Potential??

Hi everyone,

I'm doing some research regarding running potential.  I will use myself as a case study and would like to gather the thoughts and opinions of the people on these forums.

I'm 6"5, 13 stone, male, 28.  Been running on and off for 6 years, but never with a club.  

Current pbs

5k 18:45

10k 39

Half 1:36

Full 3:36.

What is the potential locked inside people? How far can they go? How much time could I realistically expect to shave off my times?  

I'm currently training for the Sunderland and Edinburgh Marathons (week 3 so far) and I'm aiming for a sub 3:15 or better.

Any thoughts?

your pbs tail away outrageously as the distances get longer

Are you doing halfs and marathons from very low mileage?

You can race a decent 5k off minimal mileage, based on your natural fitness or through another sport, but you'll really be found out as you go up the distances.

About 20% improvement from scratch.

Does being so large effect how well people run over longer distances more then shorter as your size and pb's suggest?

As Stevie G has said, your times get worse the further you go.  As a starting point, using McMillan pace calculator you should be capable of 1:27 HM and a 3:03 Marathon. This figures are based on you training "seriously" for these longer distances, so you wouldn't achieve these without putting in the training (e.g. 55 to 70 miles per week in structured Marathon training).

Its impossible to answer your question based on the info you've provided, as there's no indication of how much effort you've put into training.  However, in reality the correct answer to your query about the "potential locked inside people" would be that the majority of people could run significantly faster if they had the free time and inclination to devote themselves to full-time training.  Unfortunately in the real world most of us have to compromise on the amount of training we can integrate into our lives, and therefore never fully realise our running potential.

the formula for your fastest potential marathon is to multiple your height in cm (195) by your weight in kg (82.5), then again by pi (i'm rounding to 3.141592 here, but feel free to use as many decimal places as you like), then divide by your age in months (336, i'm rounding to 28 years here) and further divide by 42.2 (the number of km in a marathon).

This gives you a potential marathon best of 3.56, or 3 hours and 33 mins.

So it looks like you are already very close to your peak performance, well done.

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25miles a week, and doing a marathon?

Why?

 

AgentGinger wrote (see)

the formula for your fastest potential marathon is to multiple your height in cm (195) by your weight in kg (82.5), then again by pi (i'm rounding to 3.141592 here, but feel free to use as many decimal places as you like), then divide by your age in months (336, i'm rounding to 28 years here) and further divide by 42.2 (the number of km in a marathon).

This gives you a potential marathon best of 3.56, or 3 hours and 33 mins.

So it looks like you are already very close to your peak performance, well done.

Hogwash!  Where's the shoe-colour coefficient?!

Richard - as has been suggested, you can get a lot closer to your potential by gradually increasing the miles. The law of diminishing returns will start to kick in at a certain point but you're a long way from it at the moment. Bear in mind though, the longer the event the more you can benefit from the cumulative effects of years of endurance training, so patience is a virtue.  I've been training seriously (on and off through various injury woes!) for six years, starting at 34, and I'm still getting quicker (just about).

Richard Carr where abouts in the UK do you live?

Stevie G . wrote (see)

small font!

25miles a week, and doing a marathon?

Why?

 

im 29,Been ther done that for my first 3 marathons came out with a 3.29 and they all hurt.

Doin 40+mpw now for london and hoping for some pb's and a sub 3.10

good luck, mileage is your friend 

id also like to add its depends on you psycological strength, im not sure many people could do a 3.29 mara off 25 mpw and 5 long runs. i got though it on will power, maybe  the 5 years i did in the Army helped lol.

Richard there are really good club around Glasgow, Cambuslang is my Scottish Club, be worth giving one a try if your not a member of a club