Bret

August 26, 2026

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Location:

Milton,GA,USA

Member Since:

Jul 27, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

PR's -

Mile - 4:38    (High School)

2 Mile - 10:12 (High School) 

3 mile - 15:51 (High School)

10k - 35:19 (High School)

Marathon - 2:59 marathon (London -2013)

Half marathon - 1:25:18 (Deseret News 2013)

Completed all 7 of the World Marathon Majors 2025

Completed each of 5 majors (NY, Chicago, Boston, London & Berlin) at least twice. Completing Tokyo in 2024 and Sydney in its inaugural year 2025  

8 x Boston Marathon (1999, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2014, 2020 (virtual due to covid) 2021, 2022)

15 x NYC Marathon (1997, 1998, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025)

50 lifetime marathons (for which I am now retired)

 

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

Sub 3 hour marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

Continue to enjoy running and racing as long as my body permits me.  

Personal:

Old guy - (grandfather even) been running for 40+ years.  

Favorite Blogs:

Ukraine Can Win With Crowdfunded Drones!
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Miles:This week: 21.00 Month: 136.75 Year: 1280.40
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

AM - decided to sign up for a half marathon in December with some friends from church.   Laid out my plans/goals to Chat GPT and we collaborated on a training cycle.  I am kind of excited about this experiment.  Today was day 1 - in which the workout was just 5 miles easy - but using HRR to guide the effort in Zone 2 - between 133 to 143 or 65-73% HRR.  Coincidentally the weather provided a brief respite from the heat and humidity of mid 70's with high dew points in the same range with a pleasant-almost chilly feeling 66 degrees with a dew point of only 54.  The more focused but easy effort resulted in a decent pace per mile in the neighborhood today of around 8:30 per mile and an average HR of 133.   Tomorrow is a workout 3 x 1 mile - which I am debating on whether to do indoors or to go to the Milton HS track or parking lot perimeter for some flat running space. 

Comments
From Rob Murphy on Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 09:03:30 from 163.248.33.245

I have fiddled around with ChatGPT for my bike training. The more data you give it, the better it does.

...which would also be true with a human coach.

From Jason D on Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 11:18:06 from 73.161.42.48

ChatGPT tends to have an affirmation bias, but honestly I have been using it quite a bit and find it helpful in the absence of a coach. It is great for crunching data and will actually reign you in a bit when necessary (somewhat suprisingly).

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