Breaking the Wall

Sasha - I was thinking out your "neural drive" issue. Have you tried any tests with caffeinated GU products?

I have run tests in past races and noticed a significant difference with feeling engaged and aggressive.

I'm in the same boat but about a minute behind. Right now female OTQ is 6:22 pace, but they will likely tighten and not continue A and B for women, at least not an 8 minute spread. Assuming they tighten to just 2:45, that would then be 6:18 pace, and I would definitely need to feel comfortable at 6:00 pace, perhaps for as long as 7 miles, to be able to ensure a flat 2:45 marathon. I do think you need to work on your speed, but the question is what's the best way for a marathoner to improve speed? I would think longer intervals (1000 to 1 mile) would be part of the answer.

Sasha, do you have a group going long on Saturday? I'd like to go 2 hours at 8:20-8:30 pace, maybe a little quicker the last 1-2 miles (that may be too slow for anyone). Also, I've got a few ideas on neural drive.

Steve - I am opposed to caffeine for a number of reasons. Aside from the Word of Wisdom implications, or perhaps not aside but to go along with it, caffeine instead of fixing the root cause of a low neural drive instead temporarily overrides the symptoms. And you pay for it later. If you keep using it eventually you will not be able to get your normal neural drive without caffeine. Not to mention the side effects of caffeine use such as irritability and insomnia. About the last thing I need is a drug that makes me more impatient.

Michelle - what I noticed in my experience. Short intervals work on short speed. When I worked out with BYU team in 2001, I noticed an interesting pattern. The staple workout was 3 or 4 times 1600. And almost everybody could do them under 5:00. Yet very few could run a 5 K at that pace. The 5 K they raced went like this - they would go through the first mile under 5:00 just like in the workout. Then all of a sudden there was an abrupt drop to about 5:15-5:20 pace. I see this pattern at every college meet.

On the other hand, I noticed another pattern. If a guy is ahead of me at the mile in any race 5 K or longer, that is not necessarily a problem. However, if he is still ahead at 1.5 with the same or greater margin than he was at the mile, that is a much bigger problem. With rare exceptions, he is pretty much gone. The only exceptions to that in my entire racing history involved a very long race (half marathon or longer), and the guy ran out of fuel.

So my thought is - if you can train your body make it to 1.5 at a steady dream pace when it believes it will have to go past that point without much of a slowdown, you are over a major hurdle. I would say you've got 95% of the dream pace down, you just need the aerobic base and the fuel to make it sustainable for the whole marathon.