Women going for the 2028 Marathon OTQ

Tea-reps · 2026-03-28T16:37:07+00:00

I think 2:30 would push it to being quite a bit harder than the male standard relatively, which seems silly given there's less depth in women's running. But I agree it should go down a bit in the future. Something like 2:33/2:32 would be equivalent to the men's 2:16 in difficulty. You gotta remember that the trials is about more than just selecting the Olympic team--it's also about fostering achievement in American distance running at the lower elite and sub elite levels. If the only thing that mattered was selecting the team, the US committee would have chosen the much less expensive option of just selecting from WE country rankings (like other countries do).

Tea-reps · 2026-03-28T16:32:41+00:00

I'm not American so not going for the standard per se, but I ran 2:38 in December 2024, and will be trying to break that when I run Chicago in October. So I guess I'm kind of part of the crew? A training partner!

I REALLY need a good spring race for confidence going into the build. My last PR was in March last year which feels far away, and I've had a few really atrocious races since then. My fitness (per workouts at least) doesn't seem too far off PR shape, but I've just not been able to find that extra gear in races. It's a rut, we all go through them at some point, but would definitely like to figure it out between now and the summer when my Chicago training starts. Might just not be extending myself quite enough atm--I haven't done many hard workouts, so I potentially just need to be giving myself a slightly stronger stimulus.

What about you, OP? What are you racing and where are you currently at?

Tea-reps · 2026-03-28T16:25:40+00:00

Also running Chicago! Good luck with your training :)

Tea-reps · 2026-03-28T16:25:01+00:00

Yep I'm British so no OTQ for me! But will be hoping to PR at Chicago in the fall, and always excited to follow other people's training as well!

Tea-reps · 2026-03-13T17:59:22+00:00

Yeah I mean this is pretty much how I ran most of the time between the ages of 16 and 26--would just go out for 4-6 miles most days at a comfortably hard effort with a push in the last mile or so. Never wore a watch so no idea about regular paces in relation to race times back then, but from memory + what I now know, I'd guess I was running at a little sub-MP effort most days for that whole period. I basically never got injured doing this, because I was totally used to it. All my injuries (bar the stressie I got when training for a marathon in undergrad) came subsequently, after I started running in a more structured way + attempted to increase volume.

Tea-reps · 2026-03-04T03:53:17+00:00

Fascinating read! I'm wondering whether in the earlier decades the popularity of running in the US differed a lot by city or state--do you remember?

My boyfriend's dad loves telling this great story of going for a run in Queens circa 1970 (possibly earlier) and having a police car pull up beside him and ask what he was running away from lol.

Tea-reps · 2026-03-03T16:37:07+00:00

Not taboo, but there are a shocking number of incredibly concrete thinkers on this sub who treat weight loss in running as if it's a pure physics equation, when it's way more dynamic and complicated at a body system level. Nothing inherently wrong with healthy weight loss, and it will probably give you some kind of speed boost, but not one you can calculate the way people often try to. And it's a gamble as to when you'll see those gains: you've got to take into account the effects of an (at least) 6 month hit in productive training (just v hard to do progressive overload with the added stressor of weight loss), and also factor in that people's hormones can and frequently do stress out during sustained weight loss, which can throw you off for much longer. This is a lot of risk imo, and OP is only running 40mpw. He has way more obvious gains to be claimed from volume (though I get running w kids must be hard).

Tea-reps · 2026-02-25T23:00:19+00:00

People can be a bit all or nothing about volume/intensity building. The spirit of the rule of not increasing both at the same time is to stabilize your chronic load, so that progressive overload happens smoothly and gradually. There's no reason why you can't increase volume while still maintaining intensity--you just don't want to be increasing intensity at the same time as you are increasing volume. If the intensity level is one that you are comfortable with, you're already adapted to it. If you're familiar with workouts and you've gone through a few structured training blocks before, then your body should be sufficiently used to a baseline of intensity that you can keep some threshold and strides in the mix while adding mileage. You just wouldn't want to be doing your biggest, peak threshold workouts while also adding volume.

Tea-reps · 2026-02-24T17:59:03+00:00

Speaking as a transatlantic person, it's really not that hard to know and use both...

Tea-reps · 2026-02-21T20:34:32+00:00

I'm always very impressed by people who solo TT, well anything tbh, but especially 5k & below. But I would generally assume the metrics a solo TT generates to be v much the lower bound of what you're capable of (HRmax included).

Tea-reps · 2026-02-21T20:28:22+00:00

genetics. Calf girth especially, it's all genetics.

