Thanks everyone -
@ATL Dad - good taper plan. Unless my Garmin is full of crap, I’ll definitely hold back at the 7:25-7:30 pace on long runs from here on out. Plus, I’ll focus on the speed stuff and keeping fresh.
@JRAJR - wow, thanks for that analysis. Awesome stuff. Steady 7:12/mile = 1:34 half’s and see what happens at the end. This is probably the better way to go versus going too slow and hoping to have a big sprint for a few miles. My last few long runs have been incredibly painful the last 30-45 min b/c I’m trying to increase my pace so much.
The last stand alone marathon I did was London in 2009 and probably was too conservative. 1:41 1st half / 1:38 2nd half = 3:18. I remember feeling great from mile 22-26, but I was stupidly conserving a bit b/c I was in the middle of training for IM Austria. Should’ve gone for it and got a BQ when it was 3:15 to qualify! I definitely think I’m faster now, the last few months have all been run focused and I’m about 5 pounds lighter. Even that half marathon time of 1:29 was after a 10 day holiday to Thailand, where I barely trained.
I just found my London marathon race report, boy did I eat a lot! I think I was practicing my IM AT fueling and ended the race a little full. I won’t need that much for Paris, but will take some Nuun tablets to pop in the water bottles on the course. The training probably worked since I pulled my best IM at 10:45 (w/ a 3hr 50m run) that year.
nutrition:
Day before: some pasta, extra salt, and about 4-5 bottles nuun water
2.5 hours before: 3 english muffins w/ apricot jam, little coffee and nuun water, 2 tabs of salt pills (~300mg?)
right before start: pack of shot bloks w/ little nuun water
1st hour: pack of shot bloks, nuun tab in water, 2 salt tabs, one gel ---- figured my HR and effort would be lowest (i tried to keep it down) so I could stomach the solids
2nd hour: 2 salt tabs, nuun tab in water, 2 gels (one close to end of hour)
3rd hour: 2 salt tabs, one gel
Thanks again and will let you guys know how it goes.