Let’s say 5:15 is my target pace.
Is one scientifically more strenuous on your body than the other, or is it completely down to personal preference?
Wondering if it’s a viable tactic to literally do “intervals/fartlek” through the entire 42km, alternating between 5:00 and 5:30 every km or maybe every 2-3km.
Lately I’ve been losing weight even though I thought I was eating enough.
I don’t want to lose weight, I just want to fuel my training properly.
How do you guys make sure you’re eating enough? Do you track calories or just eat more intuitively?
Would love any feedback on this type of pace strategy, I bonked in my only other marathon attempt. I’ve stacked absolute consistency since January, 40-45mpw for 5 straight weeks, continuing to dial my taper in. I know it will take patience and proper fueling.
My question is the mental approach, it’s terrifying to think running this type of distance and negative splitting but internally I know it’s the proper way or I am risking the bonk. Someone talk me off the ledge 🤣
Just finished off my last easy run before i head for paris tomorrow . Perfect evening for my last easy run and i done 6k easy on a routing route i am over. Week into my taper will be 2 weeks by the time this Sunday comes. And i was looking at the effort and paces from a previous run from feb on the same route you don’t noticed how cooked your legs are during your training until your not doing it any more. The older run i have covered the kilometre’s i didn’t run as it was only 6k 3 out and back and the older one is 6 out and back.
I have added my weekly milage that i did this year and my run from today and my run from February just to show the difference. Today’s run felt like a 3 out of 10 and i put the older run a 3 out of 10 also.
All the best with your marathons.
Hi guys,
So in 2,5 weeks I‘m running the marathon in madrid. This was my last Longrun over 30k in the plan. I just got a Garmin watch so this is the first training I recorded my heart rate in this training phase. I’m male and 25, my HFmax should be around 200. That’s why I feel that this heartrate is kinda high. I had a 33k run the week before without measuring the heartrate and felt way better then.
Do you guys think, 3:25 is doable? I trained with Runna and they predict a time around 3:23 for me
Also I ran my last marathon in 3:42 and feel way better than back then.
First full length marathon in Charleston WV in ~30 yrs, anyone running it? Ironically supposed to be one of the flattest marathons (i think I read somewhere it was <30m?) out there.
Should be really enjoyable, all the bells and whistles out for the inaugural race!
Male, 31, 67Kg, vo2max61(Garmin). Casual runner for the majority of my tweenties. Summer 2024 got surgery and when recovered got a garmin in May 2025.
First race - September 2025 - 10k - 47m (until this mark I ran because I liked it, this race had a click on me and running became challenge oriented - I wanted more)
October 2025 - HM - 1h40
January 2026 - HM - 1h29
March 2026 - HM - 1h22 last week
Since the start of the year I peaked 82km before taper for the March HM. I've had 5 or 6 runs around the 28k-32km - some all easy, some with blocks of different paces.
I'm now 3 weeks out of first marathon. Yesterday had my last long 32k (5k warmup + 2x(1k at 3:55, 1k at 5) + 3x(6k at 4:15 + 1k at 5)+3k cd) - I think my HR was fine along the training. Running at 4:15 - 4:25 has felt ok and somewhat relaxed, but my brain hasn't still figured it out because I think my reasoning/thinking/awareness is affected during running at this pace. I've had situations were I forgot to eat at the planned time.
3 weeks from now the course will be very flat, like half of the elevation of the March HM, but it is a coast zone in a city known for wind. Garmin says 2:54, strava 3:02, I feel like I have the engine to do this, but I also lack of experience, and I think I will find out somehard stuff on the day.
From your experience, how do you see the likelihood of achieving this goal?
In the middle of London marathon training right now and startin to pay more attention to hydration, esp on hotter runs.
Ive noticed on days where Im probably a bit dehydrated or low on electrolytes, my heart rate feels weird and everything just feels harder than it should.
I had an ablation a few years back due to AFib, so I might just be more aware of this stuff, but it got me wondering how much dehydration or electrolyte imbalance can actually affect your heart during training, esp given teh ablation procedure in the past?
I have my first marathon next weekend (1.5 weeks to go) and this week has just been hell. I suffer with a mental health condition and up to this point, running has been great for it. However, peak weeks have really done me dirty. I'm suffering this week with my MH condition and I'm not sure if that is contributing to horrid runs. My main concern is getting my MH condition under control and at the minute I can't tell if runs are helping or making it worse.
I'm considering stopping runs this week / until I feel a bit better and really focusing on sleep and fueling. Would it be a terrible idea leading up to my marathon to do this? I aim to log back in taper week to get in an easy run and pace work. I could even just do a couple easy, short distances this week. I have left intervals, easy and a long (only 14km). Thoughts?
I will be entering a training block for my first marathon in roughly 6 weeks. I am a first time marathoner and would like to incorporate strength training into the program. Specifically, strength training for the legs. I am struggling to understand the best way to do so. I would like to lift twice per week. Do I weight train legs on the same day I run, on days I don't run (which would seem to take away a rest day), alternate strategy? Any guidance is much appreciated.