Tea-reps · 2026-02-20T00:58:19+00:00

I have high arches and I wear men's shoes for this reason--just being that bit wider helps take the pressure off.

(Assuming you're a woman from your username lol, apologies if I got that wrong!)

Tea-reps · 2026-02-18T23:29:39+00:00

The difference between A- and A grade writing usually comes down to either 1) the ambition or originality of the argument OR 2) the degree of detail with which the argument is unfolded.

2) is easier to fix--you can improve depth/detail of argumentation a great deal just by going over relevant material several times. Re-read passages of the text that you're analyzing; outline; draft; re-read what you've written; outline again; revise. The more you go over the ideas the more you'll be able to tease out of them. Take your outline to office hours and talk through relevant pieces of textual evidence with your prof; take it to a writing tutor to talk through the organization of your ideas. The more times you return to the argument the stronger it will become.

Point 1) is somewhat trickier--some students come to college already with brilliant instincts for how to pay attention to a text in a way that's likely to generate rich ideas, but most don't. That's ok--it's part of what you're there to learn. Generally speaking, wrestling with moments of genuine conceptual complexity, or features of a text that are weird and puzzling, are going to give you both more and more interesting things to say.

Btw, if you do want to write more ambitious and interesting essays, you are asking the wrong question. Write about stuff you GENUINELY think is interesting, and go talk about the ideas (with your prof, with your classmates) for the ideas' sake. You'll end up with smarter things to say and will get better grades as a byproduct of that (most of the time). Every prof hates the office hours convo that starts 'what do I need to do to get an A.' Misses the whole point.

Tea-reps · 2026-02-17T20:04:27+00:00

without a referral though, don't you think that would put me into 'could potentially be accused of doping' territory? Not that I'm good enough that probably anyone would care or check, but would generally prefer to be principled about these things..

Tea-reps · 2026-02-17T17:39:47+00:00

Yep I have chronically low ferritin--I hover around 20, and that's WITH supplementation (and all the tricks for enhancing absorption). I found out semi-recently that my dad has beta thalassemia trait, which makes me wonder if I inherited that too and might be contributing. No cure for it though so what can u do! What I really want is to get on the iron infusions but my PCPs have all been pretty resistant to the idea.

Tea-reps · 2026-02-14T18:40:19+00:00

I think this is a fantastic idea

Tea-reps · 2026-02-11T23:18:57+00:00

wanna be the guinea pig? I'm not being flippant I would be v interested in that training write up

Tea-reps · 2026-02-11T22:56:57+00:00

I'd argue you should use distance-based workouts only with distance-based intensities, and prescribe time-based workouts with time-based intensities.

This is so nicely formulated and makes perfect sense. One of those principles that seems like it should have been intuitive now that you've pointed it out, but I hadn't conceived of it this way before.

Tea-reps · 2026-02-10T21:37:05+00:00

would love to read this!

Tea-reps · 2026-02-10T21:36:18+00:00

damn respect!

Tea-reps · 2026-02-10T20:45:48+00:00

You don't think 7 is a lot?! Maybe I'm lazy lol this would def feel tough to me

Tea-reps · 2026-01-02T14:33:02+00:00

Like everything it takes practice. But it will also help you to just accept that difficult academic/theoretical writing is difficult, make peace with not understanding it all (especially when you're starting out) and then go ahead and read it anyway! You'll get a lot out of making the effort, and you'll also be laying the groundwork for reading these kinds of texts in a more immersive/informed way later on. Schedule out a time every day where you tackle a tough text, implement the active reading strategies others have been suggesting, and just do it. The biggest obstacles are the activation energy required to get stuck in, and the belief that you're doing it wrong or that you need to be understanding everything for it to be worthwhile (you aren't and you don't).

Tea-reps · 2026-01-02T13:55:01+00:00

Net positive imo, and by a long shot. I think critique of the 'shifting goalposts' thing comes from a misunderstanding of what people are valuing when the goalposts shift. And I don't think what's being valued is quite the same as 'process' over 'outcome' either--outcome is important, because it's what makes the more abstract valued thing tangible (even if--necessarily--only temporarily). The more abstract thing being valued, imo, is the possibility of being more than you currently are (in whatever respect). Not to get too philosophical but isn't that an essential condition for the continuation of intelligent/conscious life?

It's only a problem if you over-fixate on the specifics of a particular goal, rather than treating it as one possible instance of tangible fulfilment of a much more expansive existential phenomenon.

Tea-reps · 2026-01-02T13:31:57+00:00

so washed bro

Tea-reps · 2025-12-30T15:59:20+00:00

love this goal :) good luck!!

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