

I do, two actually, three if you count an Ultra Relay...

2. Which marathon are you doing?
Marine Corps, Philly, and Ragnar Ultra

3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year?

I'm using the Bob Villanueva Training Plan. It goes like this:

4-5 Mile Tempo Run: T, W (Done at lunch)
10 mile runs in hilly course: M, T or T, W
13 mile "Murder Run" at 30 secs faster than race pace: TH
16-20 Mile LR at Race Pace: S
8-10 Mile Backup Run: Sun
Off Day: Fri

Total Mileage: 70 miles on average

4. How's your training going?
Won't start dedicated training until August 15 or so, but fine so far.

I'm planning on doing the Philly race in late November, and started training a few weeks back.

Training so far has been kind of painful.. Some minor nagging hip pain is pissing me off, and I'm finding myself abit unprepared for heavy mileage; basically took last week off as I felt overtrained.

Originally planned to go with the 55 mpw plan in Advanced Marathoning, but might settle for Hal higdons 18week plan. Goal is to go sub 3:20 but its lofty enough that it's a long shot.

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Swim. Bike. Run. Tacos. Not always in that order.
@ryan_hurley

If you are doing a half marathon each week at 30 seconds faster than your marathon race pace, do you normally race a half even faster than that? I always thought the rule of thumb was a :20 / mile pace difference between a half a and full race.

I don't really like rule of thumbs, so the short answer is No. My avg pace in my marathon PR is 7:00, but my half PR is 6:30.

But the point of the "Murder Run" is to run stupidly fast (Last mile is usually in the 5:30 range) and suffer so that you can run faster in your race. It's a bit like the theory of track work (Run fast to run faster) but for 13 miles on a rally hilly course. Since I added these runs in, my Marathon PR has dropped from 3:15 to 3:06. I've simply learned to run faster.

Bob

My best Marathon is 6:54 pace. My best half is 6:24. So basically to do your programme I would need to run a PB half every week? seems a bit extreme.

I'm doing the Victoria, BC, Marathon, on Oct. 9th. It's my first marathon, I have done 2 halfs and 2 HIM's.
I am using the Runner's World Smartcoach training plan, you enter a recent race time and it lays out the plan with paces for the workouts. Looks like 4days/week, with one day of either mile repeats or tempo runs, building to a max week of 76km. 3 days of slower running, at around 5min/km, with a goal pace of 4:19/km for the marathon, which ends up at around 3:02:xx for the race. I usually throw in at least 4X30 strides in to the slower runs to keep the leg speed.
I'm going to keep up the biking on the Rest/XT days, not sure if I'll add in a 5th day of running with bit of a shorter run.

I ran in pretty humid conditions yesterday and ended up with a blister on my heel, any tips for dealing with blisters with a long run coming? I bought some 2nd skin bandages but I haven't tried them out on a run with the blister yet.

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule? YES
2. Which marathon are you doing? Inaugural Empire State Marathon in Syracuse, NY, Oct. 16
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? Hal Higdon's Advanced I program
4. How's your training going? Picking up the middle of the program this week. Just did my last HIM for the season yesterday, and took a couple weeks off of the program to finalize stuff for that race.

This will be my first marathon, and I want to put as much time as possible into the training, so I'm pretty much only running for the next couple months. I do plan on swimming three days per week, and hopefully starting the Finding Freestyle drills during the marathon training.

I'm not saying it'll work for everyone, but it works for me. It could also be that I'm simply not running fast enough in my half's and my PR is much lower.

The point of the workout is to run very fast for a bunch of miles. Sometimes it's closer to MP sometimes much faster. We simply run fast to get fast.

Bob

1) Yes
2) New York; shooting for ~2:47
3) A little bit of a hybrid. Kinda follow Pfitzinger, Daniels, sometimes go on my own. Nothing is set in stone, but I try to follow some principles.

- Volume: Between 60-75 miles per week. Not a ton of emphasis on the long run, but consistently running 10 miles a day. Hat tip to JoeO on this one.
- Tempo Run: Try to get in a temp run. Usually warm up 4-5 miles, tempo for 4-5 miles, and then cool down.
- Faster Work: Dont get to the track often, but will do a fartlek with some faster repeats. Will sometimes substitute with hills to ensure strength. Don't necessarily try to fly up the hills, often doing them at marathon race pace, but will do a circuit with 0.25 and 0.45 mile hills. Repeat 4-5 times. Like these workouts because they're tough but I generally recover well from them. Philosophically, I think hills are great for marathons, because I think strength/economy are more important than footspeed.
- Long run: Will get in a 15-20 miler every 2-3 weeks. As noted earlier, if you're running 10 miles a day, the long run is less important. Lots of 10-12 mile runs which put me at ~50% of the time that I will be doing the race.
- Ensure that a sufficient % of my running is on soft surfaces, as well as at a relaxed pace.

4) training is going well, except for a little crankiness in my left leg.

Anyone using the Hanson's training plans? (http://runningtimes.com/...aspx?ArticleID=4447)

Been thinking about starting this within the next few weeks after an early August Tri.

Chicago Marathon. I have never used a training plan, I just kinda follow a basic pattern. Training in earnest doesn't really start until the second week of August. Very little cycling or swimming for me in August or September. Just running.

i'm doing the san antonio rock and roll marathon on November 13th. I start my training next week. it will be my first, i'm hoping to finish in under 4 hrs. Not sure i should even be posting this, ya'll are running sub 3 hr marathons.

i'm using a training plan out of Runners World magazine.

New York Ciy. I am using Pete Pftzinfgers 35-55 mile plan. I am starting week 3 and have hit all workouts per schedule. Looking at a sub 3:30. Feeling good........

Yes I'm giving it a try, I'll find out how it works in early September.
I admit I am cheating a bit on the plan...my mileage is a bit higher and I don't take a rest day. Been putting in 60-65mpw. Longest long run has been 16. This differs from my other marathon training (this is my 9th one). The past few years I have been running 75-90mpw while training for Ultra's in addition to marathons. basically all the miles at an easy pace with a LR from 20-30 miles. So we shall see how less mileage with faster runs works out. I might not be a good test subject since I have good running base.

1) Does 12/5 count as a fall marathon?
2) CA International in Sacramento.
3) Going to use the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan but start a few weeks into it to get through tri season and summer biking.
4) With a 12/5 race the plan officially starts 8/1.

I am using their plan for a race October 9 (Towpath near Cleveland) and am 4 weeks in. I really like it so far. To be honest though, I am not racing any tri's the rest of the year so running is 90% of my workouts. I hope to BQ-3:15.

This is a great start to the fall marathon training thread. Everyone should try to post something each week to share how their training is progressing or how they've had to adapt along the way.

For me, I still have an Olympic Distance tri in August and a 1/2 Ironman in September. So, I still need to keep up with the biking and the swimming for 10 of the next 16 weeks.

Good Luck All.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I'll be doing the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront in October; it'll be my first. I've got several 1/2 marathons, a HIM (Muskoka), and Around the Bay 30k successfully behind me. I'm starting into week 4/16 of Furman's Run Less, Run Faster plan. Three runs/week: long, tempo, and track intervals. It worked well for me in the past so I figure if it ain't broke...
It's great for multisport because the "cross-train" days called for are there on our schedules by default.
So far training's going well & I'm hitting my times.
It's funny, we know we shouldn't set time goals to our first efforts at new distances, but my predictors via MacMillan and Furman both point to the BQ time range, so I am using that as a carrot until such time as my 52 yr old knees tell me to re-jig my hopes.

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_______________________________
http://www.snail-male.blogspot.com

My running went to a new level when I ditched the Furman 3x a week program and started to run every day. Perhaps your knee issues prevent you from running more frequently, but I don't think there's any correlation between how frequently people run and how frequently they get hurt. I used to do the 3/4 week thing and was hurt all the time. I run pretty much every day (maybe a couple off days a month), probably around 70 mpw now, and I feel better than ever and recover from runs more quickly. YMMV.

Not exactly, but close enough. Currently planning to do the Dupont Forest 50k on Oct. 2.

My plan is basic. Run as many times as possible each week - 9 or 10 runs per week for most of this year, typically 60-70+ mpw. One short rep/interval track workout. One threshold OR long intervals OR race. One long run. Built up to a bit over 19 miles a couple of weeks ago, prior to 13k & 15k trail races the last two weeks. I'll be racing 10 mile and 1/2 marathon trail races in the month leading up to the 50k, so my workouts will be shifting back to more hill strength and longer tempos now.

At the risk of jinxing it, this is the best (healthiest) running year I've had since around 1990. I credit that to running more often, with a gradual build up of all easy running last winter. I haven't run a marathon in several years and have never run longer than that, so I'm not setting a time goal. I'll just run the pace that feels comfortable and take what comes.

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Happy trails,
Chris

I'm training for the inaugural Half Moon Bay Marathon in Sept. I'm using my own custom training plan, very loosely based upon Galloway's half-marathon plans. The basics of it, are I'm running 4x week, and I'm alternating weeks with a long run, with weeks with speed work.

I'm a couple of year younger than you, and I took a decade off without working out before getting back into it. I'd highly recommend that you take a look at Galloway's training plans, and also his ideas on run/walking.

Good luck!

When I plug my 2011 race times into the McMilllan calculator, I come up with projected marathon times ranging anywhere from 2:58 (Based on my 10 mile race) to 3:05 (based on my 4 mile race).

However, when I look at the "advanced" training plans, they all have regular track workouts. These plans seem to be geared for the youngsters because my old legs don't like it when I go that hard and then have to run the next day. Do I really need to do track sessions?

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I went 2:50 last year and never stepped foot on a track... Tempo runs and a decent amount of running at 1/2 marathon pace. Plus lots and lots of easy-paced mileage. So my experience, and the sage advice of many strong runners and coaches on this forum, says that track work isn't necessary. Track work is just icing on the cake.

