Marathon PB from 3'17" to sub 3 attempt in Berlin

Rusty Cogs 08

First off, this is probably going to be the shortest training log in the history of ART as my sub 3 attempt is in less than 48 hours time in Berlin (BR).

My pb is from Reykjavik Aug '08 (RK) and not long after I decided I'd try to better that in '09. A friend heard about my result and said "it's sub 3 next" and thus the seed was sown.

My only other marathon was back in '97 where I ran 3'50". Back then, the idea of sub 3 was an alien concept. Funnily enough, what was unthinkable at 24 is now a goal at 35.

The purpose of this log really is to explain (as best I can on a lunch break in work) the difference between my approach to 3'17" and sub 3 and maybe those looking for similar improvements can take something from it.

I'm 35 yo male, 6'2"

Training Schedule
For RK I used this http://http://www.runnersworld.ltd.uk/sub3hr.htm which I chose because it was short (14 wks) and RK was 13.5 wks out and because every Friday was a rest day and I figured that would suit my lifestyle better.

For Berlin I used this http://www.roadtoboston.com/djapps/trainingPlans/viewPlan/5/
which is Pfitzinger & Douglas' 55 mpw 18 wk plan, which I choose through recommendations, an achievable mpw level and the fact that it allowed two rest (cross training) days each week.

I had attempted P&D's 70 mpw schedule at the start of the year for Rotterdam, ended up with shin splints and end of attempt.

I actually jumped into the 55mpw schedule on the third week, missed 5 runs from week 3 to 6 and zero runs from week 7 to 18.

Diet
My diet for RK was so so and I would drink most weekends.

For BR I would have 3 Wheatabix for breakfast, coffee at 9am, apple at 11am, two brown bread sandwiches for lunch, coffee at 3pm, plain brown seed bagel & banana at 4pm and then my dinner, after my daily evening run, which was usually spag bol, chicken & rice or meat & potatoes. I have a sweet tooth and would nibble chocolate squares but I rarely ate chocolate bars and by and large, no crisps, no deepfried food (takeaways), no fast food, no pizzas and no chinese or indian takeaways (I would make my own).

In the last 16 weeks I'd say I've drank something like 25 - 30 pints (or equiv).

Weight
At the start of the year I was circa 85kg, I'm now 78kg.

Shoes
RK - trained and ran in Asics Kayanos
BR - trained > 9 miles in Kayanos, <10 in Mizuno Wave Inspire 4's (race in the Mizuno's including the marathon).

Conclusion
If I do go sub 3, what would I base it on.

Better diet leading to better sleep, better training, as well as (beneficial) weight loss. I would endevour to get 8 hours sleep every night.
Better training plan with harder mid week tempo/LT runs and more Sunday LSRs. I lost my BQ attempt in the last six miles of RK where I started to go backwards.
Garmin 405 giving me constructive and motivational feedback during and after runs.
Always hydrate during (>9 miles) and after all runs with a carb mix drink.
Fitter going into my training plan with shorter races in the six months preceeding.
No junk miles

So if I don't go sub 3, what could have been the reason

No cross training, on all those x-training days I didn't do anything (don't swim, don't 'gym' and beneficial cycling midweek takes too much time IMO), however, I don't drive and cycle everwhere which must help.

Too many training runs at too fast a pace. I find recovery runs nearly impossible in that I always run them too fast, thus not allowing the muscles to repair (point of recovery run) but further damaging them.

Not enough stretching and very little warm up/warm down schedules. I'd do 7/8 mintues of the former before and after each run and would rarely warm up/down.

Couldn't cut out coffee, chocolate, alcohol completely.

Very little hill training (practically none), no track sessions & no group sessions.

Berlin Race Day
My strategy is to run the first 21k at 4'12" bringing me through half way at 88'36". I'll run 22k to 35k at circa 4'16". This leaves the last 7.2k @ 4.'16" with 80 secs buffer. I'll carry four Powerade Gels and take them approaching hydration stations 15k,22.5k,28k,36k. I'll probably hit most of the hydration stations throughout, alternating between water and carb drink at each. The plan would be to drink little often.

