Question:
I’m tentatively slated to
run my first marathon at the end
of October (Cape Cod marathon) and
would like some advice.
I originally
had planned to peak my long run
training with a 20-21 mile 3 weeks
prior to the marathon. But here’s
the question:
I’ve
read several places that one should
not have a training run longer than
3 hours .after that injury likelihood
will go up considerably. Is this
true?
I’m
hoping for a marathon at around
4 hrs total on the day of the actual
race (although the Principle goal
is finishing), but I’ve been
training at around a 9:45 pace (which
includes some occasional walking
to drink water and ingest a gel
every now and then) which would
put me at around 3:15 for a 20 mile
run.
So, what
do I do? I read one Runner’s
World article which suggested splitting
up the run into two parts of the
day if one wants to exceed 3 hours.
Is this 3 hour max really a critical
limit? or is 3:15-3:30 ok?
Answer:
In a word, yes. Hold your pace down
at the beginning. Get to 20 miles
and see how you feel. A marathon
doesn’t really begin until
then. You may not understand that
now, but you will.
Try this
before the marathon, as a pace check.
You’re shooting for 9:00 min/mile,
which is about 3:56 for the race.
On a track or measured course, run
4x880 intervals 1 ½ weeks
prior to the ‘thon. Shoot
for 3min 56 sec per interval. If
you can do all 4 at that pace (first
one quite easy, last one difficult)
then the time in minutes and seconds
is a predictor of your ‘thon
time in hours. If it’s easy
to complete you may do better. If
it can’t be completed at a
consistent pace (i.e. you fade at
the end), then you may need to reduce
your expectations. Rest time should
be the same length as the interval
time.