Steamtown marathon in early October, hoping to BQ although it's my first, based of my hm time of 1:24. Building up, currently at 45mpw with longest run of 16 miles, longest will be 22 miles. Putting on weight with less cycling and swimming now.

Just did my first 16 mile run since 1995. Everything went fine, but man that humidity is a pace killer. The last 8 miles were :30/m slower than the first 8.

Back at the begining of the month, I took a spin class with my niece while up in Boston. It was my second spin class ever (both with her while visiting). It took me 3 weeks of low intensity running to allow for my knees to recover. I think I'm going to end that tradition.

53 miles last week: 6, 8, Rest, 9, 6, 8, 16
(edit to add: Still did 2 token bike rides and 2 swims as I'm still in Tri season until 9/25)

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Funny you posted this morning- I was thinking about this thread on my 16 miler also. I'm two weeks into just running, and it's been interesting to feel the fatigue start to build a bit. Also noticed that my weight is creeping up a touch in this short time away from doing all three sports- have to cut out some of the crap diet!

Based on McMillan, I should be shooting for right around 3 hrs flat for the full marathon (based on a 5 miler this year and half marathon last fall). The last two weeks of my plan were in the mid-40s for mileage, and included a couple nine mile pace runs at under 7 minute miles, but my long runs the following day have been 7:45 ish for average pace. I'm skeptical about being able to hold 7 minutes for the full distance, but will give it a whirl for my first attempt.

So you do two tempo runs, an all-out half marathon, and a long run at your marathon pace each week? I guess if this works for you then great, but I think that is way too much intensity. I don't think I could do even one week of this program. Well, actually I know I can't because my marathon PR is 6:30 pace and my half marathon PR is 6:05 pace (marathon PR was on a tougher course than the half too), so I cannot do 30s below marathon pace for 13 miles.

I am not doing a fall marathon but am going to try and take my running to a new level this fall. I plan to do a fall "Summer of Malmo": http://pih.bc.ca/summerofmalmo.html.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule? Me too please - trying to BQ - first standalone marathon since 2002!!
2. Which marathon are you doing? Bellingham Bay, Sept 25th
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? My own concoction: lots of volume for me baby! I did a lot of tempo/speed work/short stuff post IMNZ from April thru June, but not a lot of volume. So August is VOLUME month: run every day (I run every lunch hour at work), some days with doubles, and get one long run in a week. I am also doing what I call "pacing runs" - there's a little trail near my work that has a perfect 1k loop - so I run laps of that loop at my BQ pace. Kind of like training myself to learn the feel of the pace. I have ditched speedwork entirely, but still do a tempo run a week (something like 2x20' at 10k open pace with 5' recovery), and am a big fan of strides (usually 10x30" in almost every run).
4. How's your training going? Not as good as I'd like, but improving - going in the right direction at least. I was hoping to have had more miles under the belt by this time, but some bike crashes and my first XTERRA acted as hiccups. Also, I'm commuting to work via bike almost 5 days a week, and over the last month, it was taking more out of me than I expected. So the running felt yuck/sluggish for a while, while I adapted (I guess). This past week has felt like I had a major break through - almost at 70k this week (with two doubles) and had a wickedly awesome 2hr trail run yesterday. So feeling good, feeling fine.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

I'm going sub 3 at the Philadelphia Marathon in November. See you there slowtwitchers.

I'm doing Denver Rock and Roll Oct 8. I did 14 today with last ten at 7:40/mi. Hoping to BQ. I'm 44. BQ time is 3:25. Haven't done a standalone since 1999. It's gonna be close I think. Just starting to really ramp up the run mileage after recovering from CDA.

Had a good week with a total of 44 miles including a 17 mile long run, a 6 mile run finishing at MP and 7x800 track workout. Shins were bothering me at the start of the week but it was due to old shoes, I replaced them and everything is peachy again.

Mcmillian puts me around 3:06 based on a 3.5m race I did in the beginning of June but it was a week after a trail marathon and my legs were not trained for the speed. Based on my PRs I set about 6 years ago I have a 2:50 in me but that was before grad school made me fat. So if I can get a solid training plan in I think Sub 3 is easily in my range at wineglass and if that that I hope a BQ at min

Ya gotta start somewhere, stick with it and your times will drop significantly as well!

I'm shooting for the same thing at Philly. See you then.

Whether this works for someone or not, is individual. It works for me and that's what I like. I should mention that I do not do this for 16 weeks in a row, no one could. I think my schedule this fall will be 3 weeks on, 1 week of 50% recovery with a two week taper. So, I should get 3 cycles in the Fall. Do I skip a workout here and there, sure. We all have lives and get tired. That's normal.

Oh and a correction....The 13 mile run is faster than MARATHON pace. I might not have said that correctly.

The key thing to intensity is recovery. After each run I'll cool down, stretch, and then take in a recovery drink. I also get frequnet (every 2 weeks) masage and I buy enough Epson Salts to own the company....

Bob

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule? 3 (sorta)
2. Which marathon are you doing? Cedar point Full>>Wineglass>>IM Arizona
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? winging it...... like usual
4. How's your training going? good 19miler yesterday and had a visit from the Demon's of the Pain Cave

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Tim

I did a Oly distance triathlon last weekend and decided to make that my last one for the year. I am going to focus solely on the marathon for the next 12 weeks.

I asked my wife go to amazon and order Phitzgers (sp.) book (she handles the purchasing duties in this house) and jack up my miles.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule?
2. Which marathon are you doing? Philadelphia in 11/20
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? Daniels Elite, peak mileage 95MPW (cycling from 80-95)
4. How's your training going?I'd rate it a 6/10 right now. Still have some weight to drop. I had to take 6 weeks off of running due to injury. Lost at least 3 VDOT points. Originally wanted to be in the mix for the W, am reevaluating that goal right now. Perhaps breaking 2:26 is the new goal. The main goal is to have an enjoyable training cycle in the (theoretically) cooler fall weather, building a spring board to a good spring/summer on the roads in 2012.

I'll be doing the Jax Bank Marathon in Mid December, I've done this the last two years 15 min. improvement last year(got it under 4 hrs last year). I've arranged my triathlon schedule so as to leave about 7 (out of a 18 week plan) weeks of dedicated marathon training. Felt like and it has worked the past two years that I had enough base to drop into a marathon plan. I've gone with Higdon's novice plan simply a mileage plan. I'm on the same program this year, Miami 70.3 on Oct. 30th, a little recovery and then get to it.

So we'll see if it works out again.

I dropped the biking and swimming after my last tri on 8/6 and transitioned into full marathon mode the next day. For the week of 8/8, I hit 70 miles on 7 days of running. That's more weekly miles than my other 2 marathon builds back in 1994 &1995.

I was on the multi-city road trip this week, but still managed to get in all my runs. I even got a chance to do a little sightseeing on my 11 miler Thursday morning. I spent Wednesday night in Downtown Milwaukee and ran north along Lake Michigan and Lake Avenue.

I got Pfitzinger's book in the mail on Saturday. I really like the way they explain the training concepts, but I'm still winging the schedule for now.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I've got a HIM on 9/18, and then the USMC Marathon on 10/30......or 10/whatever....it is what it is.

Triathlon, Marathon, Duathlon, whatever......just go.

You pay your money, you line up, you race.

Any questions?

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule? Yep
2. Which marathon are you doing? Quad Cities Marathon
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? winging it, lots of miles per week
4. How's your training going? very good, feeling ready for race now and still have 1 month
Race is Sept. 25th

Thanks for starting this, I've read through and already got a few good ideas for workouts.

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule? Yessum
2. Which marathon are you doing? Twin Cities
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? Bill's patented 8 week "medium runs" plan
4. How's your training going? It's amazing how well training can go when you get to write your plan yourself. I'm hoping to go sub 3 this year, although my PR (3:05) last year was done off of a lot more mileage...so probably not going to happen. averaging 30ish mpw for the last month or so, hoping to hit 40 this week. 5k tomorrow should give me a rough idea where im at.

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Nothing to see here

Finished IMLP a few weeks ago and I'm now training for my second attempt at the NYC Marathon. First time did not go very well at all. Completely blew up and ended up walking miles 19-26.
I'm a little more experienced now so I think I can manage a decent time. I'm using the BarryP plan found here as the basis for my training, and using the McMillan Pace calculator to determine my training paces.

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm

So far so good.

Today's run was a hilly 14 miler, with miles 5-13 at marathon pace. I'm going to do an ever increasing marathon pace run every week.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Good for you with the MP stuff. Too many people think they can do shorter races at much faster paces and that's enough but simply practicing running at the pace you will race at is huge.

One alternative to simply running more and more consecutive miles at that pace is to break it up into blocks. Like 2 x 3 miles or 3 x 3 miles (or even 2x4 miles / 3x4 miles) at goal MP with just a couple of minutes easy running in between each block. If nothing else it can be a mental help to break it up that way

1. Me

2. Moab Trail Marathon on 11/5

3. A butt load of trail running, as much as possible at altitude. Super hilly 6 miles on Thursday AM's, Long runs Sat/Sun, medium distance (8-14 miles) on Wed. Avg is up to about 40mpw right now.

4. Ran from Happy Isles trailhead, up the mist falls steps to the cables at the top of Half Dome on Saturday. This Sunday we head to Tahoe National Forest for 14 miles at 7500 ft.. Gonna make Moab a piece of cake.

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

1. I do
2. California International Dec 4th - fast and perfect weather.
3. The "run a buttload, don't get injured and try to get in sub 2:20 shape" plan
4. Pretty good. Ran 95 last week and starting to feel strong. Ask me again after ITU Du worlds.

If you are able to run 13 miles near your HM PR 9 times in the fall while doing a tempo run every week and 16-20 miles at marathon pace, I'm guessing you're HM PR is pretty soft. You might want to try running a HM soon and readjust your marathon goals this fall. Your fitness is likely a lot better than you think at this point.

