Hi Slowtwitch,
I am all in on an “ill fated” attempt to go sub 3h in the Milano Marathon on April 7th. On paper and by current marathon training wisdom I should have next to no chance of going sub 3, as I have a Marathon PB of 3:39 (from 2006 though), can currently run 5k in 18:45 and have “only” run 900 miles in 2023…and on top, I am not super light at 175 pounds (5’10’').
Since I don’t have the time to ramp up my mileage and go on a “proper” marathon training plan, I have started a plan that almost exclusively focuses on hard running but only 3x per week. I am currently in week 4 of this plan and I am wondering if this makes sense. So far I can handle the load quite well.
The plan looks like this:
Run 1: Progressing intervals at around 5k pace (starting with 10x2min on 2 minutes rest, progressing to 6x5min on 2 minutes rest)
Run 2: Tempo run above Marathon pace (starting at 30 min at 4:05/km progressing to 60 min at around 4:05)
Run 3: Long run including Marathon pace intervals (starting at 1.5h total run time with 30 min race pace interval, progressing to 3h total run time with 3x30 min at race pace followed by 20 min above race pace (4:05/km), 5 min breaks of slow jogging between intervals.
Anyone out here who has followed a similar plan? Any suggestions, what else I should do?
I am totally fine with failing miserably in April - the journey will be the reward - or the punishment
Let me know. Thanks
Uli