Help me choose a marathon goal time

gearoidol

Can someone give me a rough idea what I should be targeting for my first in cork

Running 45 miles a week at the moment in training soon to be uping to 65 -75 miles a week by adding some easy morning runs.

Training schedule:

Monday Recovery 5 miles @ 8:30 - 9min

Tuesday Track (3Mile Warmup @ 8:30 miling) 5x Mile repeats @ 6:15 or maybe a tempo run etc

Wednesday Rest

Thursday 10-12 @ 7:30 miling

Friday Rest

Saturday Hilly Parkrun 5k usually a little over 19 mins

Sunday Lsr @ 8:30 12-15 miles at present and with the last 12 months

Soon to be adding easy morning runs 3-4 mornings 7 miles @ 8:30



Recent Races:

Ballycotton 2014 : 63mins (through 10k in 38:32)
Dungarvan 2014: 64mins
Cork to cobh 2013: 1:39
A couple of flat 5ks 2013 17:53- 18:00 mins

Have no problem putting in the time and effort involved and completing a few longer lsrs 18,20 miles etc

Thinking of aiming for 3:05 ,I don't want to waste the experience on the day but Id rather get through the first one without torturing myself and maybe set a more accurate goal for Dublin if all goes well,from doing one 20 mile run last year I do have some understanding of whats involved once you step up the distance over 15 miles in training and I do know that actually running it on the day is going to be savage tough especially with weather conditions in cork in june

RayCun

gearoidol wrote: »

...
Thursday 10-12 @ 7:30 miling
...
Sunday Lsr @ 8:30 12-15 miles at present and with the last 12 months

Based on those two runs I'd guess 3.15. 8.30 seems to be your regular easy pace and 7.30 your pace when you push harder on a long run. If you're averaging around 45 miles a week your short distance PBs are not going to be in proportion to your marathon time. Maybe you're capable of 3.05 but you'd be at the limit, so I wouldn't try it in your first marathon.

gearoidol

RayCun wrote: »

Based on those two runs I'd guess 3.15. 8.30 seems to be your regular easy pace and 7.30 your pace when you push harder on a long run. If you're averaging around 45 miles a week your short distance PBs are not going to be in proportion to your marathon time. Maybe you're capable of 3.05 but you'd be at the limit, so I wouldn't try it in your first marathon.

thanks raycun,

being honest up to about a month ago all my easy running was done @ 7:30 even on sundays until I realised this was way too fast ,so for the past 18 months I have been doing 10 -13 @ 7:30 on sundays which felt handy enough but were obviously way too fast when I started looking into hr training,

this is the reason for introducing these morning ez paced runs trying to improve my aerobic fitness

RayCun

I'd still go for 3.15 since its your first, maybe plan to speed up in the second half.
If you're comfortable picking it up in the second half you could train for sub 3 in Dublin. Better to be too cautious than too ambitious in your first marathon