My Forum

Hi Martin,

 I read a lot of people talking about reverse splits in Marathons as the best strategy but less detail on how  extreme to make the difference between the two halves.  Let me give a (not so hypothetical) example.

I am running the Brighton Marathon in April 2013.  A time under 3 hours 15 mins gets me a good for age place in the 2014 London Marathon.  I have a 1:29 half marathon under my belt in the summer so 3 hours 4 minutes might be a reasonable target, which is scarily close to 3 hours. 

I would like to give myself a shot at under 3 hours but do not want to go off so quick and blow up in the second half - perhaps even ruining my good for age time for London.   So a reverse split would seem to be the way to go.  If I go for 1:32 in the first half does that give me too much to do in the second half?  Should I go even slower in the first half.?

I have a couple of 20 mile races to rehearse at but interested if there is any formula or advice on a reverse split.

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 

I read a lot of people talking about reverse splits in Marathons as the best strategy but less detail on how  extreme to make the difference between the two halves.  Let me give a (not so hypothetical) example.

I am running the Brighton Marathon in April 2013.  A time under 3 hours 15 mins gets me a good for age place in the 2014 London Marathon.  I have a 1:29 half marathon under my belt in the summer so 3 hours 4 minutes might be a reasonable target, which is scarily close to 3 hours. 

I would like to give myself a shot at under 3 hours but do not want to go off so quick and blow up in the second half - perhaps even ruining my good for age time for London.   So a reverse split would seem to be the way to go.  If I go for 1:32 in the first half does that give me too much to do in the second half?  Should I go even slower in the second half.?

I have a couple of 20 mile races to rehearse at but interested if there is any formula or advice on a reverse split.

Thanks for the responses.  Runners therapist in particular - I guess I should not be surprised by the selective media - I see you are in Bucks - maybe see you at the Pednor 10 later this month.

I am going to keeprunning -  Brighton Marathon in the Spring!

See article below.  Should I pack in now I have done one marathon?  I was hoping to make this a bi-annual event but not sure I want to "speed one's progress towards the ???nish line of life"

Running too many marathons in a lifetime could be dangerous for the heart and lead to an early death, U.S. medical researchers said.

The heart is only designed for "short bursts" of intense activity, a study by Dr. James O'Keefe and Carl Lavie of St. Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo., and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., found.

Marathon running forces the heart to pump massive amounts of blood for hours at a time, leading to overstretching of the heart's chambers, thickening of its walls and changes to electrical signaling, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

"In addition, long-term excessive exercise may accelerate aging in the heart, as evidenced by increased coronary artery calci???cation, diastolic ventricular dysfunctio, and large-artery wall stiffening," the researchers wrote in their report published in the journal Heart. "... Running too fast, too far and for too many years may speed one's progress towards the ???nish line of life."

The damage caused by a marathon will rapidly heal, though repeated endurance exercise can lead to scarring, The Independent reported.

"If one really wants to do a marathon or full-distance triathlon ... it may be best to do just one or a few and then proceed to safer and healthier exercise patterns," the researchers said.