Clark's Pittsburgh Marathon Race Plan
Clark Mitchell's Pittsburgh Marathon Race Plan
Background
The only thing officially on my schedule this year is IMAZ in November. Last year, I started my season with a bike focus as I felt I underperformed on the bike in 2014. That focus seems to have paid off as I rode very well at both Steelhead 70.3 and IMAZ. This year, due to schedule and other constraints, my off season was mostly run focused and thus, I decided to stick with the run focus and add some early season running races to my schedule.
I live in Pittsburgh and I've never run the Pittsburgh Marathon (actually I've never run a non-Ironman marathon), so that was an obvious add. I'm also running a 50K in June, which I'll write about later. Work and family commitments eliminate most of July and August from my race schedule, so recovery should not be an issue. Finally, IMAZ is late this year so that build doesn't even start until 8/29.
My Ironman marathon performance has been steadily improving, from 4:46 in Texas in 2013 (100 degree heat index) to 3:56 in Arizona last fall. My race rehearsals last fall seemed on pace for a 3:30 stand alone marathon, so I was pretty happy with the 3:56. That said, I've been curious to see what a 3:30 marathon feels like and that curiosity is further fueled by the fact that I'm older now and 3:30 is my Boston standard time.
Current Build
Training has gone well so far this year. I'm not at the same level of overall fitness as I was last October but I'm running well and I feel pretty healthy. My longer runs point to a sub 3:30 finish if I get the weather and the day that I'm hoping for.
Course and Race Execution Plans
The Pittsburgh Marathon course runs like two different races. The first half is mostly flat along the river front where the only hills are the bridges. However, at mile 12 things change as the course climbs 150 feet up out of the river valley and the next 11 miles are full of rolling, Western PA hills. The good news? At the start of mile 24, the course dives back down into the river valley losing over 200 feet in the 24th mile. The remaining miles are a flat sprint to the finish.
I made a point to run up the mile 12 hill and down the mile 24 hill in most of my long training runs, so there are no surprises. Unfortunately, I was not able to run some of the rolling hills due to traffic and safety concerns, so that is somewhat of a wild card.
My plan is to start out easy and build slowly until the hill at mile 12. After looking through my long training runs from this spring and last fall, I've seen a pattern where my pace increases over time at a roughly constant heart rate - if, and only if - I keep things pretty easy for the first few miles. Ideally I'll get to the start of the hill within a minute or two of my overall target pace.
I expect that the final downhill will cancel out the mile 12 uphill, so that means I need to make up 1-2 minutes over the 11 miles of rolling hills plus the two miles of flat at the end. This will be tough, but I think it can be done.
Nutrition
I'm not planning to carry any calories, only salt. I'll use the course provided sports drink at each aid station plus a course provided gel every 30 minutes. Depending on the weather I'll take 1-2 salt tabs over the entire effort.
Background
The only thing officially on my schedule this year is IMAZ in November. Last year, I started my season with a bike focus as I felt I underperformed on the bike in 2014. That focus seems to have paid off as I rode very well at both Steelhead 70.3 and IMAZ. This year, due to schedule and other constraints, my off season was mostly run focused and thus, I decided to stick with the run focus and add some early season running races to my schedule.
I live in Pittsburgh and I've never run the Pittsburgh Marathon (actually I've never run a non-Ironman marathon), so that was an obvious add. I'm also running a 50K in June, which I'll write about later. Work and family commitments eliminate most of July and August from my race schedule, so recovery should not be an issue. Finally, IMAZ is late this year so that build doesn't even start until 8/29.
My Ironman marathon performance has been steadily improving, from 4:46 in Texas in 2013 (100 degree heat index) to 3:56 in Arizona last fall. My race rehearsals last fall seemed on pace for a 3:30 stand alone marathon, so I was pretty happy with the 3:56. That said, I've been curious to see what a 3:30 marathon feels like and that curiosity is further fueled by the fact that I'm older now and 3:30 is my Boston standard time.
Current Build
Training has gone well so far this year. I'm not at the same level of overall fitness as I was last October but I'm running well and I feel pretty healthy. My longer runs point to a sub 3:30 finish if I get the weather and the day that I'm hoping for.
Course and Race Execution Plans
The Pittsburgh Marathon course runs like two different races. The first half is mostly flat along the river front where the only hills are the bridges. However, at mile 12 things change as the course climbs 150 feet up out of the river valley and the next 11 miles are full of rolling, Western PA hills. The good news? At the start of mile 24, the course dives back down into the river valley losing over 200 feet in the 24th mile. The remaining miles are a flat sprint to the finish.
I made a point to run up the mile 12 hill and down the mile 24 hill in most of my long training runs, so there are no surprises. Unfortunately, I was not able to run some of the rolling hills due to traffic and safety concerns, so that is somewhat of a wild card.
My plan is to start out easy and build slowly until the hill at mile 12. After looking through my long training runs from this spring and last fall, I've seen a pattern where my pace increases over time at a roughly constant heart rate - if, and only if - I keep things pretty easy for the first few miles. Ideally I'll get to the start of the hill within a minute or two of my overall target pace.
I expect that the final downhill will cancel out the mile 12 uphill, so that means I need to make up 1-2 minutes over the 11 miles of rolling hills plus the two miles of flat at the end. This will be tough, but I think it can be done.
Nutrition
I'm not planning to carry any calories, only salt. I'll use the course provided sports drink at each aid station plus a course provided gel every 30 minutes. Depending on the weather I'll take 1-2 salt tabs over the entire effort.
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Comments
Clark, good plan and from what I've seen on Strava you've easily got the fitness for a sub-3:30 marathon. A couple things I've noted that are different in marathons vs IMs:
Picked up my number today, so nothing left to do but rest and enjoy the run.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Direction-Packaged-4-Ounce-Gelflask/dp/B003V8UX5U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1461981234&sr=8-3&keywords=4+oz+ultimate+direction
Wishing you good skill... Cant wait to see the 50K