What does it take to run a 3 hour marathon?

Ever since I ran London in 2008 in 3:31:20 I have had a feeling that I could do much better. There have been a number of training false starts, but now I have a lot of time and so the opportunity is there to commit.

But is 3 hours a realistic goal?

Well, a 3 hour marathon essentially means that you need to be able to run it averaging 6:50/mile. I've run 5k at this pace and a half marathon at about 7:30/mile, so this is definitely a huge stretch. But I have a year, so there's plenty of time.

Looking at some of my previous running I think the first stage is to enter into a Hadd training period.
The best Hadd test I've done was in Aug 2010, with:

10.8/9.6/8.5/7.7/6.8
130/140/150/160/170

I believe from the Hadd document, and based on my HRmax of 183-185, that the 160 HR test approximates a sustainable marathon pace (assuming conditioning etc).

This was after roughly 400 miles of training, mainly focused around runs with an average heart rate of between 130-140 and had me at roughly a 3:20-3:25 marathon level.

Therefore I think the right approach, and thus Phase 1, is to begin base training until I return to this level of fitness. I anticipate that with a good level of commitment this will take until at least the end of June.

I also think as a natural consequence of ramping up mileage I should shed some weight. While my current weight of 80.5kg is perfectly fine for someone of my height, losing 3-5kg will make a meaningful difference in pace achievable and in fact I don't drop below 20 BMI until I drop below 70kg.

Things such as target weight and diet are perhaps better addressed after phase 1.

Oops

Apathy, lethargy, trip to clapham, scrabble, sushi, frae = Sunday. No running - oops. Monday a big day for many reasons - wish me luck!

Knee is fixed!

After my laser quest accident last week I have been a) not exercising and b) generally living unhealthily! Well everything in moderation is good for you so they say... Time to hit the streets tomorrow for a few miles and get back to training.

In other news Arsenal finally managed a (somewhat) convincing win against Bolton today. I had forgotten what it was like to walk home happy from a football match. Good times are back -  now we just need to beat Spurs next week!

reality TV

{EAV_BLOG_VER:3fb5f2f88ad567bd}
It rots my brain....

Please return to your seats...

These are turbulent times in the financial markets. Frauds, crises, deficits - the bad news is unrelenting.

We need to turn the corner - where does that begin? Answers on a postcard (or comments page) please!

Want to feel good?

Why do we run? Is it for the solitude, for the peace of mind or for the thrill of competition? Is it healthy to want to run a marathon or a sign of desperation for overachievement? Perhaps it's all of the above and a lot more. All I know is that hurting my knee yesterday denied me the chance to go for a long run this weekend - and that makes me cranky. Roll on the healing process!