Training review, advice and some future guidance.

[Michael Laputka]

I've poked around on this blog for a few years and finally decided to log my runs after Salt Lake Marathon this last April.  My time was 3:42:31.  This is where my blog starts. 

I'm 44 years old, I want to run 3:30 at this years Salt Lake Marathon, this will qualify me for Boston 2011.  I will be 45 years old on that day of the Boston Marathon and my race time as a 44 year old this next April will qualify me.

Last winter I PR'd every race I ran, most notably, Salt Lake Track Club Winter Series 2009 15K 1:07:05.  This race was the end of February, it's a perfectly flat course and a good measure of fitness.  This was a PR by a little over 3 minutes from the previous year.  My PR for the Salt Lake Marathon is 3:41:29 in 2005.  Given my improvement over the year (specifically the 15K) I was confident I would PR the Salt Lake Marathon by 5 to 8 minutes, didn't happen.  Part of the problem may have been the fact that I did ZERO running 7 days before the race.  Long story short, I thought I was injured and thought zero running for a week was a good decision.  Oh well.

Last year (my years begin and end with the Salt Lake Marathon) my average weekly mileage was 38.  This was a big improvement over prior years, which was about 22 miles a week going back to 2004.  My mileage would drop off during the summer while I did things like cycle and swim, then pick back up in September as I would prepare for the Salt Lake Marathon.  I've run all 6 Salt Lake Marathons.  My first Marathon was Des News 2003 and I've done Top of Utah 3 times.  10 Marathons total.

I came to the realization (by poking around this blog) that I was not putting in enough miles.  I now know that I need to be around 60 to 70 miles a week to meet my goal.  Last year, my mileage to date (end of April to beginning of December) was 1133.5 or 34.35 average.  This year it's 1414.12 or 42.85.  I've hit 60+ miles only 7 times so far.  I will be much more consistent hitting 60+ for the next 4 months.

This should do it for me.  I last raced in September, a 5K over a hilly course and improved by 10 seconds over the prior year so I feel I'm on track.  I have about 6 months running logged on the sight.  In June I had the flu and did not run for two weeks, you'll see the zeros.  I will race again in the Winter Series with the Salt Lake City Track club.  Three races, 5,10 and 15K starting the end of January and go every other week.  This will be a good test for how my training is going.  However, I PR'd each race last year and did not improve my Marathon time. 

I'm sure you will want to know about my long runs last year so here they are. 
Jan 24th   20 miles  2:51:51  8:36 average
Feb  7th   21 miles  3:05:31  8:50 average
Feb 21st   20 miles  I tried to run  each mile faster than the other 907 905 908 906 854 857 900 900 865 851 842 857 850 834 831 825 815 811 754 747
Mar 14th  20 miles 2:49:50  8:30 ave last two 7:56 7:50
Mar 20th  20 miles 3:00:23  9:01 ave

April 18th Race day.

My running routine is like this:

Monday off
Tuesday 4.65 am miles  8.65 pm miles (4 on the track) 13.3 total
Wednesday same
Thursday same
Friday 4.65 am miles .63 pm miles
Saturday and Sunday I try to put in a total of about 25 miles, spit up 10 and 15 or 7 and 18 something like that.

I don't have a lot of wiggle room in this schedule, I run to and from work so I can't add am miles and cannot run Mondays because thats the day I pack my lunches and cloths to work.  Friday after work I meet my wife at the grocery store that's why the Friday pm run is so short.  So that leaves weekends and pm runs Tuesday through Thursday for wiggle room if you have any suggestions, otherwise I'll keep them the same.

I have manually logged every run going back to 2002 when I started running, so if there is more info you'd like to have to help me, I have it.

 

[Jon Allen]

Looks to me like you have a very good grasp on things.  Increasing your weekly mileage from 38 miles per week to 50-60 or more should be sufficient to get you over the 3:30 hump.  Just run consistent like you planned, and I think you'll be fine.

[jtshad]

I agree with Jon that you are planning well and working the miles in where your life will allow.  Keep consistent and try to get to those mileage goals, plan your long runs well and practice fuel/hydration on these as well.   You may want to think about progressing up to a 20-22 miler in increments rather than trying to push that many 20 milers to help prevent injury (longer runs every other week...something like 15-17-19-20-22-18). 

Good luck getting that BQ!

[Sasha Pachev]

Michael:

The plan looks good, it is just a matter of doing it for a while. You have enough speed to run at least 3:10 in St. George, 3:18 in Salt Lake, but it is a matter of consistent training over a couple of years to get there.

Marathon endurance development, in my opinion, is only maybe 20% in the long runs. About 40% is in the frequency of runs 8 miles and longer, 20% in the amount of mileage at marathon race pace, particularly runs 10 miles and longer at marathon race pace, and the remaining 20% is in biomechanics. Percentages are rough, of course, and how in the world do you assign a percentage to a training component anyway? But consider those numbers a mathematical expression of the importance.

And, we must really emphasize patience and time. For some people it comes fast (6 months of good training), for others it could take 5-7 years.