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Hello, I was going to say I’m new here but I think I may have been here years ago!! I did 3.12 back in 2013 had various issues and got older and now I’m back on the hunt for another 3.15! If you CBA to read all the post skip to the end!
Those who know me will know I do a lot of ultras so don’t tend to following a traditional 12-16 week build plan. Thats why this question may seem a bit basic.
I did 3.17 at Chester, I had some decent training leading into it. As Chester is hilly (for me) I felt that with a bit more training and a flatter course I could possibly get 3.15 again.
Fast forward to yesterday. I was meant to be doing a track marathon but it got cancelled the day before. I was tapered (not in the sense that many taper but about as tapered as I was before Chester) so rather than waste the taper I went to my local track (I have blogged about the run). It was pretty much a 3.15 or bust. I wanted to know if I could do it. If it wasn’t going to happy I wasn’t planning on dragging my sorry arse around for the whole distance!
I wasn’t sure what shape I was in, i thought it could go either way. In the end I wasn’t up to it. Got to half way bang on. Stopped at 20 miles as I was slowing. Based on how much I was slowing I predict that I would have finished in 3.17-3.20 which given that it’s on a track is a worse performance than Chester.
Skip to here …. I’m not sure why I have gone backwards. I counted up that in the last 10 weeks I’ve had 4 weeks of decent training and 6 weeks of training but not getting in the normal sessions (holiday for a week, a 50 miler (ran steadily) which had a week taper and 2 weeks building up, snow/ice). I thought that because I was still getting sessions in I would be OK and maybe maintain rather than go backwards.
Do you think that after a training block and marathon you go backwards a bit and need several weeks of good training to get yourself back to where you were?
Hi Helen, I think I recognise you from 100 Marathon Club? Is that so? I’m a member too, and get where you’re coming from around not following a usual plan.
I think 20 miles on a track, on your own, is not a replica for a race, so on its own it’s not enough to say you’ve gone backwards. I’d say keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll not be far off your target in a proper race if you reckon you’d have done around 3:17 in any case. I really don’t think you need to follow a formal plan to get there (presuming you’ll be doing a marathon or two before in the lead up to a target race, and if that’s the case, you’d only be loosely following it anyway).
Also, I’ve done a couple of track marathons and you’re right that they’re easier in terms of the surface, but I find them mentally tough, so don’t think I’d have got a ‘quick’ (for me) time on a track. But we’re all different in that regard.
For those who want to go sub 3.15 in a marathon and/or those that have already done it and want to give advice. Share your journey or help someone else's here.
2025 targets: Charles - Ghent - 30 Mar Mark J - Christchurch NZ - 13 Apr riggys - Tissington - 27 Apr
2024 achievers: Akie: 3:15 @ Rotterdam allmatthew: 3:09 @ Manchester Bowman: 3:01 @ Boras Mark J: 3:12 @ Christchurch NZ PJH92: 3:13 @ London
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RW sub3/3.15
Feb 2025