Sub-three hour marathon training plan

Just about ready to do the Edinburgh Marathon - desperate for a sub-three hour time.

Learned two things from a failed three hour attempt at York (3:05:05) - (A) Train harder and (B) Take energy gels every 30 mins and not every 45 mins.

This is what my training plan was...

  1. Build up the base fitness
  2. Put in seven hard weeks of good paced increasingly long, long runs
  3. Three weeks of easing it down

Step 1. Build up the base fitness

To do a sub-three hour marathon you have to be a pretty good runner to start with. So the assumption here is that no one would start this plan unless they have a half-marathon time of comfortably within 1hr25. That would be the first milestone before starting this plan.

I did 2-3 months of easy paced 25km (15-16mi) Sunday runs. This was part of a 75-85km (50mi) training week mixing fast sessions with easy sessions.

A typical 25km run was as follows. Around 5:15/km pace, maybe slower if it's hilly. But doing 2-3 months of these every Sunday gives the base that is needed.


Step 2. Put in seven hard weeks of good paced increasingly long, long runs

Then it's a case of moving the distance up from 25km (15mi) to 40km (25mi) on the big training runs in sensible steps. This also increased the training distance - moving to roughly 90km (56mi per week).

I've read a lot about what speed to run these at and also whether to go up to just 36km (22mi). For me, I wanted to push myself hard in training. Marathons are hard. Very hard. So go hard in training was my logic.

My jumps in distance were: 30, 33, 33, 36, 36, 39, 39km (18-24mi) 

...and I ran them at a decent pace - somewhere around 10-15% outside of race pace - 4:30-4:40/km pace (7:15-7:30/mi). I've read up a lot about this and there is some debate about what pace you should run at for long runs when training - but I chose to go pretty hard and test myself here.

Week one - 30km
After a normal training week, the hard effort on the Sunday was a 30km effort with a training partner (PG) along the coastal path from South Shields to Sunderland back to South Shields again. A light breeze from the south helped on the way home. Felt strong until the end.

30km at an average pace of 4:27/km

Week two - 33km
Same again - just stepped up the distance a little bit. Again, lucky with the weather - three training partners this particular Sunday - although we all split up for last 10km at our own pace.
33km at an average pace of 4:27/km

Week three - 33km
Slight uphill on way out and then down all of the way back - on old railway paths. Three of us on this one, maybe all trying to go a little too fast - broke plan a little but good fun on way back.

33km at an average pace of 4:24/km

Week four - 36km
No training partners for week four. Back on the railway path but this time out to West Auckland and back. Felt good, kept the pace just under 4:30/km throughout and the extra 3km (from 33 to 36km) went surprisingly well.

36km at an average pace of 4:27/km

Week five - 36km
This one didn't go to plan. Lesson to learn - let your body recover properly after a big effort. I raced a hard 10km on the Sunday - then went for this 36km effort at decent pace on the Tuesday evening. All by myself too without any training partners. Knew from the start that my legs didn't fancy it - kept the 4:30/km pace until half way then struggled to keep it under 4:50/km for way home - felt awful afterwards when I got home.

36km at average pace of 4:35/km

Week six - 39km
Time to step it up to 39km. But after a tough Tuesday evening decided to drop pace expectations down a little to 'just under 4:40/km'. Ran well, finished really well with a two km around 4:15/km pace. Feeling good after this one. Sunderland and back from Pelton Fell area. Again, having a training partner really helped (CR).

39km at average pace of 4:36/km

Week seven - 39km
Last huge run. Again - set a sub-4:40/km pace but with a bit of an intention to see if my legs could stride out a bit to finish it off. Also, did an extra 500m on way out to take the run up to a nice round 40km. All was good, and managed a 4:10/km for the 39th split which I was happy with.

40km at average pace of 4:36/km

Finally, the timing of things actually had me doing the Sunderland Half Marathon the week after the seven weeks of effort. It turned out that all of the marathon training had had the extra bonus of getting me fitter than ever. So PBs of around 80 minutes for the half marathon. 36 minutes for the 10k and sub 17:30 for a parkrun were all hit over the two month period too!

Step 3. Three weeks of easing down

Basically gave myself three easy days between every session. And made sure the sessions got easier as the big date approached.

Each of these runs was mid-week on the Wednesday - plenty of easy days before and after (maybe a cheeky parkrun effort on the Saturdays).

Wind down run one - 21km at race pace
Had three days of good rest before this one. Treat it like a race in terms of preparation. Wanted to be bang on marathon pace from start to finish without the pace dropping towards the end. As it happened it was a little windy and had an uphill finished - but pleased to keep the pace there or thereabouts. A different training partner again (PA) - good to have 3 or 4 of us all doing the same marathon and all aiming for around the three hour mark!

21km at average pace of 4:09/km

Wind down run two - 16km at race pace
Set out to keep the pace just below 4:15/km but I'd had three easy days before going into this - ended up averaging 4:00/km without feeling like I was pushing it. Away with work in London too - early morning by myself.

16km at an average pace of 4:00/km

Window down run three - 10km at race pace
One last workout before three good day's rest. A controlled run keeping the pace around the 4:10/km mark. Happy to let it drift out a little on the uphill parts so as not to risk any pulled muscles. Felt good to complete the whole training plan - massive cross of the fingers time now that Sunday goes well.

10km at average pace of 4:06/km

ALL DONE!

.Update 30 May 2022 - how did I do? Click below to find out...

https://northeastrunning.blogspot.com/2022/05/edinburgh-marathon-sub-three-hour-effort.html

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