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Sub 2:12 marathon - Can I do it?
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●140miles per week
●2-3sessions/day
●sub-29min 10k
●track sessions such as 8x1k in 2:45 with 2mins recovery
●sub-31min 10k tempo runs
●strict diet
●sleep
●some altitude training
●loads of determination
●slow steady buildup
●watch for injuries - get any sorted out straight away
●watching for overtraining
●break 34mins for 10k in 1st year
thanks Nick and Nessie, anyone want to add to the list?
get a job that allows plenty of rest and flexibility
don't have any kids
a large private income or sponsorship for all the trainers and other gear you will get through, regular physio etc. This relates to interim targets. Prove your worth with a time that makes sponsors notice then get the financial support you'll need for 2:12
Set yourself goals. Short term. Medium term. Long term.
Get a diary for 2004 and write in pencil every session that you intend to do for EVERY DAY of the whole year. As you go through the year write down in pen what you actually did. Try to write down everything you can about your running and how you felt - and anything else important that happened that day that may have affected, positively or negatively.
Be inspired. Read, not just about the science of training, but about the great characters and runners of the past. Learn the history of the sport. Get hold of the biographies of the best British athletes Gordon Pirie, Ron Hill, Brendan Foster, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, etc. You should also read about Zatopek, Clarke, Walker, Snell and so on.
Substitute the word 'preparation' for 'training'. When you line up for a race, how you will run is a product of not simply your running but your preparation. From now on, everything that you do in your life has three possible outcomes. The two most common outcomes will be either a positive effect on your running, or a negative effect - though sometimes it will have a neutral effect. Finding out how every action in your life affects running is not always easy...
Great post..
●140miles per week
●2-3sessions/day
●sub-29min 10k
●track sessions such as 8x1k in 2:45 with 2mins recovery
●sub-31min 10k tempo runs
●strict diet
●sleep
●some altitude training
●loads of determination
●slow steady buildup
●watch for injuries - get any sorted out straight away
●watching for overtraining
●break 34mins for 10k in 1st year
●interim targets/(short/medium/long term goals)
●get a job that allows plenty of rest and flexibility
●don't have kids
●Set a diary of every session for the year, and pen them in when I've done them - Write down everything that affected each session, ie, holistic approach to training - everything in life has either +ve, -ve, or 0 effect
●Be inspired - read about the legends, not just sport science
●get to a level that attracts sponsorship first
●preparation, not training
thanks Nick, Nessie, barnsleyrunner and bazza. That looks like a good list, although if anyone can add to it, please do, and thanks!
You seem too preoccupied with a far off goal and are not doing what is important now. Get yourself down to a club and try and see what you can do at a moderate level. If things go well then is the time to be looking at a regional vest, and take each step as it comes.
I'll be honest, I don't think you've got much change, maybe 5% AT BEST. Almost without exception the very fastest runners over every distance came through the ranks from being good juniors, stepping up the distances as they went. It's all very well you shunning the need to run a quick mile time, but unless you can run the fast times over the short stuff you'll never be able to hold it together over the longer distances.
(and that's your only race ?)
But your favourite race according to your profile is a Marathon ?
How do you know this ?
I really think you are aiming waaaaaay too high waaaay too soon. To say that a 2.12 isn't that hard as it's 7 minutes off the WR is a massive misunderstanding.
Even if you kept your 5k pace up for a whole marathon - you are more than 52 minutes off your goal.
Until you have really run properly and suffered in a few races, I think it's too simplistic to set such an ambitious goal.
As others have said - go for the intermediate targets first. And I'd have kept the dream of a 2.12 marathon close to my chest.
Maybe one day, but you have done so little and it's a hell of a long way to go.
Sorry ! But good luck anyway.
I too dream of it - surely many (most?) of us do. I too keep such things close to my chest - but he hasn't and has given us a VERY interesting thread. I agree the odds are tiny at best, but what a journey..! Just trying...
