Follow Jack Daniels, get weekly mileage up over 50 mpw, run easy runs slower, run tempo/hard repeats faster, run a hard half marathon in june/july to track progress and see where fitness is, reassess goal, then and continue cycle.

Takes me 3 weeks 90-100 mpw to go sub 3, with at least ,3 months 70mpw. Most runs easy 8s or faster. 2 races a month

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say that the yasso workout was directly applicable. My point was that if you can't even do 3-minute 800s, then there is no way you can go sub-3 on a marathon. If a 6 min/mile pace is too hard for a few 800s on even a minute or so of rest, then 6:40 is not anywhere near a comfortable pace for distance. I was using this workout as an example of a way to test where the OP's current fitness level is without trying to go run 20 miles at sub-3 pace.

Like you, I have the same experience with the Yasso workout. Before my last marathon, I hammered out 10 x 800 on 60 seconds rest in 2:25-2:30. I ended up running a 2:42 but nowhere near a 2:30 (didn't even try for that).

---

https://www.endurancelab.fit
https://www.teamodz.com
https://discuss.endurancelab.fit

I did pretty much exactly the above & just broke 3, times from the same course over the last 4 years:

2016, 4:30
2017, 3:46
2018, 3:19
2019, 2:56


Don't get injured, run often (6 days/wk), frequency & consistency is the cake, ignore the sprinkles.

Ah, good point thinking about them that way

---

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

So I just did my marathon that I was aiming to go sub 3 at yesterday. I had a 2:58:10. The plan I used was actually a cookie cutter Garmin Connect plan. It was the Marathon 3 plan and for the past two years I think it did me right. Here is the link to my Strava training log. I didn't do a good job logging the titles and details with the actual workouts, but you can see the type of mileage I was dealing with and the long runs and if you want to dig into them, tuesdays and thursdays were primarily intervals/threshold and occasionally some on saturday.. I missed 1 long run this go-round and then cut a couple short because of being hung-over. . . -.-

https://www.strava.com/...6176348/training/log

Some of the days did include some cross-training that isn't logged and earlier on I was trying to keep up with a little swimming before I needed to make a solid focus. So last year at this same race was a 3:05:30 on the same plan. This was followed up over the summer with a triathlon focus just doing some Olys and sprints, and then my training started the day after Thanksgiving for the marathon - just to give you some background on where I was at when I went into this cycle.

Maybe this will help you just to see kind-of what I did since we have the same goals?

Edit: idk how it looks on your end as I've never seen anyone else's log, but if you put it on the run tab, my races are coded in red and the long runs are a dark green. It kind of helps flesh out the week.

---

Use this link to save $5 off your USAT membership renewal:
https://membership.usatriathlon.org/...A2-BAD7-6137B629D9B7

Congrats, welcome to the club.

---

Let food be thy medicine...

Apprec all the responses. thanks