Video

So my 30 minute Peak Pace: Run is my threshold value?

It is so easy identify ~experts out here who *do not* run because all they do is spout on buzz words and tell you to go well past the heart rate most of us can actually carry a pace at ...

My goal is 5 hours but my 5 min faster would be 5 hours 55 min.

Thank you for more excellent advice i can actually implement! I'll be switching to the 2/1 workload instead of 3/1. Looking forward to more ultra specific info!

This was fantastic! I'm a relatively new ultra runner. After decades of shorter road distances, I lost my love of running. I rediscovered it x2 in ultras. I'm now trying to learn everything I can about this crazy cool sport, so that I can move beyond "surviving" to "succeeding".

First of all, thanks a lot for the video. It really helps me understand what it takes for sub3 marathon. One question: when you say 30mins of workout time for threshold training, does it only count the time in the threshold (so the actual workout time including rest is be longer) ?

Great video, is it possible you can send me the excel file sample of the lactate curve ?

Just ran a 3.09 marathon at the weekend which was a 28 minute pb and ran a 1.28 half in March. So the plan is to stay consistent over the summer as I can be guilty of doing nothing for a few months after a big race then try and push my HM marathon time down in the autumn then work towards a sub 3 spring 25, should have plenty of time to try these tips.

for the last 2000 years, or so, most watches have 5 zones so this is useless

What is a 30 minute tt?

this is an excessively complicated plan

The method of determining the lactate threshold is quite subjective and therefore inaccurate. People do not feel the difference between 95% or 90% of 88% of best effort. They may think they do and then train wrong for years.

so he ran faster by not taking your advice?

I like this topic! The take away here is to not progress every week, but to progress every 4-5 week. Doing so enables you to better adapt to the training load and thus becoming a better runner.

Good common sense advice. Of If I had a $1 for every experienced CZcams runner who does the opposite of what you recommend and the. Then always publish “lessons learnt” after, only to repeat the same error at next marathon. Rinse and repeat 🤣🤣🤣

Sir, I have a question regarding marathon on keto. Would you eat more carbs in days/hours before the run? Or only eat jellys during the run?

Very interesting take as am someone whose quite injury prone to the faster work. Currently a 21 min 5k runner and working towards a marathon, would this work as 13 x 30s on 15s off, 3 sets with half a mile float in between each set. Warm up an cool down accumulating to about 8 miles. Great channel 👍

Coros have just released the ability to create your own workout modes. Do you know if this new update solves the problem you raise at the end of the video about the ability to have a 'race' workout mode with nutrition reminders etc and one for general training. Currently trying to decide which running watch to buy and will 100% buy an Apex 2 Pro if this new feature solves the problem you raised. I have reached out to Coros support at the weekend, but not heard back yet.

Why run at all? Why not walk instead, since its better to be slower.

Hard to believe guys in the 80s done 2.08 marathons in shit shoes etc. These mode cons are all about money

Thanks this is super.

I did my first Marathon race 2 weeks ago at 44 years old.. I purchased Dr Wills 13 week marathon race programme. I followed it and raced my marathon to the data Dr Will suggested, not a time goal. Following his programme resulted in a 2:56:44 marathon time, 10 minutes faster than expected, and 3 minutes faster than my wildest dreams. I'm sure that if I aimed for time I would have failed. Can not recommend highly enough.

are these all bots in the comments lol

My first marathon was last month at 49 yrs old. I was actually quite realistic in aiming for sub 3 hrs, having trained well and run 1:21 for the half. But combine pre race nerves with Robert de Castella coming over to chat to my mate next to me... and forgetting the first 10km contained most of the hills... well, after 10km in 40 minutes I suddenly panicked. I knew I had deviated from the plan. Km 20 to 37 were pain. Fortunately I went into track mode in the last 5km and started picking people off but the damage was done. 3:16 was still ok and I know that I am a middle distance runner at heart now.