Yesterday was 11 miles at race pace, and my first of three 20 milers today. Quite happy with it- loop one easy (75 seconds above goal pace) and sped up for second loop (55 seconds above), felt fresh at the end. My plan is telling me to shoot for these times, and I'm really learning how to slow down enough on the longer stuff so my other runs throughout the week aren't screwed up. It's been quite an adjustment switching to one sport for a while.

I signed up for Philly yesterday. Today I started marathon training with a 15.3 mile run at 7:30 pace in my brand new Nike Frees (nice way to break in new shoes!). I did 58 miles this week so I need to bump that up. Plan is to race a half-marathon on Oct. 2 and another one on Oct. 16th for some hard speed tempo and then do lots of speedwork with my daughter and the rest of the xc team that I coach through Sept./Oct and hit 80+ miles/week a couple of times. Goal is to beat my Boston time from 2 years ago.

Im doing Philly Marathon end of November. Just finished up my Tri season last week. This will be my first marathon and looking for a good program. Based on McMillian calculator my goal time is 2.41.

Can someone please make some suggestions for a good plan to follow?

Thanks so much

Buy Daniel's Running Formula or Pfitzinger's marathon book, figure out your current fitness level and build a plan around it.

If you're trying to go 2:41, there aren't a whole lot of cookie cutter plans out there for you, but those two books are the best.

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Portside Athletics Blog

what one would you suggest if you had to pick of the two? Found the both on Amazon and will order one or the other. Thanks for the advice.

Daniels.

Take a recent race time, use it to figure out what he calls your "VDOT" number. Pick a training plan from the book, and use your VDOT number to figure out your various training paces (interval, tempo, long, etc.).

His pace correlations are scary accurate, for me, race times have been within seconds of what he "predicts" at distances ranging from 5k-marathon. In 10 years of training or racing, I'd say Daniels' book has had a bigger impact for me than any other thing.

I just did an 18 miler on the treadmill this morning thanks to Hurricane Irene, the first 4 miles and last 3 miles of which were at tempo pace. It's now ~5pm and I'm on glass of wine number 2 watching a movie with the wife :-)

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Portside Athletics Blog

Ordering now. Thanks for the advice.
I, unlike you, used Irene as an excuse to sleep in . . and take a afternoon nap.

No problem, good luck to you.

My PR is a 2:45 but I think I have a 2:42ish in me if training keeps going well. I am running the Bay State Marathon in October. Check in after your race and let us know how it goes!

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Portside Athletics Blog

Maine marathon the first weekend of October, doing a half three weeks before that.
Training is loosely guided by Daniels, also ride a few times a week so double up on my run days and the quality of the tempo day suffers.
Longest run was 20 miles yesterday and enjoyed it, so things are on track. Injury free, running comfortably, 50-60 mpw.
Now to replace my broken down Kinvaras and Lunaracers, which means a search of the endless shoe debate threads.

Chicago on 10/9. Training is going well so far. Today was a moderately paced 22 miler in some warmer conditions. That makes 140 miles for the week. Yeah bitches, 140, and all of them in 5oz racing flats. Admittedly, that ain't for everyone.

I just finished my 3rd week of a 4 week volume build after racing my last tri on 8/6. The first 3 weeks consisted of 7, 6 & 7 runs each week, totalling 70, 64, 77 miles respectively. That's the biggest running block of my life.

Here's my log:

http://www.workoutlog.com/...cfm?report=multiweek

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Wow, that is a lot of miles. Would you mind posting your week breakdown and what is your goal time for Chicago?

I signed up for Phili last weekend and did my biggest mileage week ever at 79 this week. Looking for a 2:45.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

For those shooting for the 2:45 mark, what pace are you doing on your long runs? I have been doing them at race pace, but am wondering if I should slow this down and opt for other "speed" work during the week.

My 15 miler today was at 7:30/mile pace. I hope to be under 2:45.

I think you'll be hard pressed to find a running coach that recommends marathon pace for your long runs. Most recommend ~:45-1:15 slower. This week's long run was only 14 miles, but I did the first 10.5 at just over 7m/m and closed out the last 3.5 at M pace (6:50 average total). I'll probably follow that pattern for the entire build, just making each segment of the run longer as the calendar progresses.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I've been reading as much as I can on marathon training these last several weeks. What I'm seeing is the need to do three things during your training:

1. Build your endurance
2. Raise your lactate threshold
3. Get comfortable with running at your marathon pace.

I'm building my endurance by adding more runs and more miles each week. Most of those miles are at 1 minute/mile over my marathon pace.

I'm rasing my lactate threshold by doing a weekly run with multiple 3 mile sets at 10k-HM pace.

And finally, I do one run each week at marathon pace. Plus, I insert some MP miles during my long run every other week or so.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Sure, here you go:

Mon am 12 easy, pm 8 easy w last 4 moderate
Tue am 12 easy w last 6 hard, pm 3 easy
Wed am 13 easy w last 5 moderate, pm 8 easy
Thu am 12 easy, pm 9 moderate
Fri am 13 easy w last 6 hard, pm 8 easy
Sat am 8 easy, pm 10 easy
Sun 22 moderate w last 6 at race pace, 2 mile cool down

No track work. I'll throw in some fartleks and intervals this starting this week. I alternate one week very high miles of mostly aerobic work and the next week much lower mileage but higher intensity. It works for me and keeps me healthy. I'm 42 yo.

Chicago goal time is anything in the 2:40 area. Despie the mileage I'm not that hard core about the racing and am getting too old to keep the volume high for many weeks in a row, which, if I could do it, might get me under 2:30 if younger. These days, mostly I just like to get out and run.

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule? First one. Previous races: a couple of Half Marys and 70.3s
2. Which marathon are you doing? Dallas White Rock Marathon
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? Looked to an 18 week Higdon Intermediate2/Advanced1 plan, but just going with my normal run volume with increased long runs.
4. How's your training going? Texas heat sucks! But I run at 6am so I get to enjoy 86degrees!


Should be interesting. This is the main decider on when I move to my first 140.6.

After my last Triathlon on 8/6/11, I've been in full marathon training mode. The past 4 weeks' mileages have been 70, 64, 77, 94.

Here's last week's Log (with a quick trip to Boston thrown in on Tuesday and Wednesday):

Monday: 10 miles easy (7:40)
Tuesday: AM: 10.5 with 2x3 miles at HM pace (6:25 - 6:35), (Noon flight) PM: 5.5 easy (7:40)
Wednesday: 7 miles easy (7:45) (Afternoon flight)
Thursday: 15.1 miles with 13.1 at marathon pace (6:44)
Friday: 10 miles easy (7:40)
Saturday: 14 miles at General Conditioning pace (7:14)
Sunday: 22 at Long Run pace (7:30)

I'm headed up to the Jersey shore this week and will test things out at the Brielle 10k on Saturday.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I stepped back the volume last week after waking up on Tuesday with sore hip. I rested it on Tuesday and again on Wednesday when I drove up to N.J. It turned out to be just a really tight piriformus muscle.

I slowly got back into it by the weekend and ran the Brielle 10K on Saturday. It was a hilly race with 285 feet of climbing. I managed to get 5th place overall and was the first old guy. A young girl from upstate New York was the overall winner. She was the first female overall winner of the race in it's 31 year history.

Weekly totals: 7 runs, 60 miles.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I am NOT training for a fall marathon. However...my fiancee' is training for her first one so I have been on every "tough" run with her, including all of her long runs. I find no pleasure in knocking out 18mi runs for the hell of it so I can cheer come race day. The Newport Amica Marathon will be her first, she's doing the Hal Higdon plan and likes it, YMMV. Good luck to everyone training out there, be safe.

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_________________________
I got nothing.

Had a great few weeks up to this weekend's Lake of the Sky Trail Run (18 miles), but at mile 14 I felt my knee get funky. By mile 17 it was feeling exactly like it did just before my surgery last July. I may have torn by knee cap catilage (chondral flap) again. If I did, my hopes or a return to running may be over for at least the next 8-10 months (perhaps another surgery, this time most likely a micro-fracture procedure. I sure hope its just old scar tissue breaking up, still hurts like a mother today so I'm rather down in the dumps. If you have a favorite God, please pray to him/her/it for me. If I can no longer run, I guess I will give my mountain bike a run for its money! Or I will have to learn to swim a lot faster thasn I do now. Good luck to everyone, I hope your knees work better than mine do!

Dave

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

Now that we're transitioning to fall, how's everyone doing so far?

I spent the past ten days visiting family at the Jersey Shore. I got in 12 good runs and one race during my visit (122 total miles).

Last week was all about marathon pace for me. My runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday contained lots of miles at marathon pace. In fact, Thursday's run was 16 miles, all at MP.

Good luck to all out there.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I did my last race on Sept 10 (half marathon) and am taking off unitl Oct 1st when I begin training for the Carlsbad Marathon in January.

Since last December I've used the BarryP run program and have modified it to suit my triathlon racing needs over the year. This has been a great year running for me and I've been injury free for the first time in a long time. I'm dying to get back into the routine.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

I am thinking about doing a haloween marathon since next year I am doing IMWI IMFL sequence so I want simulate the experience as much as possible by having a marathon to train for immediately after the IMWI

1. I'm in
2. Rocket City Marathon- Huntsville, AL December 10th -(yes I know, not the most fun place to travel but I am on a budget and you can't beat $50 for a marathon!)
3. My own- 3 short runs a week (5 or 6 miles with 800's or pyramids), 2 medium runs/wk ( 8-12miles with random "sprint" miles), 1 long run/wk (15-24 miles)
4. Started training at beginning of September, already got my mile long run times to the 6:40's, so I am a happy camper.