My first marathon is on 4/18. Began taper here this past weekend. I live in a cooler area and it has only been warm enough for shorts once during my block.
Anyways, my partner and I had a vacation scheduled for this week in Cancun (before I decided on the marathon), but I didn’t really worry about it because I knew I could get the miles in. Plus I figured it’s not a bad thing to get a few runs in in warmer weather in case it is warm on race day.
I’ve done two runs this week, one was a scheduled workout with 4 miles at 8:20 pace. My easy pace is 9:15-10:00. My heart rate and effort is obviously way higher on these runs than normal. My question is, I’m clearly working harder on these runs than intended, is that defeating the purpose of the taper? Should I dial it back?
I’ve been training for my first marathon since beginning of January and my first marathon is in 18 days. Hit my peak long run on this last Sunday at 21miles (split shown). I’ve ran one other 20 miler along with about 4 18milers leading up. I’ve averaged between 35-40 mpw(with the exception of about 2 weeks somewhere in the build due to life circumstances) with peak mileage at 45. This weeks begins my taper. My initial goal was to just finish the marathon confidently but after going through this training, sub 4 was starting to sound achievable. I’m 27M and my last long run shown.
This run certainly didn’t feel like my hardest run despite my HR being pretty high. I’d say this felt right under marathon effort for most of it until the last 2 miles or so (gonna blame nutrition on that one, as i could’ve done better for this run). The 20miler i had the week prior felt like how i would wanna feel for the marathon (also shown).
Do we think i can hang with the sub4 pacer?
Let's talk shop regarding 3 hour marathons on this weekly Wednesday Thread.
How's everyone's training block going, what week are you on and how's the progressions? Post away!
If you were curious on marathon predictions, post recent results screenshot (race, trial, LR. progressions, etc) with a brief description of history, mileage, etc.
Tokyo Marathon - Mid August for two weeks. Legitimate Championship race times, if you're running sub 2:28 and 2:54 you're sub elite in our eyes.
Boston Marathon - 09/08-09/12/2025
London Marathon - Few days before April's race and open for a week.
Sydney Marathon - opens 9/24/2025
Berlin Marathon- Early October-Late November
Chicago Marathon- Tuesday, October 22 to Thursday, November 21
New York Marathon - February-early March
Hello,
New runner here 34 M. I’ve done my first event two weeks ago. I do strength training regularly and usually track my workouts using my Apple Watch. I know the heart rate monitor on wrist devices isn’t 100% accurate, but I had the impression they were not that far off -until now-.
I’ve decided to check some data about my race on Sunday and I can hardly believe my HR was that high. Especially because I feel great during the race, I think I didn’t push hard as I’ve waited too long (km19) to start running faster.
I am aiming to keep running and hope to aim for a <3:30 marathon in September.
Are the Apple Watch monitors that far off? Or was my HR really that high the whole time.
Need some advice as a total novice at marathon distance.
I’ve been training for the London marathon (my first time running that distance)
Started training early October with a solid base block & have been pretty good at sticking to my runna plan other than a week of illness & a few spot runs missed. Overall I’ve been averaging 3-4 runs a week (one long, one tempo, one easy, one intervals work)
Runna has had my target marathon pace at 08:05/mi. I find this challenging but doable when I’m fully locked in.
Two weeks ago I ran a 22 mile run with two blocks at marathon pace (miles 5-9 & 14-20 in the screenshots)
I was supposed to run a 20 miler with 11 miles at marathon pace last week, but pulled out at 13 miles due to tightness in my calf (has fully recovered in 2-3 days)
Marathon is in 18 days, should I:
re-try for 20 miles tonight as a final long run
stick to taper and try to hit 08:05 on the day
pull back slightly and reduce risk of bonking
Any advice appreciated!!!
I’ve run 5 marathons with a coach, and this time I’m on my own. In the past I peaked at 50mpw, and my PR is 3:58. I want to continue cutting time and improving endurance so the last 6 miles suck less. I’m looking at the pfitz 18/55 plan, but the mid-week long run isn’t something I have the time to do most weeks. Any other similar plans you would recommend? Or can I just shorten that run and stick with the rest of the plan?
I'm gutted I'm in this position and not sure what to do from here. I ran my final long run (20 miles) this weekend but have been bed bound ever since. I'm on a 10 day course of antibiotics so hopefully I'll be feeling improved enough to do some light exercise to check in with my body but I'm finding it hard not to go into panic mode. Any advice?
Hey everyone — I’ve got the OC Marathon coming up in 4 weeks and Strava is predicting a 4:28 finish.
I did this run after a pretty stressful day at work and honestly wasn’t even mentally locked in going into it. I just went out and got the miles done. Surprisingly, it felt really solid, and I finished feeling like I could’ve held that pace for quite a bit longer.
