Against the clock! - General running

adam nosworthy

17/04/2011 at 19:31

Hello!

Im training for edinburgh marathon and really want to finish with a sub 4hr time (3:59:59 would be great!). My 20mile LSR time is 3hrs 2mins, Im confident i can knock at least 25secs per mile off this time but after 20miles i feel pretty damn tired! Im starting to doubt that i can maintain the pace for the last 6miles and hit my goal of sub-4hrs.

Mid-week im gettin in the hill sessions and tempo runs etc, im feeling strong and enjoying the training.

Any advice for shaking the doubts andhelping me to maintain pace over the last 6 miles.

Thankyou!!

Adam

stutyr

17/04/2011 at 20:22

Did you run your LSR after a full week of training? Before the marathon you will taper to make sure your reserves are fully charged.

adam nosworthy

17/04/2011 at 21:20

yeah my LSR are done on a weekend after a full week of training. Working from a schedule from RW so the tapering is already planned!

cougie

pirate

17/04/2011 at 21:24

If you're aiming for sub 4 - why are you treating your twenty milers as races ?

adam nosworthy

18/04/2011 at 11:15

im not, or certainly not conciously treating it as a race. My race pace ive planned for is 8.50-9min/mile and ive been doing my LSR at around 9.25-9.35min/mile. Granted my last LSR (3:02) was slightly faster but this wasnt intentional. Like i said just looking for some last minute advice really, ive got one more LSR planned (21miles) this sunday before i start tapering for the race, should i aim for a LSR pace slower than 9.25min/mile?

cougie

pirate

18/04/2011 at 11:28

If you're doing 20 miles in 182 mins - then thats 9.mins and 6 seconds per mile.

A 3.59 marathon is run at 9 mins and 7 seconds.

You'd be better off taking it easier on the long runs and doing more like 10 minute mile pace. You're doubting if you can do sub 4, but running your long runs hard - and that will take more out of you than if you eased it back a bit. Dont forget you need to recover from the long runs to help you train - to let you get better.

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