As my first marathon gets closer (May 17), the anxiety and doubt continues to climb. I want to achieve a sub-4 marathon, and did my best to tailor all the training around that goal. However, the more I read the more I question if I did enough.
I followed the Hal Higdon Intermediate 1 plan, running all 5 days every week. The changes I made to the plan were added an interval or tempo run each week, and my long runs were longer than the week called for as I started the plan further ahead on long runs. Most of the runs called for a Z2 pace (10:15 for me), I struggle with seeing this translate to a strong full under 4-hours.
I am now beginning the taper so not much I can change now, but would love to hear your experience and the reality of me achieving sub-4. Did I do enough?
6 weeks ago I finished a half marathon in 1:44, have done 2, 20 mile runs, and 1, 22 mile run. For each of the 20+ mile runs, I would start around 10:15, and finish the last 8-10 miles at or better than 9:09 pace. For example, this last weekend, my 20 mile run averaged 10:14 for the first 10 miles, and 8:48 for the last 10, and honestly I could have pushed on for at least 3 more miles. I’ve also ran 5x a week for last 18 weeks.
As the reality of the race gets closer, and the taper is here, I’m spiraling that I’m so far from my sub-4 goal.