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Need the team's help: BQ Advice

Pat KossPat Koss
in General Training Discussions

Since IM Boulder, and after a month rest, I've returned to my running roots and am training to run the 3 Bridges Marathon here in Little Rock on December 27th.  The goal was to get back some speed and run sub-4.  I am running coach @Patrick's Intermediate marathon plan as my training framework.

So over lunch I just realized that 3 Bridges (which is a USAT certified course) could be a BQ run for me.  I never gave that a thought in the 55-59 age group.  I've tried to run the BQ number but never quite got to it (PR was 3:54 at New Orleans in 2011).  I age up for the 2016 Boston Marathon to the 60-64 age group, and that qualification time is 3:55.

At this time overall training is coming well and my post IM run speed is returning.  In the last 4 years I've run a 3:54, 3:56 and a number of 4:0x's at non-Ironman marathons.  3 Bridges is a very flat course except for 3 hills at the bridges crossing the Arkansas River.  We train on this course all the time so it is very familiar territory (being just a few miles from the house is good too).

Last year at 3 Bridges three of us (Heather Blackiston from EN included) were on a 8:45 pace.  I started to fall off getting very chilled from 13 to 19.  It was my first DNF in a race.  For the next 5 days I had a 102 fever.  (we had just hosted Christmas at my house and all 9 grandkids were there during the week).

I think I can hit 3:54.  Training is going well.  Attacking a BQ will be additional motivation to hit my training marks. 

 Even if I don't get selected in the age group and don't get to go, hitting the BQ mark would be a HUGE success for me.

So team, what do you think?  What ideas?  How to approach training leading up to December 27th? 

(Oh and in 2015 I was going to take time off from a full IM and run some 70.3's giving more summer time to my wife for vacation.  I've signed up for a 50K single-track trail race in February, a first, but that will be at a fun-run pace.  I might try to integrate some of the JOS during the week with weekend trail long-runs in prep, but the message to the EN team is that I'm not worried about drastically affecting my IM bike speed at this time since I have made the commitment to my wife.)

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