Yeah, still thinking about a custom pacing strategy.
His first marathon april 2025 he ran 4:11. But now he took a little more serious approach. Initially he wanted to hit 4:00 in November, now he thinks (or hopes) to achieve 3:45.
My initial thoughts on a strategy would be to target 3:55:00 - with a very slight negative split (5:37/km first half - 5:30/km second half) to have a little margin from crowding and the flexibity to be make a small adjustment in the second half to hit 3:50 if we feel it is achievable. But I will need a few running sessions with him to see if that realistic. Also need a chat with him to aline on goal time. But it will be fun!
Unstructured runs are the best and a real blessing in a heavy peak week!
love the plan to anchor at 3:55 with room to slide toward 3:50 if the legs agree. Given 4:11 to now, 3:45 looks doable with even early splits, a tiny negative late, and and zero surges in the first 10k. Maybe test it with a 12 to 16 km steady at about 5:33 to 5:35 plus 3 by 1 km at the second half pace, and lock the gel schedlue and water timing. Do you two prefer a pacer group or quiet running so you do not get pulled too fast?
100% that is the way!
Nutrition plan is locked in (not depending on aid stations - bringing everything ourselved)
gels (sis isotonic) every 20 min (except for gels 5 and 6)
gels 5 & 6 (sis double expresso)
after that back to isotonic - will provide a caffeine boost at 30-34km
salt tabs (every hour)
1l water + electrolyte (sis hydro 4 tabs / 1l) drink small sips every 20 min / starting 10 min in.
That way we don’t get distracted with the aid stations and can just ignore those and stay in the rhytm!
I am very much a solo runner, don’t like running with a pacer group myself - so we will just run as a duo. Luckely this is a small marathon so I don’t expect that much large groups!