20 mile races - Spring Marathon

Hywel Thomas 3

19/01/2013 at 14:52

I am in training for the Brighton Marathon and have the Bramley 20 mile race in February and the Finchley 20 in March (4 weeks before the race). I would be grateful for any advice on how to use these. I ran the Windsor half marathon at 6:46 pace or 1hour:29mins which would suggest I could do something like 7:02 marathon pace or 3hours 4 minutes. I was thinking of using the first to see if I can sustain this pace for 20 miles and the second to see if I can go one further and run 3 hour pace. Is there a risk of burning out though if I run both these at Marathon pace?

Should I be treating them as just long slow runs or do I push myself?

Thanks,

Hywel

Mike Sheridan

19/01/2013 at 20:19

I am just doing the 1st of those then a 10km and a 10m on 24th and 29th March.

In the 20m I was planning on steady to halfway and then build up the pace to finish the last few miles at MP (don't know yet how many at MP).

The 10k and 10m I'll do pretty much flat out which is what I did before VLM 2012.

Your risk in doing the 2nd 20m hard is that it becomes your "A" race and you will suffer for it during Brighton, so IMHO I would use the 2nd as a progressive race, but not full gas.....(actually I wouldn't do the 2nd one!). Good luck

seren nos

pirate

19/01/2013 at 20:29

I agree.i knowe a few people who habe raced a few 20 milers and have suffered on their marathon.........if you want to race an early one then fine.any orthers you need to be strong and run them as a training run....if you can't then maybe withdraw

PhilPub

19/01/2013 at 20:34

Two 20 mile races is a lot! You could use PART of both to practise marathon pace under race conditions but I'd be very cautious. A lot will depend on what sort of mileage you're doing and how easy you're finding the 20 milers. I'm doing Finchley, 5 weeks out from London, and my plan is 5 miles progressive warm-up followed by 15 @ MP, which will be my hardest long run. In previous campaigns I've run a maximum of 12 miles @ target pace and this has been a real confidence boost without leaving me shattered.

Run both at anything like MP and your training will be massively compromised. I'd consider just doing the first one as a progressive run, maybe use it as practise for fuelling, race kit, etc., and do the second one harder, but keep target pace down to 10 - 12 miles.

seren nos

pirate

19/01/2013 at 20:35

I know people who will race them as its a race and so run faster than marathon pace......a recipie for disater if its more than one or too close to the marathon.....they leave their racing legs at that race and miss out on the marathon PB

micknphil-marathonlads.com

19/01/2013 at 20:51

hywel

i would to an extent treat them with caution - how did you feel during Windsor race and after on 1.29 -

the 20 is half that again, and FM still 10k on top, - no one knows what will happen on marathon day - i expect we've all come apart on them - i know i have

good luck with everything -

Also-ran

19/01/2013 at 22:16

I think a lot depends on how important your Brighton time is. To peak at Brighton, your ideas are a little "non textbook"; you are likely to impact your training in the weeks following the races - don't underestimate the recovery time.

I am running Bramley before London. I am not training to peak at London, but even so, I am looking to get something like MP+15s overall for Bramley, and that is going to be my quickest long run from my 20+ milers.

Its a great opportunity to practice pacing etc, but decide where your priorities lie before you get to the start line.

Simon Lister 2

11/02/2013 at 21:00

I'm running Bramley on Sunday, hoping to do 30 -40 seconds slower than my marathon pace, possible might run last 2-3 miles around marathon pace, i'm going for sub 4hr at London. I've listened to a lot of experienced runners and looked at past RW magazines, they all say any 20miler plus should all be used as LSR's otherwise your body takes too much of a battering and the following training week quality is compromised,

James Shipley 3

12/02/2013 at 15:35

The Finchley 20 is a popular warm up race for the London Marathon. Its on March 17th and has 700 entrants

Finchley 20

Robin Lomax

04/03/2013 at 07:51

I have a race number available for Finchley 20 if needed. I've missed the cut for requesting a 50% refund.

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