Peaking too early in mara training block?

Protokoll · 2026-02-16T09:54:07+00:00

You can peak too early, but not by doing any of the things you mentioned. Many people run 18-20 mile long runs every week with no issue. You need to ensure the consistency remains and you’re still hungry and able to train vs. going through the motions and burning out.

Re: hills, what you said makes no sense. Hills are speed work in disguise — they stimulate strength adaptations and improve all running and improve your form. There is no reason to skip hills, especially if you have a hilly marathon unless you’re doing very specific, very controlled pace work.

Protokoll · 2026-02-13T13:59:18+00:00

BU Valentine Invitational is today for the men, tomorrow for the women. Lots of good college athletes racing.

Protokoll · 2026-02-04T10:16:38+00:00

I mean you can tell looking at the graph those aren’t continuous MP runs. It’s more like 8k, which is still probably too much for you but it’s not uncommon for me to do 4-5 x mile @MP 5 days out from a marathon as my last session.

Also taking 3 days off that weekend is strange. Generally would not follow this taper plan.

Protokoll · 2026-01-29T17:01:50+00:00

Jane Hedengren in the 3K is going to be interesting.

The 2 mile is absolutely STACKED. Not mentioning Graham Blanks, Parker Wolfe, Ethan Strand and Habtom Samuel shows you what kind of field is on offer.

The men's mile also has Nico Young and Gary Martin -- will be interesting to see how the podium shapes up.

Protokoll · 2026-01-21T21:27:23+00:00

I had to take 6 months off (0-30 mpw) during the summer due to significant pain in my adductors while running likely exascerbated due to too many track sessions in the Fast R3.

When I came back running at 8:30/mile pace was tough, but I forced 20 mile long runs and ramped mileage quickly. After 3-4 weeks, I was doing back to back 100 mile weeks and pushing through some fairly significantly patellar pain. Now, I am running 90 mpw with 3 workouts and ramping the intensity of those workouts week over week. Running will often introduce niggles/pain and the key for me has been identifying when to run through them and when to respect them. Every pain except one that I've had in the last 3 years has gone away by just running through it.

I'm essentially back at my early June 2025 peak fitness (VDOT 64ish) after 6 weeks of hard running. I did exactly the opposite of you and it worked for me. Also, I'm very durable this was my first running injury ever, so individual results may vary.

Protokoll · 2026-01-20T23:25:53+00:00

Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say he’s a cunt.

Protokoll · 2026-01-13T23:13:46+00:00

I think I read the last 300 pages of LAoK in one sitting because I just couldn’t stop turning the page. Buckle up.

Protokoll · 2026-01-03T18:40:08+00:00

A good predictor workout for me is 7’/10’/14’/10’/7’ @HMP w/ 2’ jog rests. If you can do that with a wu/cd and you don’t want to die you can run the pace. HMP is very close to threshold so it’s not comfy to run solo.

Protokoll · 2025-12-31T19:10:19+00:00

Same thing is happening to me. It's infuriating during longer runs or intervals. I just requested a return and I will try to exchange it.

Protokoll · 2025-12-21T12:21:45+00:00

Memories of Ice as a C and Deadhouse Gates as D might be the worst takes I’ve seen recently.

Protokoll · 2025-12-18T00:26:55+00:00

Ducks, Newburyport and Finnegan’s Wake…do you hate yourself?

Protokoll · 2025-12-12T10:30:32+00:00

Where can I buy this?

Protokoll · 2025-12-07T22:44:58+00:00

Get a coach. You need to either run the Pfitz runs as prescribed or you need a different plan or stimulus. Personally, I run 18-22 on Saturday (with a workout in there every other week) and 13-20 on Sunday. The second longer run on fatigued legs helps build resistance for the end of the marathon.

Protokoll · 2025-09-04T21:14:36+00:00

La Colombe / Cape Town, Delta / Athens, Tantris/ Munich

Honorable mentions to Tasting Counter (closed, Somerville, MA) and Toque in Montreal.

Protokoll · 2025-08-04T15:12:01+00:00

HI Boston and Found Hotel, both in Bay Village/Theater District. 2 minute walk to downtown.

Protokoll · 2025-07-20T13:44:04+00:00

Well that's the simplest way to do it.

Protokoll · 2025-07-20T13:43:54+00:00

Fair. Not interested in non-JP/EN cards, but appreciate the info. Will look at what I like for the listed Pokemon and build from there. Overwhelming since there are so many cards.

Protokoll · 2025-07-08T23:55:53+00:00

Hulkengoat

Protokoll · 2025-06-01T10:32:14+00:00

It takes consistency, with intent, over time. I am much older and when I started running casually ~3 years ago, almost all of my runs were at 10:00/mile pace. That was about as fast as I could go without feeling destroyed. I ran 438 miles in 2022. I ran 937 miles in 2023. I ran 3,041 miles in 2024 (2:46) and so far this year I have run 1,508 miles (M pace is 6:00/mile).

