2:59 !!!

Welcome to the FRB, great to have another international fellow runner here!

Good goals for the year, will depend on training, fitness and staying healthy. Increasing your mileage and intensity (helps with increase in pace) at the same time is tricky. Focus on a speed/tempo day once a week and a gradual increase in your weekly long run, then the rest can be easy. As the long runs get longer, practice hydration and fueling to see what works with your body. A 3:10 is a 7:15/mile (4:30/km) pace which is quick. Your recent internals is right at this now, so to be able to maintain that interval pace for 42km is going to take some good training. You have a good base. With only the splits indicated, you will need to focus on getting those under 3:50/km as a target for a 3:10 marathon. To be on target for a 3:10 a good weekly mileage goal to get to is 50+ miles as you enter the last quarter of your training cycle. Just some initial thoughts based on limited information. Good luck. There are lots of good running resource plans on the net to use to help develop a plan for you.

Jeff, much appreciate your advice, thank you!

My achilles injury last fall was because of long tempo runs (12-15 miles, 3 weeks apart). I just wasnīt ready for that...

As a result my long runs now are not more than 25% of my wekly mileage and will increase as my weekly mileage does. I plan blocks of 4 weeks before adding some mileage and I am very careful the first week when mileage is added.

The last 8-12 weeks before my marathon at the end of April, I want to run 50 miles and alternate my long runs as follows: one medium long run of 12 miles (25%), one easier long runs of 15 miles (30%). But I believe that (for me), the overall mileage is more important than the length of my long runs. Do you think a certain length is important (i.e. 20 miles as many suggest)?

I read nearly everything existing about running. I like Weldon Johnson, Kevin Beck and John Kellogg the most. It is my weakness that Iīm changing my training to often. And I think it is my mind what it needs to run a good marathon, itīs just not in my legs! (-: Thatīs why I want to keep it simple and to really listen what my body tells me (this is even harder when getting fitter).

Hope you will keep track on my training, I would appreciate!

I do think that getting up to a 20+ mile run during the training coming into a marathon is important both physiologically and psychologically. It allows your body to adapt to the time on your feet enough to be ready for a 26.2 mile race effort. It allows your mind to find the mechanisms to deal with the time and pain of this race distance. It also allows you to experiment with fueling and hydration strategies necessary to finish a marathon. You should stair step up the long runs and your training progresses, every two to three weeks. 12-15-17-19-20 or some such progression over the last 3 months leading into the race. The long run of 20 miles should be 3 weeks out from the goal race.

Beside the fact that this is a very cool oldschool training blog, the main reason I signed in is to benefit from runners like you. It is hard to argue with the experience of fast runners! (-:

I will give it a try, but without any experiments about fast stuff when going long!?

What do you suggest for tempos? 10 miles MP in the final weeks?

Depending on your plan schedule, that would be good for an alternate weekend effort (say between the 16 and 18 or 18 and 20 milers) or during an early week tempo workout. Also can try to enter races along the way (10K, 15K, Half) if they can fit. Another idea is to use progression long runs (not just easy long pace) to build stamina at race speed. Break a long run into quarters: 1st easy and each quarter increase pace to have the last quarter at goal MP.