Leafing through rec.running, I read Ignoramus32597's message of 14 Oct
2004:
Quoted message said:I calculated that if I run the marathon at the speed of my two last
5.6 mile runs, I will do it in just under 4 hours. What this means to
me is that my goal is not terribly impossible, although, obviously,
much more work is needed.i
I don't mean to drive this thing into the ground. Oh, what the heck,
let's drive this thing into the ground. Until you run some races, you
can't really tell for sure how you're doing. Most plans call for a few
tune-up races during the last 2 months of training, up to 3 weeks pre-
marathon. Personally, I would do a 10K within the next month just to
test your fitness. Then you can better judge where your training paces
should be. You need a sub 51:00 10K, sub 1:26 10 mile, and/or a sub 1:54
half marathon. So if you ran a 10K next week with a time of 53:00, that
doesn't mean that you still can't run a sub 4. By the time you put in the
training and do your tune-up races, you will have improved and most
likely could run a sub 51:00 10K.
If you could race those times that just means that if you have trained
appropriately for the marathon distance (weekly mileage, long runs, lt,
vo2, etc.) then you could *hope* for a 4 hour marathon. But until you
actually run the marathon, you'll never know what evil lurks beyond mile
20.
Phil M.
--
"What counts in battle is what you do once the pain sets in." -John
Short, South African coach.