UKH

Dear All,

I have run a few marathons now, a mixture of trail and road. My times vary a fair bit and I am not that bothered about the times on the whole. However, I have entered the Amsterdam marathon for a second time--it is lat October--and thought I might try for a quicker time. My best is 3.24 and I was hoping to get under 3.15 perhaps. I don't have any method to my training, I just go out and have a good time. I thought if I applied myself this once, it might do some good.

Ok, that said, has anyone got a schedule or any advice on improving? Many thanks.

Any structured training plan (many available on the internet) would help I guess. If you enjoy trail runs etc. I'd make sure some of the training runs (perhaps some easy/steady ones and every other long run) are still on terrain you find fun so you at least enjoy some of the training.

One pointer - getting a road marathon PB involves pounding tarmac for 26.2 miles at a (hopefully) fast pace. I'd make sure your legs are used to some tarmac pounding at marathon pace as part of the training, hence some of the faster training runs and every other long run (not all at marathon pace though) are on similar terrain.

Good luck! I've tried and failed to go sub 3:15...got pretty close but no cigar - feel it was doable if the stars had aligned. Sadly, injuries, over-training, nutrition, conditions etc. got in the way. All part of the fun!

Marathon improvement usually shows a pretty strong correlation to training miles. What is your current mileage? What is your usual marathon training mileage.

There's all sorts of stuff on the web but one thing you could try is just practicing running faster.

A couple of times a week run at say a 3:10 pace for maybe 6 miles and if that goes OK gradually increase the distance.

1) More Mileage - target at least 4 runs a week all >10km

2) Train at Race Pace - run a couple of your weekly runs at race pace, if you can't routinely do it for a half you have no hope in the full.

3) Recovery runs - after each hard day do a recovery run at a really easy pace 

4) Hard sessions should be exactly that - the second half should not be enjoyable...

have you used a heart rate monitor during any of your training?

If not thats worth considering as it allows you to manage how hard your body is working rather than how fast you feel you are going, and is pretty much irrespective of the distance involved.

There is a basic calculation as to what your upper and lower limits should be such as -

https://www.heartmonitors.com/blogs/news/38044801-heart-rate-training-zone-...

I usually use 140-160bpm as an aerobic zone which keeps things simple.

Don't know why we are giving advice to someone who can run 3:24 without any specific training (grrr).

Get a sense of how many runs a week you can do without injuring yourself (for me it's 3). If this is too few to get the serious mileage then look at cross-training.

Personally I don't do recovery runs because for me the limiting factor is stress on my knees which they just add to. Instead I do swimming or reasonably gentle cycling.

The many available plans are definitely a good place to start from.

I am not an exercise professional.

Mix long runs with some dedicated track sessions.

Find a decent running track. Might sound boring but practice at your race pace or faster. Easy to bail out if you start to feel an injury or tiredness, nothing worse than being five miles from home and crocked. Get to know what your desired pace feels like. Have liquid at the side of the track, so you can experiment with hydration , no need to carry any. Also on a track you should know the precise distance, I saw a lot of exaggerated training run pace claimed, that couldn't be reproduce in a race.  

Get someone to join you, share the training load. I knew someone who trained solely on a track as miles on the road caused foot problems, he was well under three hours for his first marathon, I regularly joined him for his track sessions.

John

As advised above, there's plenty on the internet. Find a plan that appeals to you but don't get enslaved; everyone has to find out what's best for them personally.

I did almost exactly the same as you: 1st marathon 3:31; for the second I trained for 3:15 and ran 3:24. My main advice would be not to increase the mileage by more than 10% a week, and to make sure that every 4th week ist gentler in terms of both total mileage and intensity. I tried to push it too much, and had tendon problems during the last 2-3 weeks before the marathon as a result.

Good luck!

Dear All,

Thank you for you advice and insights; it has helped a lot. 

Regards

Just to add to the already good advice: nothing has improved my running times at all distances as much as getting down to racing weight and increasing mileage. Unless you are already lean and run 5 days a week, these are the easiest ways of getting faster. 

Just to add to this. 

Training harder and better is the obvious choice. 

But don't neglect race strategy. 

I'm convinced I lost 5 minutes by getting caught up in crowds during the start of the race and not running at my correct pace.