Greetings, all! I’m flying to France this fall for a marathon in Lyon. Searching earlier threads on this forum answered my question about scheduling arrival to get over jet lag.
But now i find that there are no nonstop flights from my area (NYC) to Lyon. i’m worried about possible delays or cancellations when dealing with second flight. Choices are to either:
Take a one stop and hope for the best;
Take a direct flight into Paris and then take high speed rail to Lyon.
Let me know your thoughts.
I have been looking for a solution to wanting to have a "pace band" setup without needing to write on my arm or have something else on my wrist. This could be the only thing you use, or in my case a backup if the GPS is off, I miss a split exactly with the "Race Screen" app, or anything else weird happens on race day for my split times. Trying to fix tech issues on race day, during the race, is not something I enjoy.
We have a computer strapped to our arm so it should be easy enough right? Not finding a solution, but finding a data field I could use to throw in some simple code, I came up with something I think people could find useful.
First you need to add this data field from Connect IQ
https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/fd690281-9c22-4fee-a81e-3b7f39aa67c5
Then, in the settings for the data field, there is a line for a formula. Essentially, this data field acts kind of like excel in that you can write custom formulas using the data the watch has access to. In this case I just use the lap count (If you use Km splits, you just need to add the splits out to that number of laps). Whether you auto-lap or manually lap at the marker, this will give you what your total time should be to hit your goal time as you physically cross the next marker (Not your GPS distance), just like the pace bands or charts on the pacers sign.
Below is the formula I created for my upcoming 3:30:00 goal.
ifs (lapcount lt 1, "8:01" , lapcount eq 1, "16:01" , lapcount eq 2, "24:02" , lapcount eq 3, "32:02" , lapcount eq 4, "40:03" , lapcount eq 5, "48:03" , lapcount eq 6, "56:04" , lapcount eq 7, "1:04:05" , lapcount eq 8, "1:12:05" , lapcount eq 9, "1:20:06" , lapcount eq 10, "1:28:06" , lapcount eq 11, "1:36:07" , lapcount eq 12, "1:44:07" , lapcount eq 13, "1:52:08" , lapcount eq 14, "2:00:09" , lapcount eq 15, "2:08:09" , lapcount eq 16, "2:16:10" , lapcount eq 17, "2:24:10" , lapcount eq 18, "2:32:11" , lapcount eq 19, "2:40:11" , lapcount eq 20, "2:48:12" , lapcount eq 21, "2:56:13" , lapcount eq 22, "3:04:13" , lapcount eq 23, "3:12:14" , lapcount eq 24, "3:20:14" , lapcount eq 25, "3:28:15" , 1 , "3:30:00")
If that's your goal too, just copy paste into the formula section in the data field settings.
If that's not exactly your goal, you can either manually change the times using a pace band calculator or pace pro to get the splits (also allows you to positive/negative split). The formula is set up so the first argument is (lapcount lt (less than) 1, "display time", lapcount eq (equals) 1, "display time"...and so on for each lap until you get to 26 (or 42 for Kms). The last argument (in this case "1,"3:30:00"") does not need the lap count but rather just 1 for "anything else" and your final time. Though, at that point in the race I don't think you care about much beyond get to the line.
The other option, which I've tested and has worked well for even splits, is to throw this prompt into ChatGpt. (changing to get some specific positive or negative split or changing to Km is possible but I haven't tested specific prompts). Just change 4:00:00 to whatever your goal time is.
"The following formula was created to display even mile splits for a 3:30:00 marathon. Could you modify this formula to display even mile splits for a 4:00:00 marathon? ifs (lapcount lt 1, "8:01" , lapcount eq 1, "16:01" , lapcount eq 2, "24:02" , lapcount eq 3, "32:02" , lapcount eq 4, "40:03" , lapcount eq 5, "48:03" , lapcount eq 6, "56:04" , lapcount eq 7, "1:04:05" , lapcount eq 8, "1:12:05" , lapcount eq 9, "1:20:06" , lapcount eq 10, "1:28:06" , lapcount eq 11, "1:36:07" , lapcount eq 12, "1:44:07" , lapcount eq 13, "1:52:08" , lapcount eq 14, "2:00:09" , lapcount eq 15, "2:08:09" , lapcount eq 16, "2:16:10" , lapcount eq 17, "2:24:10" , lapcount eq 18, "2:32:11" , lapcount eq 19, "2:40:11" , lapcount eq 20, "2:48:12" , lapcount eq 21, "2:56:13" , lapcount eq 22, "3:04:13" , lapcount eq 23, "3:12:14" , lapcount eq 24, "3:20:14" , lapcount eq 25, "3:28:15" , 1 , "3:30:00")"
It will spit out the formula with all the times changed so all you need to do is copy paste. (THIS is a good use of AI, unlike many other things we see here)
Let me know if you have any questions, ideas, or issues. I tested through every lap and it works perfectly so now I always have what my total time should be when I pass my next course marker with nothing extra on race day and as a good backup to other watch issues.