Let's not knock the dreamer and keep the comments constructive - I know many are looking at this thread and thinking "what if"...
I hope he or someone else on the forum becomes the next Steve Brace. When your dreams die, so does part of you...
Very profound Pantman.
I just would have thought that he'd have had a bit more experience of running first.
It's easy to dream and say yes - I want to cycle 25 miles in an hour or whatever, and lots of people can if they train, and that's hard enough. Lots of people can't do it.
But to ride 32 miles in an hour is about a million times harder. And that's what this would be.
RR - don't underestimate the challenge that you have set for yourself. It will be all consuming - leaving little time for a 'normal life'. Can you make all that sacrifice for many a year. I certainly know that I couldn't, so hats off to you.
Bang go my dreams. And that was a little one. ;-)
Isn't it funny that the things you want really badly always seem to ellude you, whereas things others may want, you don't usually appreciate... The 100 post as a parable of life...
Off to bed, methinks...
But I still think that approaching it this way, if you are serious and prepared to the work, is more likely to get close than the standard doing your best in one marathon and then think about the next.
The reason I take such interest in this thread is that I personally believe that while genetics clearly limit our limits, they are not as limiting as most people consider them. I would love Fartlek Fleck or anybody else here to prove me right...
That's not much to do with genetics - that's sheer determination and she did develop that with time from her early days when she just seemed to enjoy running.
And that's another aspect. Do you enjoy the running or the dedicated training - as they aren't the same thing at all.
If you read all the bios about Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter or Zatopek, then you realise that they were already strong (not the best!) runners as juniors running easily sub 10 minutes for 2m. Even from there all had to train 10 more years to be able to run a sub 2:15hrs marathon, Zatopek didn't even got there.
Make me even more wonder when I read that Moses Tanui won of the greatest Kenyan runners finished the Amsterdam marathon in around 2:11hrs. He won twice Boston before and won Olympic medals! Even he struggles to get such a time!
Paula's case is in my opinion more an exception. She was good runner two years ago and turned only then into the best runner with increased training and turning into a full time professional runner. Female runners in Africa still have a hard time due to their role in society. If the African nation would produce the same amount of female as male runners, Paula would be despite her intensity only be mediocre.
Just checked the results of the major marathons, most of them have been won by Kenyans or other African countries (Boston, NYC, World Champ, Chicago, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, London, Olympics, Paris, ...)
Not so sure with the discussion on genetics. In my opinion, in order to achieve greatness you have to be embedded in a running/society culture. There is a great tradition of running in the UK, however I don't think running has the same importance as say football.
Go spend a year in Kenya or Ethipia, befriend Tergat or Bekele, and start training with them...
Why the marathon?
It is hard to know if that distance will suit or not if you havnt done near to it before. but i suppose its a event that you ca excel in as you get older
Secondly
be prepared for doubt from others alog the way
it can really drag you down
lets just say my dream of becoming a hospital consultant was not supported at home
my relationship with my parents has never been the same
are you prepared to accept that too?
good luck
Pantman - I agree with you (as usual). If our young guinea pig is inspired to be the best that he can be then that is an amazing thing. And if others looking in pick up some ideas, then all the better.
RoadRunner - what were doing up after midnight? Go to bed!
URR - There are a number of examples of guys who have started running later in life and achieved great things; Paul Evans, Steve Brace, Keith Anderson and more. While reaching international standard is obviously very difficult I could easily reel off a long list of names of guys who started running in their 20s and 30s and ran very respecable times, e.g. 2:20-2:40 for the marathon. The minute you start getting hung up about genetics you're creating barriers for yourself and others. The reason why so many Kenyans are winning marathons is as much to do with the fact that 'non-Africans' have pretty much given up on the sport as it is to do with the talent and hard work of the Kenyans themselves.
Run, eat, rest, run, eat, rest, sleep... Run, eat, rest, run, eat, rest, sleep... Run, eat, rest, run, eat, rest, sleep... repeat ad infinitum...
Piece of cake!