PS. If anyone from Louisville is doing this race and wants to carpool/share/split accommodations please pm me.

 
Another week, another business trip. This week was New Orleans on Mon-Wed. Also, came down with a little tingle in my right heel on Saturday which caused me to go short and easy today. I'm hoping that it was just a signal to retire that pair of shoes.

Monday: 9 miles. Progression run on Hotel treadmill (Miles 2-7 @ 6:58-6:31)
Tuesday: 17 Miles. Ran from Bourbon St. west on the St. Charles street trolley tracks to the Miss. River Trail and back. A wrong turn added 2 miles to my return leg.
Wednesday: 6 miles easy on Hotel treadmill.
Thursday: 10.5 miles @ Marathon Pace.
Friday: 6 miles Easy on basement treadmill.
Saturday: 12.5 miles. LT run (miles 2-4 in 18:43; Miles 6-8 in 19:17)
Sunday: 6 miles easy

Total: 67 miles.

Have a great week everyone.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

The aches and pains are starting to add up. I ran a 10k yesterday and spent the last 2 miles babying a strained hamstring. I'll probably have to skip my long run for a second week in a row.

Hopefully, I'll still have enough time before my race on 11/6 for one more endurance build before my taper begins. Fingers crossed.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 9.5 miles easy
Wednesday: 9.5 miles easy
Thursday: 15 miles at marathon pace +:10 - :15.
Friday: 7.2 miles easy
Saturday: 3 mile prerace easy. 6.2 mile race (38:57) did not push the last 2 miles.
Sunday: TBD

Weekly total: 50 miles so far. I'll test the hamstring later this afternoon.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Next stop the Carlsbad Marathon, Jan 22. Today marks my first run after three weeks off. As soon as my wife gets back from her run I'm off for an easy 11-miler. Nothing fast or hard, just enough to knock the rust off and get the feel back into the legs.

Rest of my week:

Tuesday through Sunday 7-8 miles easy effort, nothing above zone 3. All running will be done 0400-0430 before work. I had a longer training plan established and this week was scheduled as a recovery week so I'll use it as an exercise in getting up hitting the road early.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

"The aches and pains are starting to add up."

This was me for about three weeks. I don't think I was slowing down enough on the easy runs. Hamstring went to hell in a hurry, and had some calf issues. I managed to only cut one long run short, and things started to come around last week. Made it through a solid 60 mile week (biggest week for me), and now I'm winding down for the race Oct. 16th.

12 miles later today in this miserable rain and cold. Good for the character!

Chicago one week away. Training has gone poorly for me -- mostly in terms of much lower mileage than I would normally do -- but that's probably because I tried to schedule marathon training to start right after I finished an IM. And the buildup for the IM was pretty good so I was really tired starting the marathon training. I'm ok with that though. I knew I'd overscheduled when I did it.

As it is now, I've thrown pace goals out the window. I'm just going to go out and take whatever the day gives me.

Good luck in Chicago.

I've got Bay State in two weeks. Did 15 miles at MP yesterday and felt pretty good. Pretty closely followed a Daniels plan for the past 4 months. Had a good 10k a couple weeks ago that was a nice test. Mileage has been pretty high, had two weeks over 70 which I'd never done before and another handful of weeks in the mid 60s.

Now it's taper time.

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Portside Athletics Blog

Bay State? A shame it's not going to be the Grand Prix Marathon. You might be lonely out there. Good luck back.

On the topic of Grand Prix, since my club needs to field a team for the Cape Cod Marathon to keep our masters men's standing and we only had two. So I'm running the Cape 3 weeks after Chicago. Fortunately all I have to do is cover the distance, not actually race.

Bay State? A shame it's not going to be the Grand Prix Marathon. You might be lonely out there. Good luck back.

Thanks. What's the deal with the Grand Prix thing? Is it a race series or local championship or something? I noticed it said it wasn't part of the series this year? I presume that to mean it was in other years?

Smaller field, slower field? What's the impact going to be do you think?

What race is now a Grand Prix if Bay State isn't? Do lots of fast folks pay attention to this?

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Portside Athletics Blog

Every year, the New England Chapter of the USATF (running's version of USAT) designates 7 races in the New England area that are the Grand Prix. They cover all distances from 5k to marathon. New England USATF clubs compete in them for club and individual scoring in multiple age/gender divisions.

http://www.usatfne.org/road/gp.html

Races bid to be in the Grand Prix. For many years, the Cape Cod Marathon won the bid. Finally they bowed out in 2008 to let someone else win for a few years so Bay State has had a nice run. But this year, Cape Cod is part of the Grand Prix again, which is the only reason I'm running it -- so we can field a fulll masters team.

The effect on Bay State of not being part of the Grand PRix will be a smaller field and much less company in the sub 3:00 group. To illustrate, here are the number of runners under 3 hours for the past 5 years. Note the huge jump once it became a Grand Prix race.

2006 - 23
2007 - 21
2008 - 73 (Grand Prix)
2009 - 79 (Grand Prix)
2010 - 90 (Grand Prix)

http://www.coolrunning.com/...15_18thAn_set1.shtml
http://www.coolrunning.com/...14_19thAn_set1.shtml
http://www.coolrunning.com/...19_20thAn_set1.shtml
http://www.coolrunning.com/...18_Baysta_set1.shtml
http://www.coolrunning.com/...17_BaySta_set1.shtml

Damn, gonna be lonely near the front trying to go sub 2:45.

Oh well, I did all my training alone and am Ok running with just my thoughts. Glad to be aware of it ahead of time though.

Thanks for the info.

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Portside Athletics Blog

Ran St. George marathon on Saturday - 2:56:06 (1:29/1:27). Averaged 45 miles/week and longest run was 2:35.
If you're looking for a fall marathon for next year you can't beat this one.

Did Twin Cities last Sunday. My volume was down this year, 8 weeks of "training", 4 at ~30 mpw, 4 at ~45 mpw, but I did more race pace work vs. last year when i just focused on getting big mileage in. Set an 8 minute pr, from 3:05:42 to 2:57:49! seems like my pr is still a little "soft" though :/

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Nothing to see here

1. Who has a fall marathon on their schedule? Yes, wish I'd found this thread sooner.
2. Which marathon are you doing? Richmond, VA on November 12th. Anyone else? Shooting for sub-3:00
3. What kind of training plan are you going with this year? Quality over Quantity. Using heart rate, but also keeping in touch with perceived effort and using pace for speed days.
Monday - Easy run day. 30-40min very aerobic
Tuesday- off/cross train
Wednesday- 1-1.5hour aerobic run, keeping HR in that aerobic zone ala Mark Allen
Thursday- off/cross train
Friday- Hills early on, now doing Yasso 800's.
Saturday- off/cross train
Sunday- Long day. Built up to 3hours easy, now adding blocks of faster running into the long run.
4. How's your training going?
Training is going well. I've also had the goal of dropping some uneeded weight. I weighed in at 195lbs this past Feburary. I was still at 184 in late July. Currently 167lbs. It's amazing how much faster you can get without extra pounds.
My long run this past weekend included a race. I warmed up for ~2.5miles, ran a 1:28:05 HM on a hilly course, rain and wind, and then cooled down with another 4.5miles easy. Felt good although I'm feeling the after effects of the effort early this week.
I'm not too sure how much the Yasso's are helping. I've never really done track work. This week I'll be up to running 8X800 @ 2:55. All I know is that they suck to do, but something is working for me so I'm not changing course.
Anyone else have thoughts on how much race pace running to do within long runs? My peak will be a 2.5hour run with 2hours of it at 7min/mile which is just slightly slower than my goal marathon pace, done 3-weeks prior to race day.
I've also been impressed with the improvement from working on my running technique. Primarily cadence 90-92spm and learning to relax unnecessary tension. The metronome is the best training aid purchase I've made in quite a while.

I've never trained for a stand alone "fast" marathon.

Nice PR Willy.

Good luck this weekend JoeO

You too JT3

Welcome WVTRIMAN. keep up the good work.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Well, the races are here now. I hope all those that had their marathon this weekend had a good day. My week started out with lots of doubt, but ended with lots of confidence.

I ran a 10k last saturday and ended up with a strained hamstring and sore hip. I went out at a speed that I hadn't trained at and my left leg tighened up by mile 4. I had to blow off my Sunday long run and take Monday off.

When I started up on Tuesday, I spent each day running at a relatively easy pace, and with a dull pain in my hip. It felt like I was running with a block of wood behind my hip. I actually started to doubt if I would make it to marathon day.

I finally talked to a PT on Friday. She thought that I had strained the hamstring abductor by my hip and recommended that I take it easy until it felt better.

I had a 1/2 marathon scheduled for Saturday and seriously thought about staying home. By Friday night, I had decided to go to the race and just practice my cup drinking hydration routine. However, when I woke up on Saturday morning I had no pain whatsoever. Go figure.

I ran my race like nothing ever happened. Ran 1:24:01 and got 4th place overall. Today, I did my regular long run and feel that I'm back on course. This marathon thing sure is an interesting journey.

Weekly workouts

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 8.3 miles (1:01:13)
Wednesday AM: 11.2 miles (1:21:41)
Wednesday PM: 4.2 miles (30:52)
Thursday: 9 miles (1:04:14)
Friday: 5.3 miles (41:45)
Saturday: 13.1 miles (1:24:01) Race
Sunday: 21 miles (2:32:00) 5 x 4.2 mile loop. Each loop a little faster than the previous one.

Miles for the week: 72

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

It's a week late but I ran my fall Marathon last week and was super pumped with how it turned out
Wineglass marathon race report AKA I'm going to Boston in 2013!!