I have run my first Marathon at 42 years old this year. 10km-36minutes, 21km 1:19 minutes. And I was so disappointed 😞 that I finish the marathon at 3:03:47 . But I learnt now a lesson. Thanks

So I’ve watched this video 3x to get the video straight. So if I’m understanding correctly, with previous workouts, as well as Vdot calculations from recent efforts, my marathon time would guaranteed be 3:05. I start at that pace, would give me a 44-45min 10k. Each 10, I just aim for slightly faster than that, with going as fast as possible in the final 2 km’s? That would make sense in my mind because the final 10k section would still be >1 min slower than my fastest 10k

How does one answer "what could you do next weekend?" before trying to do it? I'm my case that's for my 1st marathon, but would apply for anyone training really. 🤔

Did exactly as described at the start. But I don’t care tbh. I went out for sub3, hit the wall at 30k, ran 3:10. Comfortably ran that pace for 36km in training 2 weeks before. But 3:01 would feel little better than 3:10, it was worth it so I’ll never die wondering if it could have been!

3 minutes :)

Hey Dr Will, love your analysis 👍🏽 Very insightful and interesting. As a sub3 chaser, are there key workout sessions you would recommend?

Running my second marathon this weekend after a 13 year hiatus, so this great advice!

I think you're making things overly complex when 2 words summarize the objective, "negative splits". You're supposed to aim high and then learn, train, & know how to achieve negative splits at the marathon distance and you're far more likely to avoid missteps (make mistakes) and realize goals. Aim high, keep it simple, stay relaxed.

Loving your content Will, i have a situation where i ran a 2:53 Marathon 2 years ago (turned 47 today) have been running for about 6 years and keep solid fitness averaging 80km per week year round... i see the plans starting out with short distances at marathon pace and hear people find say 10k at pace challenging at the start of their build up but for me i think i could run close to my PB (within maybe 5 min) at any time. This means i find it hard to justify starting off so carefully with such a big build up, as i feel i would actually lose fitness by doing that... perhaps i need a faster goal time so my shorter distances at the start of the build are faster and i aim for say a 2:45.. long message so thanks for your reply in advance! oh yeah i should add that the 2:53 was a slight negative split that i felt i raced conservatively to keep an ITB issue at bay that i have struggled with in a few marathons Thanks again Will

JUST DOING IT TO FINISHING THE RACE AND GETTING A MEDAL AND A T SHIRT.

I JUST FINISH RACES. Get the medal and a shirt. thats it. Why PUNISH yourself ? YOU. YES. YOU.. ARE NO PROFESSIONAL RUNNER. Ok you have reach your SPEED GOAL. ..and the next race. YOU'RE STILL BEING OVER TAKEN BY HUNDREDS. ( Time to get back to reality after the race.. and don't quit your day job. ) You're no Kipchoge at the end of the day.

It's pretty much like chasing an ADDICTION. OH gee.. must beat my time. Ok. You beat your time.. and on the next time and next time. .. doesn't end does it?

I've never run a marathon so I'm a little unsure what I could 100% do time wise. My half marathon recently done was 1:23. Assuming I could def do a 3:10

Would love a breakdown of how you came to those paces for the practice per 10k. Percentage of threshold?

Love this mental cue/tool. I'll keep it in mind 👍💪🙌

Are you suggesting to do a testmarathon during the marathon build up using the start too slow finish too fast strategy? If so, I wonder if this is not too taxing for the body and implicating a recovery period of min. 3 weeks? The longest longrun at marathon pace in the common build up as I read is max 27km.

When you come from a place of experience it's easy to change how you approach a race as your body has felt those wrong decisions. I'll be running my first marathon in 2 weeks and all my long runs and training up to 21 miles have been on hilly undulating routes. But the race is downhill first 5 miles then flat. So I really don't know what I'm capable of so can't pinpoint an exact pace to go for. But I'll definitely be finding out. 😂 then I can take this advice for the next one.