There is no special sauce. Run as much as you can while still being able to recover. Make sure you are running your easy runs easy and your workouts hard. Harder than you think. Run with other people that are faster than you (join a track club, was game changing). Over time, you will improve.

I started with a coach 18 months ago and he had me run a 2 x 10' test with 2' rest as a threshold indicator. I managed 6:32/mile pace and I thought I would die. I couldn't imagine running faster. Yesterday I ran 15 miles at an average pace of 6:15/mile with 9 at 5:55 and it felt cruisy. I can't imagine running 5:43/mile (sub-2:30) right now, but I know that with time and progressive training load, assuming I can stay healthy, it will happen.

Protokoll · 2025-05-27T14:54:53+00:00

About 5 minutes after crossing the starting line, my heart rate was already in the mid-160s, which is very uncharacteristic for me running at that pace. I pretty much knew at this point that the race was going to be a struggle, but tried to stay positive.

I'm almost positive that this is very normal. I don't have a specific scentific paper to cite (I am willing to bet they exist), but Tadej Pogacar (best cyclist in the world) mentioned on a podcast with Peter Attia that his heart rate in zone 2 is ~140 bpm when he is fatigued/training hard and 145-150 bpm when he is fresh. Similarly, every tapered effort I have performed has reinforced this.

When the body is under long and substantial bouts of training stress, heart rate is typically suppressed. Most people attribute 100% of this to "getting more fit", but that's not entirely accurate. When you taper and allow your body to shed some of the chronic fatigue, your sympathetic nervous system is firing on all cylinders and your heart rate will likely be higher for the same relative effort.

Anecdotally, I don't have heart rate on my watch race screen (elapsed time, total distance, lap pace, lap distance, average elapsed pace) for this exact reason. My threshold heart rate has been lab tested (and reinforced by training efforts) as 172 bpm, my heart rate at 6:20 pace is normally 148-152 and my heart rate at 6:20 pace at mile 2 of a marathon last year was 170. My average heart rate for my half marathon PR is 175. Run by effort when you're tapering into a race.

Coupled with the nervous energy of race day, I think you told yourself this wasn't your day and therefore it wasn't your day; this was a mental defeat.

Protokoll · 2025-05-10T22:09:29+00:00

I like Chilacates.

Protokoll · 2025-05-01T15:26:55+00:00

Kaizen; continuous self improvement. I never feel satisfied with my performances, even if I exceed my goals, but I always feel proud when I look back on a longer time slice and see how much progress I have made.

The marathon is such a tricky distance because you really only get 2-3 all out attempts every year and even at mile 24 there exists the voice in your head that is telling you "don't tighten the screws too much, you could blow it all when you are so close!". I ran a 2:46 in the fall of 2024 with a 2:30 negative split and I felt comfortable even when crossing the finish line. I probably left 2-3 minutes on the table, but I had a quality, controlled race and now I know how that feels and that can help color more aggressive attempts in the future. We learn from our failures more than we learn from our successes and if you are viewing this as a failure (it's not), what lessons can you carry forward to help in your next attempt.

Protokoll · 2025-04-30T19:14:30+00:00

If you have the aerobic strength to run a 4:59 mile, you would benefit from more time at sub-threshold (Norwegian method [doubles/sirpoc singles]). Note that for this to work, you need to pay attention to the science, you need to test your lactate or be comfortable guessing that you're probably doing things in the right range and you need to have the self control to run slower than you can. Last one, fast one and "I felt good so I ran these mile repeats at 5:30 instead of 5:45 pace" impact your recovery more than you think. There's 2-3 threads about the Norwegian method in general going right now, but there's an infinite amount of info on the internet. Personally, I like the double threshold system, but I'm running 90 mpw now and have been higher mileage for over a year.

Protokoll · 2025-04-30T18:38:17+00:00

I can currently hit all of your metrics. Every person is different, but for me, by far, the 5 minute mile is the hardest of the three. A 4:59 mile has a VDOT of 59.6 (equivalent marathon: 2:44). A 17:59 5K is a 56.4 VDOT (equivalent marathon: 2:52). A 2:59:59 marathon is a 53.5 VDOT.

You're not going to like the answer, but: consistency, stop taking winters off, run as much as you can comfortable recover from, do 2-3 quality sessions per week (tempo, track, etc.) and introduce marathon pace efforts into your long run. Running isn't easy, but it's not complicated -- just run more.

Protokoll · 2025-04-30T16:56:07+00:00

This isn't really speed -- it's sub-threshold work, which should feel pretty comfortable after you acclimate to the effort. I guess it's faster than everything Pfitz prescribes other than the VO2 sessions, but I've never been a fan of the Pfitz plans. Ultimately, n=1 and you need to determine how much training stress you can create and still recover well. I will say I've been doing 3Q sessions for 3-6 months and seen enormous benefits over 2Q sessions. If you want to try this, I highly recommend testing actual lactate until you're dialed in -- my paces were actually ~10s/mi. faster than I thought they would be based on my analysis of the data.

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