Training going into the race: This was the most serious I’ve trained for a race in the longest time. I followed Hal Higdon’s Advanced I training plan and averaged 45-50 mpw over the last 12 weeks or so. I ran Yasso’s the last week of August and averaged 3:02 for the 10 repeats and a 1:00:30 15k on labor day. Based on these indicators I was feeling pretty confident on my goals. I initially debating on my goal, I was torn between 3:00 and 3:05. I decided to play it safe and go for 3:05 with even splits (7:03 miles). The week before my race I wasn’t feeling very confident so I was a little panicky and worried about hitting this goal.

The night before, the course and the weather: I got into Corning at around 2pm on Saturday. I met up with my sister and her friend who came up for Baltimore for the race. They already picked up my packet so we met at the hotel and got all checked in. I ran an easy 2 miles. Afterwards we went to dinner and carb-loaded at a nice little family diner in Painted Post. We were all pretty beat. We wake up at 6 to a wonderful 43 degree and steady rain, not really sure what to wear but I finally decide on shorts, a long-sleeve tech shirt and some cheap throw-away gloves. The point to point course has a net downhill of about 200 feet (170 feet of up and 350 of down) with no major hills up or down. It’s pretty fast overall.

The start and the 5k (22:02 7:06 miles): I get to the start and find the 3:05 pace group and decide I’m going stick with them for the first handful of miles to get settles into a good pace. In the rain at the start I was a little cold and shivering but knew once we got started it would be ok. Race started a little late while we waited for some stragglers to get to the start. Off we go in the rain in an uneventful start. The first mile was 7:18 which was a little slow but a lot better than starting fast. The pace group soon gets on the 7:03 pace. Felt pretty comfortable and easy.

5k though 10 miles (average pace 7:05 miles): Now I was in the zone in the continuing steady rain. The pace group was still going strong (maybe 20 people total) but we were a little back from our goal (maybe 10-15 seconds slow) but I wasn’t too worried about it. The biggest hill was at mile 6 and we managed it without problem. I made sure to eat and drink on schedule to keep from getting dehydrated. I used Shot blocks on 45min intervals and water at every stop.

Miles 10 through 20 (average pace 6:59 miles): We went through mile 10 and I was feeling good so I wanted to put a little time on my goal pace because I knew I would need it later. I picked up the pace by about 5 seconds per mile and built a little gap on the pace group. Still raining but slightly less and it warmed up a little. I hit the ½ way mark at 1:32:30, exactly on pace for a 3:05 and by mile 20 I was maybe 20 seconds ahead of the pace. Hit mile 20 feeling very strong, I was actually a little surprised by how well I felt. I had some fatigue in my quads but my breathing was fine and my form felt good.

Miles 20-22 (average pace 6:59): Still felt good but I knew the wall was eminent. My breathing was picking up and my form got a little shuffle-ly but I knew I had to push and maintain the pace. I could see the pace group (now reduced to 3 or 4) was slowly reeling me in.

Mile 23 and 24 (average pace 6:58 ): The pain was really starting to set in, every little bump felt like a huge hill and dropped my pace. I was pushing hard now, my quads were burning and my left calf was starting to cramp. I can tell how tired I am but how much math I’m doing to figure out my pace and how much time I have to hit my goal. By this time I was doing A LOT of math. At mile 24 I figured I had 15 seconds over 3:05 if I could maintain the pace, it was going to be close.

Mile 25 and 26 (average pace 7:06): I hit the wall hard at 25 and it was rough. It was all I could do to maintain a sub 7:10 pace and I could feel the pace group (now down to two) bearing down on my. My sole goal was to keep them behind me no matter what. I was really getting worried about hitting my goal.

Last 0.2 miles (in 75 seconds): I hit the mile 26 mark with 90 seconds to go and I knew I had it but I had to kick. My sister was in the finish line crowd screaming and I pushed hard and it hurt but I did it. I hit the finish line at 3:04:41 with the pace group right on my heels, a Boston Qualifying time!

The finish: I was gassed, I got my medal and some water and stumbled around for a few minutes. My sister comes running over in crazy cheer mode and she was carrying a bottle of wine. Turns out she won the ½ marathon in the crazy time of 1:25 and wine was the award along with 300$ (yay for her). We turn around and her friend is in the finish shoot finishing in 3:07 (a new PR for her). By this time I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to die was I was quite cold. While it was not raining anymore I was soaking wet and it was only about 48 out. My calf was completely cramped now so it was a tender walk to the car. We get changed into dry clothes and head out back to the hotel to shower and head to our respective homes. I check the results later and notice that I got third in my age once the pulled out the overall winners!!

Comments: Wineglass is a great small marathon (2000 runners in the full). It is very well organized and crowd support across the whole distance is great. You don’t go more than a handful of miles without running through a small town with tons of people cheering. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking to run a great race. The weather sucked but you can’t really blame anyone for that. I have not complaints about it. Once thing I did notice was that our Garmins were running short and were off by about 0.2 miles overall. This isn’t a big deal and a common issue but you HAVE to do the math at the actual mile markers to make sure you are on pace. If I was just using my watch I would have missed my goal by a minute or so. Luckily doing the math for 7:03 miles isn’t that hard. It might be better to turn off autolap and just hit the lap button at each mile. This works especially well if the miles are accurately marked (typically they are not) but they were for this race. Now I get to be lazy for 2 week while I recover!

Well, my first marathon is complete, Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon in Victoria, BC.

Final time: 3:25:07

It was a beautiful sunny day with a few scattered clouds, perfect temperatures of around 10C at the start. I felt pretty good until about 25k or so, went through the half in 1:39. I was aiming for a pace of 4:37/km, but faded after the rolling hills through Oak Bay, ended up with an average pace of 4:52/km. My longest training runs were 32k, so it was uncharted territory for me after that point. I revised my goals to just keeping on running for the last 10k, rather than stressing about running under 3:20:xx.

The last 2k felt like 20, and I was trashed at the finish. That was by far the hardest race that I've done, with a few HM's and HIM's under my belt. My HM PR is 1:32:07, so I think I'm capable of a faster marathon. There were definitely some moments when I thought WTF was I thinking signing up for IMC 2012!

At 205lbs, there is a lot of dude to drag along for 42.2 km's, so I better drop 10-15lbs for IMC!

Congrats to all the other fall marathon finishers!


Oh yeah, and ran right past Simon Whitfield's new house, nice place! I could have sworn that the guy who waved at me from the window in the red shirt was Simon...but I thought he was in Kona?

NPage146 - Glad you had a good race
Ferdog - The big man comes thru. Congrats

Goal Race: NYC
Goal Time: 2:57:00

This was my final week before I start my taper for the NYC Marathon. Things felt good as I knocked out the 2nd most weekly miles of my life. I closed out the week with a 22 mile run on the Al Buehler Cross Country Trail at Duke University. The run was tough with over 2,300 feet of climbing.

Bring on the taper!

Monday AM: 5.25 Miles Easy(8:00's)
Monday PM: 5.25 Miles Easy (7:40's)
Tuesday: 10 Miles at Marathon pace (6:40's)
Wednesday: 4.2 miles Easy (7:40's) Tired
Thursday: 15 Miles Progression run (increased pace every 4 miles - 29:00, 28:00, 27:30, final 3 in 21:00)
Friday: 10.2 Miles (6:58's) pushed the final 5k.
Saturday: 12.1 miles Easy (7:41's)
Sunday: 22.2 Miles (7:45's) was harder that the time indicates.

84 miles. Not bad for an old guy.

It sounds like Chicago was tough this year. Congrats on those who did it.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Bay State was certainly a little thinner up front not being a Grand Prix race, but still 35 people under 3 hours.

I PR'ed in 2:43 and was 8th overall.

Thought I had a 2:42 or so in me, but it was really windy and by mile 13 I was running completely alone and I paid for that in the last couple miles.

http://www.coolrunning.com/..._Baysta_2_set1.shtml

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Portside Athletics Blog

Hey that's awesome. Seriously congratulations. Great performance

Congrats to all who completed fall marathons! I earned my 5 stars with the MArathon Maniacs. 3 states, 3 marathons, 8 days. 2:57, 3:09, 3:16. Very happy that I only lost 7 minutes after back to back marathons! Chicago, Indianapolis, and Grand Rapids! What's on tap for spring?

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Lifelong Endurance Coach
Triathlon - Running - Cycling - Nutrition
Check us out online to see what we offer
http://www.lifelongendurance.com

Thanks very much, I was pleased and feel pretty good this morning.

Now...any tips for using this base to run a decent 5k in 5 and a half weeks (Turkey Trot)? This week is going to be nothing structured and next week my wife and I are headed out to California for a week of vacation in San Francisco and Napa, I'll get some runs in, but again, nothing structured.

So that leaves 3.5 weeks. I basically followed Daniels A plan for the marathon, so the last 6 weeks have had lots of MP stuff, the 6 weeks before that had lots of tempo stuff, and the 6 weeks before that a fair amount of interval work. So it's been ~2-3 months since I've done any running faster than tempo. But I feel pretty fit and am hoping with some sharpening work I can run a solid 5k.

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Portside Athletics Blog

Not really no, sorry. You've got a ton of fitness right now. Just don't come back too fast. The big goal is done. Don't crank the mileage back up too fast. Those first few weeks when you resume training after a marathon -- particularly a very successful marathon -- seem to be the ones in which the chance of injury is highest. I can't tell you how many times I've seen that pattern (or lived it!)

Great efforts SwBkRn and Deathguy. Enjoy the rest of the fall. And, Turkey Trots are not where you go for your PR. Just run well and have fun.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Well sports fans, after three weeks of riding the edge of a razor blade following my scare at Tahoe, I have returned to the trail with a sensible ramp up. Tahoe was just a heads up that I needed to train my downhill running more and strengthen my quads more too. Two weeks of very painful ART and easy hiking the trails I usually run and I was back in business (although it was super slow and carefully managed so I didn't re-injure myself) I did check the results and my painful run was not without its rewards. I was 6th overall and won my AG 40-50 by 6 minutes. My first EVER AG win.