Thank you for the video. I really enjoy the sensible and data driven approach to marathon training. I'm quite the data nerd myself and I love using data to improve my training and racing. I recently ran a PB in 3:27:26 (3 weeks ago) so I wouldn't want to run another marathon next weekend 🙂In that PB attempt, I was kind of hoping for a 3:30 but I focused on my HR and Power readings to keep them in the ranges I had set for myself beforehand based on my training. If all went to plan, sticking to those should give me the desired sub 3:30 and it worked. I ran the first half in 1:44:11 and the second half in 1:43:15, slightly negative splits with a slowly increasing HR and pretty even power averages, depending on up and downhill bits. It's a half course that we run twice so the halves are comparable, gentle uphill for kms 3-7 and 24-28 and then again towards the end of the loop kms 16-19 and 37-40. My fastest 5k was the last one, 35-40k and the final 2.2 km were the fastest of the entire race. My 5k splits were 24:23, 24:43, 23:57, 25:00, 25:00, 24:39, 24:05, 23:54, then 4:45, 4:48 for km 41 and 42, and 4:30 pace for the final bit. I had a slump in the middle of the race when I was out in front of the 3:30 pacer group battling the wind alone. Normally, I'd prefer it that way to avoid chaos at the drink stations but on a windy day, I realized that this was stupid and I would wear myself out too soon. I let them catch me so that I could benefit from their wake to get through the toughest part of the course (uphill into a headwind for kms 24-28) before I left them again and then ran a strong final 14 km. It got tough on the final 5k stretch but I had enough left in the tank to finish strong. Lessons implemented on the day: stick to the plan no matter what the others around you do, start conservatively and race the conditions. I noticed that when things got tough around 17 or 18 km, running slightly uphill into the headwind, the other runners around me ahead of the group seemed to speed up because they wanted to make an arbitrary goal at the half marathon timing mat. I slowed down because I didn't want to overcook it and I didn't really care about the time there - it's the time at 42.2 km that counts. The pacer group came closer and I was swallowed but it was a good thing. I saw the others later when they slowed down and couldn't keep up with the group while I had enough reserves to run away from them later. After the race, I thanked the pacers for their incredible job, they really helped me to get through the tough bits. I think I read somewhere that you can hope to improve by 1-4% with each training block, depending on how well it goes and how many races you've already completed. When setting a goal, I keep those ranges in mind. It's probably quite close to the 5 minutes you mentioned in the video. Interesting data snippet: My average power increased by 1 W from 178 W last year to 179 W this year but I was 2:10 min faster. So a 0.56% increase in power resulted in a 1.04% increase in performance - same race weight. I think I just got a bit more efficient overall. I have to say that last year, I had 18 weeks of uninterrupted training while this year, I had only 12 weeks to prepare because of a bad cold 16 weeks from the race. So with comparable training, I could have improved by more than 1% but I made the best out of the training I managed to get done.

This is so correct. In fact, I would say it applies to any event from 5k upwards. We train for those flat, perfect conditions, but how often do we get that?

lol, my PR is 3:05.... (not that I could run that next weekend, I'm still recovering from a 100M ultra 2 weeks ago and planning another in 3 weeks). Next marathon isn't until Dec. Do I have 5 minutes in me still? IDK, but I think while it's an ambitious, it's a realistic goal. Goals aren't suppose to be guaranteed.

This ia a great video! I am trying to go for a sub 3 hour marathon in 16 weeks and I feel like I could do around a 3:15 marathon now. but I have done no speed work and been around 35 miles for the last 4 weeks as I build my base. Are you thinking that I should go for a 3:10 based on that metric? or should I wait until I am closer to the race to do this test?

love your accent bro.

Next up..........can you do a video on your experience so far with the corebodytemp sensor? Does it pair with your Polar Vantage V3? What have you learnt so far?

Im 90kg and i train 4 hard times a week. 2 times boxing and 2 times gym. I eat at max 2000 calories a day. 150g protien, 120-150g fat and <20g carbs. I struggle in my boxing and my ketos are 0,7. I have an athletic body but feels like im doing something wrong because my energy is garbage