Oh, Internet friends. I really want to kick the shit out of my first marathon.
Everyone says you should just focus on finishing your first 26.2, but my training has been going very, very well. For example, I bounced back from a miserable illness to run 18 miles at a 9:40 pace. I ran 14 miles at a 9:11 pace while hungover (but don’t try that at home). I’ve had one horrible long run, but pretty much all my other runs have been awesome.
So I’m thinking I should expect a little more of myself than to just finish.
I also won’t be running another marathon for a while (for reasons to be explained soon), so I want this one to be really freakin’ awesome. At the same time, I don’t want to be stupid and burn myself out and either finish miserably or not finish at all.
I’m just starting to think about what my goal should be and what I might be capable of…
* Obviously I want to finish in under 4:30, which is the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas course time limit. I think this is very doable, barring unforeseen disasters.
* Theodora, whose general training pace seemed to be on par with mine, just ran NYC in 4:19.
* And the Runner’s World pace predictor thingy projects everything from a 3:59 (based on my 5K PR) to a 4:19 (based on my recent 18-miler).
I think it’s reasonable to aim for a 4:15 finish (9:44 pace). I’ve done many of my long runs at 9:40ish already, and I’ll see if I can manage that for my 20-miler this Sunday!
With this goal in mind, I did a Yasso 800 workout on the treadmill Monday night. Runner’s World guru Bart Yasso says that the amount of time it takes a person to run 800 m can predict his marathon finish time; therefore, one can train for a certain finish time by running 800 m repeats at a certain pace.
If I want to run a 4:15 marathon, I need to run 800 m (half a mile) in 4 minutes and 15 seconds — that’s 8:30 pace. This was Monday’s workout:
* 1 mile warmup — 9:30 pace
* 4 x 800 — 8:27 pace, with 800 m recovery at 9:40 pace in between
Total workout: 5 miles, 45:45 (9:09 pace)
I guess I was supposed to do 4 minutes and 15 seconds worth of recovery jogging rather than 800 m, but it was easier for me to keep track of the distance than the time on the treadmill. This was by far the sweatiest treadmill workout I’ve ever done, but it went by a lot faster and felt better than plodding along at a steady pace the whole time.
Tonight, I hit the gym for a quick strength training session after two-and-a-half weeks off from lifting, and I definitely felt the burn (in a good way). I’m gonna try hard to stick to my training plan, including lifting, for these last few weeks to help me reach my marathon goal!
What do you guys think about aiming for a 4:15 finish for my first marathon? Reasonable or impractical? I always like to err on the side of dreaming big!
Dev on Running 