And that's it (from what I can think of atm). I could have waited to see if my plan worked on Sunday but if it didn't I'd probably post nothing and if it did whatever I posted might have come across a touch conceited.

So all I would ask is, please reserve any training criticism until Sunday as there's not much I can change now and I want to be in the best frame of mind come the race.

Thanks

donothoponpop

Nothing left for it but to break the 3 hour barrier. Best of luck!

osnola ibax

very best of luck, we'll be rootin for ya

donothoponpop

Rusty Cogs 08 wrote: »

Very little hill training (practically none), ...

[

This from the man who powered past me coming to the top of the European Trials uphill only hill race a few months back...

Now where's my pinch of salt...?;)

Rusty Cogs 08

donothoponpop wrote: »

This from the man who powered past me coming to the top of the European Trials uphill only hill race a few months back...

Now where's my pinch of salt...?;)

As dp is one of the few recognisable IMRA/Boardsie runners, I like to stalk behind him for as long as it takes (usually quite a while) to catch half a breath so I can 'power' by him, thus hoping to disuade him from giving chase. Last time he did I ended up with a sprained ankle in the ensuing persuit.

kennyb3

nice of you to go to that effort. a good 'dossing from work' read for me

Gringo78

Best of luck in Berlin. I find other peoples dissections of their training & races extremely useful, thanks, so looking forward to the race report.

asimonov

Best of luck Sunday.

Sosa

Best of Luck Rusty...you have been dedicated and consistent,i hope you get your rewards.
Look forward to hearing your result.

bourne99

Do it!!!!

another world

Nice read... Very best of luck!

misty floyd

The very best of luck. That was a good read and looking forward to your update.

Krusty_Clown

Anyone want to buy a Berlin race number and a sponge?
one way to eliminate the Boards competition. :eek:

Hopefully this log'll be closed off by this time tomorrow.

wizwill

best of luck, your log is very concise, please let us know how you get on.

Abhainn

Best of luck Rusty Cogs 08!

Peckham

Yep, looking good. Very well positioned for sub-3.

Slogger Jogger

Enjoy the experience. Good luck RC.

Bobby04

Very interesting post. The very best of luck tomorrow. Really look forward to the report.

Rusty Cogs 08

3:01:15

First off, sorry for the delay in the race report, I took a week off after Berlin travelling and the OH had had enough of racing/training without me disappearing to write reports.

Here's my splits (with - or + sub 3 pace in brackets)

5k : 21:27 (+7) so that's 7 secs behind sub 3 pace
10k : 42:40 (=0)
15k : 63:54 (-5)
20k : 85:09 (-10)
HW : 89:45 (-15)
25k : 106:26 (-13)
30k : 128:13 (+14)
35k : 149:37 (+19)
40k : 171:42 (+62)
FIN : 181:15 (+75)

So what cost me the sub 3 ?

Organisation
In a sense, I'd missed this sub 3 before I'd crossed the start line. I've ran a fair few races and a couple of marathons. The most you can do to limit the effect of the uncontrolables during a race (weather, crowds, bad race organisation) is to get yourself as organised as possible. You'd think after four months of training I'd have this down to a tee, alas no.

One think I'm not good at is sleeping well before an important run. On those important LSR's or 'personal race condition' runs I'd make sure I got enough sleep. If that meant staying in bed an extra hour before starting out then so be it. This is not a luxery you have with a race, especially a foreign one. Try as I might, I didn't sleep well the night before, nothing particularly wrong with my hotel, I just couldn't sleep. In fairness, I envisaged this happening (which didn't help) and considered getting a separate room from the OH the night before the marathon. Would I have slept any better regardless ? maybe not. Am I the kind of guy who takes his OH on holidays and books her into separate rooms ? I hope not.