With the Moab Trail Marathon only 3 weeks away, this past weekend was my back-to-back weekend prior to the start of my taper. I ran 9.5 miles with 3400' of elevation on Saturday and 10.2 miles with 2300' of elevation. Moab is only 3400' of elevation over 26 miles so I am confident that my body will be able to manage that with few if any issues. My only concern is that I live/train at sea level and the race will be from 4500-5000 feet.

Congrats to all who have finished, I look forward to joining your victory party in a few weeks.

PS - In my zest for running and in particular trail running I bit the bullet and signed up for the American River 50 mile trail race in April 2012. This might sound crazy, but I'm pretty excited about it already!

Dave

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

Update: After five near perfect training weeks, I got sick for three weeks, resulting in very little training the final three weeks before my taper week. The week before I did a 16 mile simulation run that felt ok but seriously strained my undertrained calves (because of the time off due to illness). managed to get them to the point where I felt I could finish the race and lined up for race day. A bit warm for Chicago, starting temp in the low 60's and in the low 70's by finish. More importantly for me...no WIND! Goal was 3:06 with an alternative goal of sub 3:10 (2013 BQ). First 5K was my slowest 5K split (23:13), the next 25K was right at my target 5K splits (22:10, 21:59, 21:57, 21:48, 21:57). 30-35K was slower but reasonable (22:33) - it was at this point that I knew my A goal was gone but my B goal was very much in play. My final 5K split was 23:11, two seconds slower than my first 5K split. The final 2.2K was at the same pace. The calves held up but barely, from mile 7 on I was seriously thinking they could blow at any moment. My finish time was 3:09:01 - a new PR by 2 mins. Not bad but I recorded a 2:07 30K (6:49 pace) 5 weeks earlier and was hoping to hold that fitness into marathon week. Its a fine line between being fit and sick and injured.

I'm also thinking that maybe 35K isn't long enough for my long run. I was strong through 35K - exactly the length of my long run.

Thanks, probably the words of restraint I needed to hear. I'll certainly take it easy this week and just do some casual running while on vacation next week.

I ran Bay State last year, then Boston, now Bay State again and back to Boston in April. Hopefully using what I've learned in the last 3 buildups and the experience from doing Boston this year to have a stronger last few miles next year.

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Portside Athletics Blog

As I recall, you are moving (or perhaps have have already moved) to one of the Shore communities from Newton, right? Well if you are local enough, we have a pretty good group of guys from a number of running clubs who get together for some weekend long runs during the Boston build-up. These guys range from 2:3x guys to 3:10 guys or so. A number of us generally shooting for around 2:40. If you want to be on the list for our long runs, PM me an email address and I'll have my friend Jon include you on the emails.

Runs typically go from Cleveland circle or somewhere else on the course. This time around we're going to try do a few of them right from Hopkinton.

Good memory, live in Newton now, moving to Cohasset next month.

I'll PM you my email address, would appreciate being on the list. Shooting for ~2:40 in Boston and would love some group training and don't mind driving to meet for a long run on weekends.

Thanks!

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Portside Athletics Blog

Race: NYC Marathon
Goal TIme: 2:57:00 (Need Advice here)

My first taper week started off with a business trip to Boston and ended with some good runs and a race.

I've put in over 770 miles in the past 11 weeks, did my long runs and posted times at other distances that point to a 2:57 marathon. I feel that I can do 2:57, but there's always a little doubt that creeps into my head.

I've done three tune-up races in the last 4 weeks

10/1: 38:57 10k (sore hamstring, held off last 2 miles)
10/8: 1:24:01 1/2 Marathon
10/22: 1:03:27 10 miler


10/17-10/23 Running

Monday: Rest (travel)
Tuesday: 8 miles easy (60 minutes)on Hotel treadmill
Wednesday: Rest (Travel)
Thursday: 14 miles (1:40:00)
Friday: 9 miles (1:03:00)
Saturday: 10 Mile Race (1:03:27)
Sunday: 17 miles (2:09:00)
last 4 on Sunday were: 6:44, 6:48, 6:37, 6:31

Total week's Miles: 58

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Run & Done: Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon
Sunday 16 Oct.

3:34:15, 61/293 AG

My first 26.2, trained with the F.I.R.S.T. plan, 16 weeks, 3 runs/week + 2 x/training workouts.
Longest runs: 5x32km sprinkled throughout.

In a nutshell: very happy with the results, finished healthy & happy, which was my first priority. BQ would have been nice but that just gives me a carrot for the second one. For a 52 y.o. who couldn't manage > 5k two years ago I think this bodes well for the future. Recovery's been seamless, no issues.
While I am glad I chose the Run Less - Run Faster plan and proud I hit all of the workout milestones etc... I may try something more "Slowtwitch-y" for the next.

The simple fact of the matter is: I found that I love running too much to abide with only doing it three times/week! I was often itching to lace up on a given day when I'd realize it was instead time for either a cross-training w/o or a day off. I think the F.I.R.S.T. plan is a good one and I would recommend it to anyone except those who really love running! It is based on solid principles and common sense, but I just crave more mileage. I will likely take the best of what this offers - like the precise paces for each of the three speeds of w/o - and blend it with whatever plan I go with in the future. Currently have JD's book coming in from Amazon, but open to other opinions (ha! - no worries, will use the Search function)

Other improvements I will incorporate: serious, dedicated body-weight training in the off-season, as I think my limiters were primarily my geezerly large-muscle groups. Hydration & electrolytes were executed according to training, so I suspect it was simple fatigue that caused cramps to knock at my door after 35kms.

Full report here.

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_______________________________
http://www.snail-male.blogspot.com

Karma, Glad to see that you're back on track.

DCPattie, Sorry to hear that you were sick. Nice PR anyway.

Snail Male, You got #1 done. Now, go for Boston.

Deathguy, Thanks for your advice along the way.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Hey mck414, I am this close to signing up for the Carlsbad marathon.

Have you run this before? Is it worth a trip across the continent for? I'm from Toronto, but mid January seems a perfect time to escape the winter to head down to Southern California for a mini family holiday.

I'm 7 weeks into the Hanson's plan and the training is going well so far. Now I just need to commit the $$ to the race fees, hotels and air fare.

Good job to every one completing their fall marathons. Went out to cheer a few friends at the Toronto Waterfront marathon last week, great inspiration. Bugger of a headwind for the 1st 10K though.

I've been quiet on this thread but I was too excited from yesterday's run to contain it :)


On Sept 18th I ran the Philly Half in 1:39:08, which was right on track for where I wanted to be, but unfortunately my right hamstring wasn't all that ecstatic about it. Thinking I could see it through, I ran a 17 miler per my plan the weekend after (Sept 24th) and pretty much aggravated my injury to never-before-encountered levels. As of yesterday morning, I'd only run twice (for 7 miles total) since that 17 miler disaster, as the hamstring pain spread down to my knee (pes anserinus tendonitis) and it was in pain whether I was sleeping, driving, or walking. As this is my first running injury I've experienced, I was pretty fearful of lasting consequences and of my ability to even run the upcoming race....

However, I'd been feeling good for about a week so far so yesterday morning I headed out for a 12 miler per my plan. I did 9 non-stop and took a quick break before the last leg, but overall the run was pain free, with a pace of 8:49 pace; exactly where I left off before the half marathon in September. It. Felt. GREAT.

I'll have to add a few modifications to my current plan, but I think I'll be ready to kick some ass on November 20th. While my initial goal was 3:20 (which was lofty then, and is lofty now), I'm at least confident that I can run a 3:30 pending proper nutrition.

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Swim. Bike. Run. Tacos. Not always in that order.
@ryan_hurley

Race: NYC Marathon
Goal: 2:57 (but feelin' really good right now)

I just finished taper week #2 for the NYC Marathon and feel like a running superhero right about now. Every run this week has felt effortless. In fact, I feel so good, I may renounce my U.S. citizenship and join the Kenyen National Marathon Team.

Ok, just kidding. But my taper for the NYM has been going well. This week consisted of a combination of easy runs and marathon paced runs. Next week involves a short business trip to Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday before I fly to New York on Friday.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 9 miles (1:00:16) 8 miles at MP (6:37)
Wednesday: 6 miles easy (44:07)
Thursday: 9 miles (59:40). All 9 miles at MP (6:37)
Friday: 6 miles easy (47:00)
Saturday: 6 miles easy (44:24) Last mile @ 6:39.
Sunday: 14 miles (1:36:41) Last 5 miles @ 6:40's

Week's Total Miles: 50

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Nice week Printer, it's great that you are able to do all that M pace work. Very positive sign.

Living in Boston and dealing with this snow storm this weekend made me wonder what kind of bad weather would it take for the folks here to skip their marathon? In my case I've been dealing with some injury issues and am only running with the goal of PR-ing, so anything that made that impossible I'd probably be out. Uninjured, some combination of cold and rain could probably get me to bail. I do this for fun, and 40s or colder + steady rain does not sound like fun!

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Yeah, I'm a weather wuss. I'm glad I wasn't signed up for any of the B2B races yesterday. The weather down there would have realy tested my resolve. In fact, it was too cold for me to even drive down there and watch. For those folks that did either of the B2B races yesterday, you're some tough SOB's. You've earned your offseason.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

23 miles of MP during a taper seems like a lot. Don't get overzealous. You can't really do anything to improve your marathon at this point but you can do a lot to screw it up.

Congrats on the 3:16 at Grand Rapids, especially as the 3rd of 3! I was there watching my bff run the full and that was one ugly start to a race morning - dark, damp and rainy. It was a gorgeous day there last year but not so this year. She is of the "velocity challenged" category and was texting me at mile 5 that she wanted to drop out, but she soldiered on to a pretty good time for her.

I was supposed to run the GR half but came down with a bad cold a week before and couldn't shake it in time. Now I am going to try to put it together for the Hamilton ON half next weekend.