Until you do that you'll never have an idea of what it means to run a marathon and be able to decide if you really want to make a 2.12 marathon the focus of your life. You may love it but you may also hate it.
I can understand the enthusiasm of a 20 year old wanting to do his very best in something but surely you should have an idea of what that something entails before making that decision.
I don't want to sound disparaging but I really think that you should do the above, or at least a half marathon, before making such a momentuous decision. I stopped competitive running at 19 because I realised that I would never get to even national class levels. At that time (1970's) I was running 1500 in 4' 20" and 800m in 2' 10". At the time it was a tough decision but I know now that it was correct and I've had a great life doing lots of other things.
Tell me to go to hell if you like, but this is advice from a now middle aged bloke who now loves marathon running as a hobby.
I agree with Pantman though (as always) - you should follow your dreams - just make sure that they are the right ones.
To give yourself the chance you need to buy a ticket. ( In other words start training! )
The people you are speaking to you are already runners striving towards their goals, and just how many of these runners have achieved have reached 2.12. I am sure that we would all love to run that time and all of us trying to get faster and many of us dream of reaching world class levels. So they are already ahead of you in the race to achieve this.
I advise doing something which the others are not doing ie train harder than anyone else.
You have got give a reasonable starting point to assess where you go next, 22mins 5k and no training is not it!
My girlfriend doesnt train and she got 20mins 5k! Now if she achieved sub 3hrs after years of training that would be a great achievment!
There are thousands of people with faster times than you so how are you going to surpass them let alone get to their level with just talking.
Anyway, my advice to you is:
a) read forum on running for beginners
b) ask peoples advice after getting some background training on pointers on how to get faster
c) seriously reconsider your targets ie short term.. actually training and what it feels like and long term... breaking 3 hours
d) Frank Horwill coach to Tim Hutchings ( 4th in olympic 5000m) advocates running at world class/ target pace for spells as long as possible gradually building up with shorter recoveries and longer reps. See how this feels, your biggest improvement will come in your first 3/4 months of training and then you will begin to plateau. See what level this will bring you to. Maybe this will cause you to have more humbler targets. Targets I imagine being as breaking 40mins 10k.
Such a quantum target you have set seems set out of ignorance.
Go and show us your not just seeking attention and break the short term targets set, and maybe then it will show there is validity in your grand plans of taking up running seriously and not just someone embarking on a fad who will soon be finding an excuse to quit and move on to your next grand design.
You are only 20. You have already quit your degree. Setting long term goals off a whim seems pretty naive.
Anyway I wish you the best of luck
What have you been doing today? How much did you run?
Clearly, you're only starting, so it might be a mistake to run everyday, but you could do other things on your days off, to get you used to the level of effort and tiredness. How about a 40mins swim, or a 2hours bike ride. You should probably also start a general conditionning programme: push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, star jumps, stretching, yoga... etc. I remember watching a programme about young kenyans in school on tv, and they seemed to be doing these everyday.
Let us know how you got on with your day...
Monthly..?
(BTW, he says he's starting on 27th OFFICIALLY...)
ive done 5
humbling experiences, all, for different reasons
and unpredictable
I would like to say that I am also 20 years old and one year ago I ran the Lisbon Marathon (Portugal) in December the 1st.
At that time, I was 19 years old and I was able to do 2h59m with only a 3 months training and almost no running background before that. Two weeks before the marathon I made the Vo2 max test and I got 70.
After the marathon I got bored and the next 10 months I just did weight training in the gym and sometimes (3 times per week) I did 40' of jogging.
In the 1st of October (2003) I decided to return running and with 12 days of training I was able to do a 11,280 Km race in 43 minutes. Currently I am training to do a sub 1h20 half-marathon in the 7th of December. Later (march 2004) I'll tray a sub 1h16m half and finally a sub 2h35m marathon in April the 18th.
I think it is possible because I am doing my 7x1000m repeats at 3m28s (2min jogging between repeats) and until the marathon day I will certainly progress.