In july I did IMLP, my marathon time was 4:00:34. Today I ran Montreal Marathon which was my third marathon in my life and did it in 2:49:45… I PB by 15mins from last year 3:04 on a harder course! I just don’t understand why can’t I simply run 3:30-3:40 in an Ironman…
Do you have a rule of thumb to know how close should you be to your Marathon??? (I know for those that will comment out, I do understand there’s many variables in the equation, difference in course profile and temperature, etc). I’m not looking for results out of a scientific research, neither for exact results. Just an approximation of what could be your IM Marathon based on marathon run only.
The key is bike miles. A lot of people say IM is won by the runners but I don’t agree with this. You can’t run fast if your legs are toast from the bike ride. Last year in Kona Peter Reid ran a 2:46 but didn’t break 5:00 on the bike. I assume that he could have broken 5:00 but laid off to make sure that he had a shot at the win if Stadler blew up. I have a 2:32 marathon PB and figured that I would “cruise” a low 3:00 time in my first IM but ended up 3:29. I went 3:15 in Hawaii last year in the crappy conditions off much less run training and way more biking.
On October 2nd I’m going to run a marathon without any specific marathon training and it will be my first without a swim-bike warmup since 1998. I’ll be pacing my brother through the first 20 miles then seeing what happens. I’m nowhere near the shape I was in for Hawaii last year but it should be interesting to see how my marathon time compares to my Hawaii and IM FL times.
Alex…incedible. Congrats on that 2"49 marathon You are amazing !
In 1993, I ran 2:48 , marathon and then 4:05 at Roth ! In 2002 2:59 at Boston and 3:55 at LP. This year, I ran a really slow 3:19 at Boston and 3:44 at LP. Bottom line, in theory I should be running Ironman in the 3:30 range like you should (actually you should be around sub 3:20). I think your 140 lb 5% body fat frame is working against you in that you likley use up too much of your power on the bike and have limited legs for the run…that and the fact that your bike miles were low this year (as allan pointed out). Let’s face it…some of our bodies are optimized for 2 hours to 5 hour range. Not everyone can be a 100 m sprinter and an Ironman stud at the same time.
The difference between my marathon and IM marathon is about 20 minutes. I have heard several times that this is the rule of thumb.
This said, some friends of mine are both excellent bikers and runners (taken as seperate events) but there is a 40+ minutes discrepancy between their standalone and IM marathons.
Paul’s last comment makes sense: some people can go slow for ever (say 9-10 hours for the sake of the argument) some others can go really fast but only for 1:50-2:15.
Hi Dev,
Thanks, today Marathon was a dream race… I guess we all have 3-4 races like this in our lives when everything falls in place. I never felt more happy then today, I was looking for 2:59 time but after talking with one of friend last night, he just mention that I should go for 2h50 and be prepared to suffer… Actually, I only start to working hard after 34km marker everything until then was to insure that powergel got in and hide behind runners when we had headwind…I mean we were splitting work like bike paceline, everybody would go in front for 1 min pull, if we can compare to cycling.
I guess, I should improve my bike and be more prepare to suffer during IM run…(see you next weekend in ESPRIT Half)
Alex
Note: I qualified for NewYork city Marathon which was one my goals for 2006. I though that going under 2:50 was not in my reach, I was more looking for the 1:21 for the half.
In july I did IMLP, my marathon time was 4:00:34. Today I ran Montreal Marathon which was my third marathon in my life and did it in 2:49:45… I PB by 15mins from last year 3:04 on a harder course! I just don’t understand why can’t I simply run 3:30-3:40 in an Ironman…
Do you have a rule of thumb to know how close should you be to your Marathon??? (I know for those that will comment out, I do understand there’s many variables in the equation, difference in course profile and temperature, etc). I’m not looking for results out of a scientific research, neither for exact results. Just an approximation of what could be your IM Marathon based on marathon run only.
Thanks in advance,
Alex
30-45min slower on a well paced bike leg. Generally 30min for a FOP athlete and then 45min for a MOP to BOP athlete. Remember this is based on the fact that you haven’t smoked yourself on the bike. If your any closer then 30min then you may want to consider riding harder.