Moab trail marathon in 12 hours. forecast for rain/sleet/snow with a low of 31 and a high of 42. Its going to be one hell of a day! I think this one will go down in history as the most hair-brained idea I have ever actually considered doing. The wind is HOWLING at 25-45 mph in the valley and the radar is shades of blue and yellow. now off to bed with dreams of sunshine and warm temperatures.

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

Holy Crap that was an adventure! Weather turned out much better than predicted. EPIC views at every turn. Very technical, pretty darn hard. My goal time of 4:30 went out the window by mile 5. Finished in 5:17, spent and ready for a nap. This is a grass roots, no frills event (no finishers medals, no post race meal, no timing chips) but what it may lack in ammenities it more than makes up for with great vibes and magnificent views at every turn. If you fancy yourself a trail runner, this is a must do.

Dave

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

Congrats on nailing the goal with a 2:57. Looked like a perfect day to be running

Yesterday was Marathon Day in New York City, and these folks know how to put on an event. From packet pick-up at the Javitz Center to bag retreival on Central Park West, the organization was evident and the execution was top notch.

As for my week leading up to the race, it all started with a business trip to Tampa on Tuesday. I snuck in an easy 5 mile run by my hotel on Tuesday and another 7 miler, with 2 miles at marathon pace, before my flight out on Wednesday. I did an easy 5 miler at home on Thursday and flew to New York on Friday. On Saturday morning, I had some pancakes and went for an easy 4 mile run in Central Park with a few thousand other folks.

Race day started at 4am on Sunday. I ate some cereal, had a banana, got dressed and stored my luggage with the hotel Bell Man. I wore a pair of sweats, a thermal shirt and a sweatshirt over my racing clothes. These items would later be discarded at the starting line. I also packed another pair of sweats into my clear UPS bag for pick-up after the race.

I hopped on the first marathon bus to the race venue at about 5:00am. Yes, I was one of the first in the prerace staging area. I grabbed some coffee, a bagel, dropped my clothes bag in the correct UPS truck and parked myself in front of the #5 orange corral loading gate. At 8:20am, they opened the corrals. Then, at about 9:10am they sent us up to the starting line. I was able to mix in with the #2 corral folks and position myself within 15 yards of the starting line.

At 9:40, the Mayor said that the streets of New York were ours and off we went. My goals on the bridge were to find a clear running path and get into a good rhythm. The path opened up within 2 minutes but my hamstring needed about 5 minutes to start working right. By the end of the bridge, I had partnered up with a guy named Randy that I had been talking to at the line. We were both looking to go out in about 6:30's and see where it took us.

For the next hour, that's what we did. The first three 5k splits were 20:03, 20:02, 20:09. I was having a blast. I tried to high-five every kid in Brooklyn during those first 9 miles. Somewhere between miles 9 and 10, I lost Randy as he accelerated on a downhill stretch. My fourth 5k was a little slower (20:28).

I passed the 13.1 mark in 1:25:13. And to me, that's where the New York Marathon starts. Just after the halfway point is the Pulaski bridge. It's the runners first real test. Soon thereafter comes the Queensboro Bridge. That's where I started to see people crack. At about the apex of the bridge, I passed Randy and he wished me luck. In his defense, he had just done a 2:54 marathon a couple of weeks ago and wasn't to going to push this race.

Somewhere on first Avenue, I began my slow and steady decline. My fifth and sixth 5k's were 21:09 and 21:35. I felt good enough through Mile 21, but the rest of the way was a real fight for me. I really crashed and burned here in 1995, so I told myself to maintain my pace as best I could and get to the line. My seventh and eighth 5k's were 22:05 and 23:01.

I finished in 2:57:26. 856th place overall. 809th male. 60th in my AG.

Despite my steady decline, I had a great day. It was perfect weather, perfect crowds and I even had some family members out there cheering me along the way. After the race, we all went out to a fun Brunch at PJ Clarkes.

Of my three tiered goal; break three hours, hit 2:57 and PB at 2:53:46, I hit 2 out of three. I'm very happy with the result. It's funny, I hit the McMillian calculater time, but I'm sure he would not recommend doing it that way.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Great Job, Good race report too! I'd love to run that marathon some day! Congrats.

Thanks.

I forgot to share my nutrition and hydration strategy in my race report. And, I think it's important have N&H plan for races over 2 hours. So , here's mine.

My home is in North Carolina and it was pretty warm for most of my training runs. My most common run was some variation or multiples of a 4.2 mile loop near my house. On these runs, I would line up water bottles on the trunk of my car and grab one after every loop. I held on to that bootle for the entire loop and I would take a swig of water about every mile or so. I probably ran 75% of my hometown miles with a bottle in my hand.

I brought one on my trusty water bottles filled with a gatorade/water mix with me to the race. While waiting for the race to start, I took sips of water and the bottle. I then discarded my trusty bottle at the starting line. I must have hit the port-o stall 6 times from 6am to 9am.

The hydartion stations at the marathon were located at every mile starting with mile #3. I took a swig of gatorade at the first one and water at almost everyone after that. I think I bypassed mile 9, 19 and 25. It was just like my regular runs, just without the bottle. By the way, I did not go to the bathroom again until 7:30pm.

As for nutrition, I trained with GU Lemon Sublime packets on my long runs. I would take one every 45-50 minute on these long runs. I took 5 of them with my to the race and took the first 3 on each40 minute mark. I didn't care if I had water with me, since was used to the taste and knew I would be drinking again in several minutes. I took only a little of the 4th one at the 2:20 mark and kept the 5th in my pocket.

All in all, nutrition and hydration were not an issue for me. I think that my long runs could have been a little better. In the future, my long runs will have more Marathon pace work during the second half of the run.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

It's go time! Anyone else running the Suntrust Richmond Marathon on Saturday in VA?

Weather looks perfect with sunshine, 40 degrees at the start rising into the low 50's by the three hour mark, calm winds, 8 AM start on a pretty fast course. I've been injury free, trained consistently and met all my intermediate goals, using tested shoes and clothing, nutrition dialed, pacing plan ready. Damn... I guess if it all falls apart on race day I won't have an excuse other than I failed to HTFU!

Goal #1: Finish (as always)
Goal #2: BQ (estimating need at least a 3:05 as my qualifying standard is 3:10)
Goal #3: Sub 3-hours

I'll let you know how it goes.

I just found this thread, so I haven't chimed in about my plans. I just completed the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon last weekend and posted a race report on my blog.

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http://stlifeontherun.blogspot.com
Official Polar Ambassador

SOOOO...WVTRIMAN how did it go?

2 out of 3 ain't bad right? I finished in 3:03:50 which should secure me a spot at Boston for 2013. I had a good race and didn't hold anything back. I was on pace through the half and then just faded a little too much to reach the sub-3 goal. I'm already thinking about a spring marathon and looking forward to using my current fitness as a platform towards that elusive 2:59.

For those looking for a smaller fall marathon, I have to recommend Richmond. Their event was very well organized and the support was awesome. The course is beautiful with lightly rolling hills and good roads.

Beer and ice cream time!

I really enjoyed the half. Agree that it's well organized and no hassles.

good job on meeting your goals. I'm jealous...and a bit pissed at myself for not going through with the full.

Question for you guys. It's about time to taper, but I'm not quite sure whether to go 2 or 3 week taper. My first year of trying higher mileage, and I'm feeling pretty beat up. That and I only took a week off after Augusta HIM before rolling into this. Okay, now that I'm done whining here's my quick background. During Augusta HIM training I was usually 25-30mpw. My weekly mileage for this has been (long runs in parentheses): 40(12), 45(13.5), 45(15), 29(11), 53(18), 58(13.1). This week I'm shooting for 64 and 20 on Saturday. All easy runs with the exception of racing several 5ks/half marathon.

During this round of training I PR'ed with a 19:54 5k, and a 1:33 half last weekend. I didn't taper for the half, just treated it as a long run. I felt pretty beat up at the start but finished it off strong (averaged 7:04/mile for the second half)

McMillian points to a ~3:16. Marathon is on Dec 11th. So do I keep going up to 70 next week, or start tapering?

Short steep taper seems to work better than a long gradual one for me. If you are feeling beat up, the thing to do is not to lengthen the taper, but rather to lose a bit of the intensity in the last few weeks. Don't go to the well as much.

If you are worried about not getting enough recovery, consider replacing the 20 mile long run with two ten-milers (one in the AM and one in the PM). You won't miss anything. And maybe one less 5k (at least) in the next few weeks. If it were me, I'd lose the half marathon too. If you must run it, do it at goal marathon pace, not race pace. And even then no closer than two weeks before race day.

I raced my fall marathon in Philadelphia yesterday. I have not done much racing the past year and decided to enter Philly in late August to give me a goal to get back some focus. My training for this marathon was rather unorthodox. I did get in some decent mileage (most weeks were around 70 miles with a low of 55 and a high of 85 between August and race week. What was different was that I coach the cross-country team at the high school that I teach at and my daughter is on that team. This meant that my training had to be fit around her training. I act as a pacer for my runners and spent 3 days/week pacing her and the other kids through repeat xc loops ranging from 400m up to 1000m with high intensity so I did no tempo runs and only one set of 2 x 3 mile that I would normally do for marathon preparation (my 16 year old daughter did manage to go 17:37 for 5k xc this season though and placed second at the OFSAA (Ontario high school) xc championship so that part was worth it).

