Been a long time since my last update - which, outside of social media, is true of all of my long-form writing. But I’ve definitely been busy.
Last season ended on a high note at Savageman. In the fall I did only two races: a six-person 50-mile relay at Tussey Mountain, and a 10k turkey trot (which ended up a PR and my first ever sub-40minute 10k. But my main focus since the end of October has been my second marathon on March 17 in Washington DC. I set a goal while training for the Pittsburgh Marathon last year to qualify for Boston. Which I did, but wasn’t able to register since I didn’t beat my qualifying time by enough (the race sold out). Getting so close made getting to Boston that much more important as a goal. So even though they dropped qualifying times by 5 minutes this year, I decided to focus in the off-season on getting my run times down.
Qualifying for this year is a 3:10, but in order to not risk missing out again I felt like I should try to beat the time by more than 5 minutes so I could register early. Then looking at a sub-3:05 qualifying time, I decided what the heck. Why not just push for a sub-three-hour marathon?
I searched around for a marathon training plan aimed at faster runners. I quickly settled on a plan put together by Benji Durden (I’m pretty sure the plan is copyrighted but I found it a few places online. Sorry Benji!). I was immediately drawn to the plan since it focused on building speed and used time rather than pace for the long run. I needed to adjust it to fit with a triathlon background, and since my marathon will be relatively flat I skipped the hill part. I’ll write another post with details on how I modified the plan later.
So from late October until now I’ve been following the modified plan very closely. Speed-focused intervals Tuesdays, tempo run Thursdays, and long run Sundays. I’ve also adjusted nutrition quite a bit. I’m using a protein supplement and fish oil, and my nutrition balance is very close to the 30-40-30 Zone diet. With five weeks to go until the race, I’m really happy with where things stand. Here are the highlights:
- I’ve taken my 1/2 mile interval pace from 3:17 to 2:57. Since Yasso 800s are supposed to be a good predictor of your marathon finish time, I’ll take a 2:57 average.
- My most recent tempo runs are right on 6:50, with a heart rate in the mid-150s. I’m pretty bad at holding a pace for longer distances, so this is encouraging.
- My long slow distance pace is a comfortable 7:30. That’s a 3:16 marathon - pretty much the same as my marathon pace from last year.
- Two weeks ago I decided to do a half-marathon race simulation, to see what I could hold. I ended up at just under 1:28, which if it were an actual race would be a PR by over 7 minutes (previous PR was 1:35 at Cook Forest, though my half-marathon split during the Pittsburgh Marathon was around 1:34).
So for the next couple of weeks I need to continue to post small gains and try to avoid injury. Then a two-week taper and it’s time to put everything to the test. 6:52/mile gets me to my goal, and if it comes together, it’ll be a great start to the season.
