Sub 3 hour marathon – it’s on!

Last week I booked and paid for two races. The City to Surf and the Sydney Marathon.

City to surf I will finish in sub 55mins and qualify for a preferred start next year.

The Marathon I will run in sub 3 hours.

Coming into the Canberra Marathon I had no structured training plan, just did the two HuRTS sessions in the week and a long run on the weekend. But I feel that to break 3 hours I need to get more scientific. I’m going to sit down and write a program today, and here are the main changes I want to make:

1) Long Runs – speed them up from 6min/kms to 5min/kms
2) Add a medium long run on Wednesday mornings where I maintain marathon pace of 4.15min/km. Start at 10km and build this up to over 20km
3) Add a brick run off the weekend long bike ride where I work in a bunch of hill repeats. I figure running hills on pre-fatigued legs has to be a good strengthener
4) Increase total weekend mileage to between 80 and 110kms. I also intend to increase my bike riding to 200-300kms per week, so between these two I should have enough mileage in my legs.

Alright it’s on, let me get the pad and draw up the plan!