I underestimated the size of the event. When I finished Reykjavik in 3:16 I came 36th. The bag drop was in a two room school house 30 yards from the start line. The Berlin 'event area' is massive. I spent a lot of time and stress looking for my bag drop area. By the time I got race ready I literally had to run to the starting pen. These were now completely full so I climbed over a barrier and waited for the start. While waiting I looked around for the pacers, I never saw one then nor out on the course.

I missed BQ at Reykjavik by 57 secs and promised myself a Garmin 405 afterwards so I wouldn't loose track of my pace and goal out on the course. In a strange irony, my religious adherence to this device was partly my downfall in Berlin. I set out to run the first half at 4'12" per km giving me 80 secs to 'lose' in the second half. I stuck religiously to this pace but at 88'40" I wasn't at the half way point. I hadn't factored in the amount of people I'd have to maneuvour around, the amount of corners I'd be forced wide on and the amount of times I moved across the road to run in the shade (I was very nervous about the temp hitting 25 degrees as predicted). So you can see by the split I was only 15 secs ahead rather than 80.

It's at this point that in retrospect, the attempt was lost. I had a second watch on my right hand started at the gun or clock time and my garmin on my left giving me my pace. I essentially ignored the 'clock time' and focused on the garmin and specifically the 'average pace', thinking that once I kept my pace down below 4'16" by the finish I should go sub three. Unfortunatley, my pace started to ebb into what I thought was 'saved' time rather than +3 time. Sitting here typing this, it's hard not to ask, 'why didn't you notice you didn't have the 80 secs at half way and run accordingly' ? Unfortunately, by the 2nd half of the race my mind was just not focused. Constantly watching my step with people around me, looking out for water stations, wondering when to take my next gel, debating whether to drink the 'tea' at the water stops (the first one tried was actually hot tea ???). I also 'caught' up with Krusty Clown somewhere at this point. I couldn't understand why I was catching someone who was running at 3'05" pace. Why were they ahead of me, what pace are they going at, should I be passing them or run with them ?

All of this information just couldn't be processed clearly, all I could to is watch that 'average pace' figure. Of course, as Village Runner has pointed out and it's been mentioned before, in a big marathon you'll end up running over 26.5 miles by GPS in a marathon. My watch actually indicated that I'd ran 'the distance' in 2:59:30 but at that stage I'd hundreds of yards to go and I was too exhausted to do anything about it.

When I finished I forgot to stop my watch so I actually had no idea what time I'd run, I figured it was close but my fear was I'd just missed it. Like Krusty, I actually felt very emotional straight afterwards. All the training and planning and the race itself had completely drained me both physically and emotionally. We're probably lucky not to find each other as two grown men in a tearful clinch might have made it on to next years programme.

When I checked my time later I was relieved that I'd missed it by a 'meaningful' amount and not seconds (which would have had me re-visiting every detail of the race thinking 'what if').

Training
From the account above, you can probably surmise that I think I had the race in me and was defeated by the event (and my approach to it) on the day.

One pain I did have from about mile 13 to 20 is a right hip pain which I sometimes get on really long runs. It didn't really slow me but it did affect my confidence. I had lofty ideas in the first half to run a negative split but this hip pain didn't help that plan. You're going to have to accept these pains as part of long distance running and I've found that they do tend to come and go of their own course so one should try not to dwell on them too much.

The 17 minute improvement was always a tall order and I gave myself a 50/50 chance before the race. I wanted to prove that you could go sub 3 on a 55pw 5 day a week plan. I obviously didn't do that but I don't think you can simply say, 'you need to run 70 miles + pw' or 'run doubles' or 'run every day' or whatever. I've tried the 70 mpw programme and I lasted three weeks before injury so you have to balance what you can accomodate both physiologically, mentally, time wise and life wise.

