I want to run the marathon under 3hrs?

Question

I need to average a speed of 9mph in order to do this

I can run a mile at 9mph, then i'm knackered, and last night I ran 10km (about a quarter of the marathon), but at a missirable speed of 6mph....

Should I pratice running 10km quicker and quicker...or running at 9mph for longer and longer?

Answer 1

First, no speed is miserable.  It's just what you are currently able to do.  Everyone starts somewhere.  However, given your current training speeds, running a 3 hour marathon is probably not a reasonable goal for you anymore than a 2:30 marathon would be. That's not to say you can't someday run 3 hours, just that it probably won't happen in the next 6 months or year.

I can tell you that no marathoner, and this includes world class marathoners, run most of their training runs at marathon race pace.  Yes a few runs are done at race pace, however, most training runs are run about 10% to 20% slower than race pace. So trying to go from one mile at 9 mph to 26 miles at 9 mph just isn't going to work.

Far more important than speed in marathon training is pure endurance.  This means being able to run at some speed continuously for 3 to 4 hours.  The biggest part of mrathon training is slowly increasing the amount of time on your feet.  Rather than trying to run a short distance quicker, you must run longer and longer.  The marathon is a nonlinear race.  The half way point physiologically is 20 miles not 13.1 miles. So until you are able to do a weekly 20 miler you are not prepared to run a marathon.

Answer 2

It takes a lot of training. You need to do a combination of both speed to get the 10km faster and some distance so you can hold that pace for the entire 26.2 miles. Some good sites with training plans are:

marathontraining.com

runnersworld.com

They give free training plans. Good luck!

Answer 3

Pick up the book Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger. It'll help you identify the right exercises and tools to work toward that challenging goal.

Be realistic though. If you ran a 10k at a 10 minute mile (aka 6mph), you may want to focus on running a sub 5 hour marathon first. If you averaged 6mph (roughly a 1:02:00 10k), McMillan Running estimates a 4:50:58 marathon time...note that this estimates in fatigue. Now, if you can maintain even 10 minute mile splits for 26.2 miles you're looking at a 4:22 marathon.

Based on how you've described your running here, my thought is it may take you several tries...so don't be discouraged. Running that fast for that long is really difficult, but not impossible.

Answer 4

just keep training get up to 60 miles a week, long run at the weekend ,speed training mid week,keep it up for a few months and you will see your times coming down.

good luck