Hi Athletes,
I will try very hard to be brief but as I am neurodivergent I tend to ramble. I am at a plateau and need help from wiser minds in pushing to Sub-3 hour marathons. I know I am not doing the 70-110 miles a week other runners I know are sustaining and would love to get there but I think I have other challenges. I have the time for mileage but I don't know if I can manage the load.
Training History
I am a 55 year old male averaging 32 miles per week but I managed to hit 45 miles before the marathon. Highest mileage week ever was 49 miles (rebounding from a low mileage injury week). I've been running regularly (minus injury and illness) for almost 10 years after getting fat and unhealthy (BMI now near the top of healthy range). I have had more than my fair share of injuries.
For most of my time running I've just gone out and plodded at 9-10 minute miles and done some parkruns and races for "speed" but after a surprise improvement in Marathon time I decided to up my game. Knowing that attempts to follow Hanson/Pfitzinger/etc. in the past had got me injured and that I struggle to up my overall mileage and also struggle to run fast on my own I set up my target race in my Garmin and trained for Boston thinking that Sub-3 was realistic based on a 1:25 half marathon in 2025 and a 3:04:49 at Manchester. I used the daily suggested workouts with longer long runs, a couple of races and a few park runs substituted.
Due to a litany of illnesses and illnesses I lost a lot of fitness in January and February. So I arrived at Boston only having ran 3x20 miles (but 5 other >16 mile runs) all ran at 8-9:30 minute miles not wanting to embarrass myself after a few days at home following a skiing holiday. Garmin was predicting 3:17 and I had no idea of what I would get. I had ran two half marathons before Boston and they were slower than before my illness at 1:27 and 1:26 and my watch reported VO2 max was about 3 points lower than last year at 54. My actual result whilst no better than the previous year was better than I could have reasonably expected:
| 01/10/23 | Loch Ness Marathon | Marathon | 03:19:53 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15/04/24 | Manchester Marathon | Marathon | 03:11:26 |
| 29/09/24 | Loch Ness Marathon | Marathon | 03:10:58 |
| 27/04/25 | Manchester Marathon | Marathon | 03:04:49 |
| 28/09/25 | Loch Ness Marathon | Marathon | 03:06:15 |
| 20/04/26 | Boston Marathon | Marathon | 03:04:56 |
Boston
I started well at Boston feeling I was taking it too easy but I couldn't sustain the pace and while my legs felt fine I was running on empty after Heartbreak Hill.
Boston Splits:
| Mile | Pace | GAP | Elev | HR | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6:49 /mi | 6:56 /mi | -98 ft | 137 bpm | 162 spm |
| 2 | 6:41 /mi | 6:48 /mi | -67 ft | 146 bpm | 162 spm |
| 3 | 6:50 /mi | 6:57 /mi | -67 ft | 144 bpm | 162 spm |
| 4 | 6:41 /mi | 6:54 /mi | -98 ft | 145 bpm | 162 spm |
| 5 | 7:03 /mi | 6:39 /mi | 50 ft | 145 bpm | 162 spm |
| 6 | 6:44 /mi | 6:38 /mi | -20 ft | 148 bpm | 164 spm |
| 7 | 6:43 /mi | 6:38 /mi | -16 ft | 149 bpm | 154 spm |
| 8 | 6:55 /mi | 6:43 /mi | 6 ft | 148 bpm | 162 spm |
| 9 | 7:05 /mi | 6:55 /mi | -9 ft | 146 bpm | 162 spm |
| 10 | 7:14 /mi | 7:04 /mi | 10 ft | 145 bpm | 162 spm |
| 11 | 6:57 /mi | 6:37 /mi | 41 ft | 149 bpm | 164 spm |
| 12 | 7:05 /mi | 7:03 /mi | -43 ft | 145 bpm | 164 spm |
| 13 | 7:05 /mi | 6:53 /mi | 9 ft | 147 bpm | 164 spm |
| 14 | 6:53 /mi | 6:45 /mi | -24 ft | 150 bpm | 162 spm |
| 15 | 7:09 /mi | 6:55 /mi | 19 ft | 149 bpm | 162 spm |
| 16 | 6:54 /mi | 7:03 /mi | -105 ft | 146 bpm | 164 spm |
| 17 | 7:12 /mi | 6:50 /mi | 66 ft | 151 bpm | 164 spm |
| 18 | 7:05 /mi | 6:48 /mi | 26 ft | 157 bpm | 162 spm |
| 19 | 6:57 /mi | 6:57 /mi | -30 ft | 154 bpm | 162 spm |
| 20 | 7:19 /mi | 7:05 /mi | 19 ft | 154 bpm | 162 spm |
| 21 | 7:46 /mi | 7:13 /mi | 98 ft | 154 bpm | 160 spm |
| 22 | 6:51 /mi | 6:57 /mi | -93 ft | 157 bpm | 164 spm |
| 23 | 6:57 /mi | 6:53 /mi | -32 ft | 157 bpm | 164 spm |
| 24 | 6:58 /mi | 6:54 /mi | -49 ft | 159 bpm | 164 spm |
| 25 | 7:08 /mi | 7:12 /mi | -45 ft | 161 bpm | 166 spm |
| 26 | 7:13 /mi | 7:06 /mi | -10 ft | 162 bpm | 164 spm |
| 0.41 | 6:40 /mi | 6:09 /mi | 24 ft | 166 bpm | 158 spm |
Recent Races
These are the races that I have ran this year. I really messed up the 10K by picking up an injury but I hope I have learned to be a more conservative in my race scheduling.
| 08/03/26 | Inverness Half Marathon | Half Marathon | 01:27:15 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14/03/26 | Cupar 5 Mile | 5 Mile | 00:31:46 |
| 22/03/26 | Alloa Half Marathon | Half Marathon | 01:26:15 |
| 29/03/26 | Tom Scott 10 Mile | 10 Mile | 01:05:38 |
| 20/04/26 | Boston Marathon | Marathon | 03:04:56 |
| 26/4/26 | Round the Houses | 10K | 00:40:01 |
Questions
I am running the Berlin Marathon in September and I really want to up my game and get that Sub-3 hour marathon. I have asked AI and it says that fuelling is my problem (5-6 regular gels during a marathon isn't enough for me it says) and it also suggests race pace runs. Garmin didn't ever suggest that I did proper race pace efforts it just gave me intervals on occasion. I feel the lack of tempo runs and perhaps long runs ending with some race pace are what I need. I would love to run more weekly mileage but I struggle to build mileage without injury.
What training will enable me to sustain my pace for longer?
Is it tempo runs or should I become injury adverse and stop the intervals and focus on building weekly mileage?
Do I need to take more gels? I have bought a selection of higher calorie gels to experiment in training. I intend to start fuelling my long runs.
Thank you lovely runners,
Goremanghast