Last week, as luck would have it, I came down with a sore throat and a bit of a sinus cold,which worried me a lot about how things would go on race day, but I decided to just go out reasonably hard and see if I could get through it ok. We were lucky with the weather in Philly because conditions were great. My brother was running the half and went out a little faster than me but I ended up using him to pace me for the second 10k. I went out in 37:29 for the first 10k and felt pretty good. I went by my little brother and continued on to a 1:20:19 half marathon split and still felt pretty good except for the abrupt stop to avoid a lady who walked right in front of me at about 13 miles just after the half/full split which seemed to tighten up one leg just below my hip. I started to slow a bit on the second half and did some running on my own since a lot of the people I had been running with were in the half. Things started to go south with about 7 miles to go. I think that te sius issues and effort were taking teir toll and I started getting some dizzy spells like a vertigo. When I look at my garmin results it was a 10sec/mile drop for a couple miles, then another 10 and then my last final four miles were 6:50-7:02 range so my sub-2:45 goal disappeared very quickly . I ended up going 2:47:38 which placed me 83rd overall and first in men's 45-49. I ended up 6 seconds ahead of second place and he made up about 4 minutes on me over the final 12k according to the online splits. I'm glad that a marathon is not 42.3k!

I think I may use this one to give Boston another go in 2013 since it is well after xc season so I can get back to more traditional training.

My taper was horrible. Did my last 2 miler on Thursday, Friday I woke up feeling like my leg had been smacked by a steel bar. Pain right down to the bone. Didn't sleep well for those 2 nights. Limped walking up a hill. Felt it up to the first mile on the Bridge. Then it was gone. Next time, I don't think I'll run at all after that last LTR.

I thought about that. You're running all that mileage then suddenly you're not. Your body flips out.

A week after the Marathon, I ran 5.2 miles. Was whacked the next two days. Did 10 miles for the entire week. It had worn me very deep (I'm 63).

But it's been two weeks now. I've run over 5 miles two days in a row. I think I can do it again tomorrow. Coming back is rough.

All of that said, around mile 4 tonight, my memory started playing the run through Bay Ridge. How much fun that was. I think I might do it again next year.

Allen,

While I'm impressed with your marathon time, I'm more impressed with your daughter's 5k time. Congratulations to both of you.

I passed up on Boston back in 1995 and 1996, so this time I intend to do it. I hope to get as fast as you by then.

Enjoy the off season.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

"While I'm impressed with your marathon time, I'm more impressed with your daughter's 5k time. Congratulations to both of you. "

thanks. I'm impressed with her time too! What is also impressive is that she swims 18:55 for 1500m free on a long course pool so it will be interesting to see what her future holds.

I just stumbled on this guys blog about the race with a ton of AWESOME photos - http://thescenebegins.com/...moab-trail-marathon/

Even more incredible in person!!!

Dave

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

Finally made it to my off-season. Ran Rocket City on Saturday, went pretty well considering my training was less than ideal coming off Augusta. Nutrition was spot-on, didn't have any problems there. I knew 3:15 (7:27/mi) was a long shot, but I'd try to hold onto that pace group as long as possible. For the first 15 miles I was right on a 3:15 pace. When the course started to head back the wind picked up and I was running solo. From 15-20 I dropped to a 7:39 avg. 21-23 I fell to an 8:09. During the 24th mile the wheels came off and I slowed to a 9:10. Last two miles I sucked it up and got back down to an 8:09 and finished off with a 3:21. I knew going in lack of 16+ mile long runs would hurt me, and I could definitely feel it past 22.

First half was 1:37, second half 1:43. Not sure if that's a good second half, or if it should have been tighter to the first. Input welcome. Overview of my training is a couple posts up.

I really appreciate all the help in this thread/forum. I never would have been close to my time without it. My wife followed the same method and dropped 26 minutes off last year's marathon time as well. All thanks to running guru's on this board. Much obliged.

I know it is no longer fall, but I read this thread quite a bit in getting ready for my first open marathon in 15 years. Yesterday I ran the Surf City Marathon and finished with a 3:07:46 which was ahead of my goal time of 3:10 (current BQ). I ran a open half back in June and finished eight at 1:30, so I figured 3:10 was a good target. I was thinking of running a fall race, but I had a HIM A race in early September. I tried to hold a 1:35 pace in the HIM run and faded badly in the second half. So I decided I needed to spend some time building my endurance and hold of on the marathon.

I started really training in October at which point I was running about the same as I had all year, about 30 mpw. I steadily increased the weekly mileage through the end of the year. I think I had one or two weeks over 60 mpw and four or five more over 50. I had three main workouts each week. First was the long run which I ran about 40 seconds per mile slower than my goal pace. If I was feeling good I would try to run the last 1-2 miles at MP. I started with a long run of about 8 miles and ended up with two 22 mile runs before the taper. The second workout was a medium length "tempo" run. These built up to about 14 miles and the last one went like this. Warm up 2 miles, MP pace for 7 miles, 5-10 sec faster for 2 miles, another 5-10 sec faster for 2 miles then cooldown. My final workout was my "speed" training. I didn't start these until half way through my training. They consisted of 2-5X1-2 mile intervals at around 10K pace. I even did a set of Yasso 800's for fun. I filled the rest of my week with recovery runs that built up to 5 miles each. All my workouts, even the speed intervals, were done with a negative split.

The race itself was well run. It is limited to about 2,500 races with another 17,000 running a half that starts an hour later. The weather was near perfect. It is mostly flat with one short hill that hits early at mile 9. They had great support. There is about 5 miles of running on twisty paths through a city park and they had kids about every 50 yards making sure you knew where you were going. The only nit ws that they were serving Vitalyte, which worked fine, but a lot of the kids were calling "vitamin water" at the aid stations which got a little confusing.

I only had two issues with my day. First, despite making 4 trips before the race, I still had to make a potty stop at mile 2 that cost me probably 45 seconds, which I then felt like I needed to gain back over the next 3 miles. Second was at about mile 23.75 I got a really nasty side cramp. I was feeling really good just before then and probably picked up my pace too much. Probably lost 60-90 seconds from the cramp. It was so bad I ended up walking for a bit to get it down to the point I could tolerate the pain, then ran the next two miles about :40 slower. I was doing a lot of math in my head during those miles. It cleared up at about mile 25 and I finished the last half mile with a very strong kick.

So my time puts me 2:14 under my BQ, well see if that gets me into the race.

I'm sure BQ - 2:14 will get you in. In fact, the consensus of most people following it is that a mere BQ will get you into 2013. (I hope so, since meeting that mark for 2013 is my current goal.) Congratulations on a solid training plan and a great race!

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Which is probably why I was registering 59.67mi as I rolled into T2.

just saw this... i don't think it was the lack of long runs per se but it was the relatively brief period at >50 mpw. You really just need more miles. You need a 12 week cycle at >50-60 mpw. Long runs are a part of that, but shouldn't be the focal point. In terms of your 1/2 marathon splits... don't kid yourself into thinking that a 6-min spread is well executed. Not horrific - certainly better than average - but not ideal. Your goal should be to have the first and second half within a minute. You probably could've had a 3:17/3:18 if you ran the first half a little slower.

I noticed that the 2012 Rock & Roll (Arizona) and Disney marathons had fewer BQ's this year. I hope your theory holds true because part of the Boston experience is having the ability to celebrate immediately after gaining BQ status. I'll never forget my first BQ (Paris, 2009). To have to wait it out is so anti-climatic. In fact, I'd rather see BAA shave off another 1-2 minutes than this whole wait-and-see nonsense.

Great job building your miles up Torrey. I hope to see you up in Boston next year.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I hope your theory holds true because part of the Boston experience is having the ability to celebrate immediately after gaining BQ status.

Yes, that's something I'll miss in the future--assuming that I have the good fortune of continuing to BQ.

I'll never forget my first BQ (Paris, 2009).

I've never raced abroad. I think I would find doing a European marathon memorable anyway, BQ or not BQ, simply because of the romanticism of it!

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Which is probably why I was registering 59.67mi as I rolled into T2.

Hey Torrey, I just ran Surf City as well. Finished a stone's throw from you in 3:07:06. Great race!

I was also shooting for a 3:10 BQ. I hung with the 3:10 pace group for the 1st 9 or 10 miles, but moved ahead coming down the hill back towards the PC HW. Felt fantastic at that point so I upped the pace a bit to gradually pull ahead of the pack. Pretty lonely run up PCHW. I picked up the pace a bit more to catch a couple of guys up ahead to work with through the cross-winds, and still felt good so I kept it up and eventually lost them at the turn.

By about mile 16 I started to realise that the way I was feeling there would be no need to hold back the rest of the way. This was the 1st marathon I have run without hitting a wall of misery for the final 5K, and I had an absolute blast comming back down the bike path. Despite all the reviews I had read, I didn't find the public traffic on the path too much trouble to negotiate. Had enough left in me for a decent kick, with splits of ~4:10/km for the final 2K.
Used the Hanson plan, and have to say that it worked for me. Knocked 12 min of my PR. My only struggle with the plan was trying to get in a 6th run for the week. Between work and family I ususally only got in 5 runs per week. Averaged 40 mpw, with a peak of 56 miles. Longest long run was 19 miles, which was cheating a little bit (Hanson plan calls for a max 16 mile long run).

Quads are still sore today and going down stairs is painful.

On a positive note, about a year ago I was dealing with a major case of ITBS and was feeling like my running days were finished, and leading up to the race I'd had a fear that I might have another flare up and DNF it. I did have some tightness set in around the halfway point, but it was manageable the whole way. I credit lots of core excerise and stretching with getting me back up to speed.

Have to say I had no complaints about the race organization, and having a smaller marathon field start well in advance of the half made it so much easier to settle into my pace without dealing with early traffic. Great volunteer support, especially the school kids in the park. Also a nice group of great looking college girls with killer signs out on the bike path! Never tried Vitalyte, so stuck to water and gels that I carried.

See you in Boston 2013!

Congrats. You probably passed me somewhere in the last few miles. I would have been the one grabbing his side and going slower than I should have. It sounds like you felt like I did on the way back until I got the side stitch. But it was a great day and a great race. I agree no problems on the bike path for someone running our times, but I could see it getting crowded for the 4 hour pacers.