In closing
I made sacrifices in the last four months to achieve what I did but it's not all about BQ or sub 3 or whatever. All my victories are out there in the efforts I made to push myself harder and further than ever before. I'm disappointed to take 10,875 seconds to lap a city instead of 10,799 but I'll never be so singular to think that margin defines me or what I've achieved.


(an important final note of thanks to Krusty Clown who very kindly picked up my number, met up with me to hand it over, encouraged me during the race, paced me though some hard miles and showed me how to enjoy a big race as it should be enjoyed).

((finally finally, I ran a very nice six miles along the Elbe in Dresden to complete my 1,000 mile challenge. However, that's not the end for me, I'll be back with a new log for a new challenge which will see me attempt new heights in my favourite pastime).

misty floyd

Brilliant stuff Rusty. None of this hard luck bullsh*t. You done brilliant there and a really well written post. Very inspirational in the 'closing' section.

christeb

misty floyd wrote: »

Brilliant stuff Rusty. None of this hard luck bullsh*t. You done brilliant there and a really well written post. Very inspirational in the 'closing' section.

My thoughts exactly

Abhainn

I was excited for you on the "live updates" that Sunday morning.
And then I felt your pain at been so close. It reminded me of myself 51 weeks previous.
Great report

Sosa

Great report Rusty,I too am attempting sub 3 on a 55m per week for 5 days schedule.
Although this week i hope to do 60 before i hit my taper.

Krusty_Clown

A great report, and no bother on collecting the number. I do think that a 55mpw schedule will get you (and me) under the 3 hour mark. I fully intend to start the same 12 week schedule some time in November (after recovering from DCM), with a view to hitting sub-3 in early 2010. The only difference is, I intend on doing the training faster, continuing to watch what I eat (and drink), and hopefully run the marathon on a cooler day. If that's not enough? I'll try something else next year.

Hope the rest of your holiday went well.

Slogger Jogger

Great report Rusty. Lots of positives to take from this race. Hope to see you on the hills before too long.

Racing Flat

Rusty Cogs 08 wrote: »

3:01:15


5k : 21:27 (+7) so that's 7 secs behind sub 3 pace
10k : 42:40 (=0)
15k : 63:54 (-5)
20k : 85:09 (-10)
HW : 89:45 (-15)
25k : 106:26 (-13)
30k : 128:13 (+14)
35k : 149:37 (+19)
40k : 171:42 (+62)
FIN : 181:15 (+75)

So what cost me the sub 3 ?

You've answered the 'what'. The 'where' seems to be 35-40k. Now if someone could find how to prevent that it'd be bottled. Great chunk off the pb, best of luck next time, this run will give you the belief.

Gringo78

Great run, you'll do it next time and as Krusty said, 55mpw does work for you, no need to up the mileage. since you mentioned BQ time, are you now thinking of running Boston?

Rusty Cogs 08

Thanks everyone for their 'thanks' and comments. Gringo, no intention to run Boston atm, it was a vague goal last year when running Reykjavik but missed it by a minute. Turns out I got injured for my planned Spring marathon so it wouldn't have worked out anyway.

Back out tonight for a 6 miler which like Krusty was meant to be a recovery run but turned out to be way to fast. I'll kick off my new log tomorrow for 2009 marathon No. 2

donothoponpop

Well done on Berlin. I pity the fool who gets in your way on the finishing straight next time around- its more a matter of how much under 3 you will go. What spring marathon have you in mind?

mithril

Rusty Cogs 08 wrote: »

3:01:15

One thing I'm not good at is sleeping well before an important run.

I think the person who gets a good night's sleep the night before an early marathon is rare. I did not get a wink of sleep either.
Hal Higdon's view for what its worth, is that it's not the night before which matters but the previous night again, which is more important in terms of marathon preparation.
I don't know the reasoning behind it and I choose to believe it since it's convenient. If getting a good's night sleep is actually important , then worrying about the consequences of not getting it means you are less likely to fall asleep.

wizwill

Well done on your race in Berlin, super effort and super report.