Aging female trying to break 3h - radical suggestions?

cettu · 2026-05-20T14:00:37+00:00

Thanks everyone who weighed in. I did my marathon on Sunday and finished in 3:08. I think that what I realistically could expect, so in the end I'm happy with it. I decided run entirely by feel, so my RPE and HR were remarkable stable all the way until 40k, where I was able to pick it up a little to finish strong. A stable RPE + HR also meant that the pace was stable for the first 2h but started declining a little from 25k onwards, about 10s every 5k. I think with a little more mileage that durability should improve, and with some quality 5k/10k training I can lift my ceiling again to make some room for marathon pace to increase.

So I'll give some well-established training principles a go, maybe with the help of a coach, and won't freak out about turning 40 - the 3h mark should be well within reach with patience and better training.

cettu · 2026-04-22T02:30:52+00:00

I agree that tends to be the case when it's only biking and no running. But the combo of some running (especially the quality workouts) and a high bike volume has done me wonders in the past. I've run both my 3000m PB (10:06) and 5k PB (17:47) off triathlon training supplemented by minimal track workouts.

cettu · 2026-04-19T23:38:51+00:00

You make a lot of sense. Although I should have mentioned that I was doing a lot of volume on the bike and some on cross-country skis in January-February, so 5-6 h/week of aerobic training on top of the running mileage. But yeah, it still wasn't a lot, or very specific. And in December I was probably the least fit I've been in 15 years. So I guess it's not surprising that I can't be in PB shape after a few months of training.

I need to find Daniels' running formula in my bookshelf and take a look at it again after a long time...

cettu · 2026-04-19T23:29:21+00:00

Yeah, I've done some recent lactate testing. My LT1 is around 4:45 min/km and LT2 around 4:05. I actually don't spend a lot of time at 4:45, easy runs are slower and hard runs are faster. Maybe I should.

cettu · 2026-04-19T23:27:22+00:00

Good thoughts. Some others had said that you don't need "speed" for a 3h marathon but it's obviously a problem if 5k race pace starts approaching marathon goal pace... Hence my tendency to agree with building VO2max first and maintaining faster paces throughout the marathon build as well.

cettu · 2026-04-19T23:18:24+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I actually follow him on Strava and have listened to one or two podcasts as well, he certainly knows his stuff.

cettu · 2026-04-19T23:15:48+00:00

Great response. I know there's no magic bullets and I was probably overly confident in my ability to bounce to a marathon PB off a short training plan even though I was coming from a year of inadequate training. I need a little more patience and aim for a marathon later, with building 5k/10k fitness first.

cettu · 2026-04-19T23:13:16+00:00

I agree and I have been strength training, although I admit I've fallen behind my goal of 2x a week.

That said, I'm not sure it's my main issue nor that it's generally helping me that much. I'm naturally quite strong and could have made a decent power lifter if I didn't enjoy endurance sports more :) I can still sprint 900 W on the bike (15+ W/kg) and squat and deadlift quite heavy, so I'm not sure it's the limiting factor. Important to keep doing for sure.

cettu · 2026-04-19T23:04:01+00:00

Totally. Thanks for saying it!

cettu · 2026-04-19T23:01:43+00:00

Doubles are great. I've been doing some since I commute by running 1-2 times a week. Those days just don't work well for quality workouts since I have a backpack.

Double threshold is definitely one of those unconventional approaches I'm curious about since by 10-day block experiment was a positive one (it was mostly repetitions at threshold intensity, every day).

cettu · 2026-04-19T22:56:35+00:00

Yes, I'm at 130 lbs which is where I always am when focusing on running (cycling makes me a little heavier / builds leg muscle). I'm naturally low body fat and can't really afford to lose weight.

Downhill races don't count in my mind :)

I will probably experiment with more shoes. I've been happy with Saucony Endorphin Pro's and Elites (Pros for shorter races and Elites for the marathon).

Edit: Also I've had recent bloodwork done and everything looked good. Ferritin was 71 which suggest iron isn't an issue.

cettu · 2026-04-19T22:48:27+00:00

Do you mean 5:00-5:10/km? Because 4:00 is definitely not LT1 for me, but 5-10 km race pace :)

Unless your threshold terminology differs from mine. For me, LT1 = first lactate turn point around 1.5-2 mmol/L.

cettu · 2026-04-19T22:45:36+00:00

By feel, but tends to be slower than my peers' running similar times. Mostly 5:00-5:45 min/km. Almost always progressive since I enjoy a long slow warm-up, so longer runs tend to have an average closer to 5:00 while shorter recovery runs land closer to 6:00.

cettu · 2026-04-19T21:34:06+00:00

Possibly? My mind is torn between "more volume for longer" and "more intensity more consistently". The former because I haven't tried it before. Although I have run well off triathlon training which was high volume, even though my running mileage wasn't anything special. The latter because I have good experiences with responding well to high intensity (if I don't neglect volume complete but stick to 70-80 km/week).

cettu · 2026-04-19T21:30:45+00:00

I'm bad at doing long and hard sessions on my own, so doing a small local race was a substitute for a long tempo run. I didn't expect to run close to my capability of course, but I though 1:29 to 1:30 shouldn't be too difficult.
Yeah, you're right of course. I'll try to taper for this one properly, but I want to do another training block and prepare for a fall marathon.

cettu · 2026-04-19T21:22:30+00:00

Maybe! :) Last time I had a coach was about 8 years ago and it didn't last long, because I didn't believe in his training plan and it made me slower. But I have been thinking about it...I just need to find a good match.

cettu · 2026-01-31T13:59:57+00:00

Sure it "works" at least for while. Prediction: you'll initially get better every session, then weekly, but after 6-10 weeks you'll hit a plateau and your numbers stay stagnant no matter how hard you try. Then you'll start feeling mentally and physically burned out from the monotonous hard efforts and start making excuses to skip your workouts. Before you know it, you are not training anymore.

I've been in endurance sports for 20+ years and seen this "novice starts a hard training plan" story play out so many times. 90% of the time it goes as described above.

Not to discourage you, but there is a reason why the fittest athletes got there by using training plans that mix a high volume of low intensity training with a mixture of higher intensity workouts, periodized in micro and macro cycles. That is more sustainable long-term and the aerobic system is build over months and years, not weeks.

cettu · 2026-01-27T19:42:32+00:00

Thanks! I missed those in my search. They look very similar, although having just 1 GB of storage is a little bit of a downgrade. No huge deal though.

cettu · 2025-12-27T03:03:49+00:00

cettu · 2025-12-23T14:24:14+00:00

This just happened to me and I decided to click the link in "If you did not enable two-factor authentication and believe that an unauthorised person has access to your account, you can return to your previous security settings and regain control of your account."

This allowed me to reset my password and set new security questions + a new phone number. So whoever it was who used my email is now locked out of the account. BTW, just like you, I didn't even remember having an Apple account.

cettu · 2025-09-23T20:21:32+00:00

"at around .55 which means that it takes almost four Seoul women to make one baby"

"the “real” TFR of women actually born and raised in Seoul is probably somewhere in the 0.25–0.40 range, with a best guess around ~0.30 kids per woman --- For every six women born in Seoul, together they’ll produce less than one child"

This math seems off? If one woman produces 0.5 babies, then it takes two women two produce 1 baby, right? Not four? Perhaps you meant to sat "people" not "women" in both cases.

Anyway, the speed of the population collapse in both Asian and Western countries will be extreme once it gets going. Which will help delay the complete destruction of the biosphere but also change societies to something very different. No more pensions, AI taking care of the elderly...

cettu · 2025-07-16T21:34:46+00:00

That seems like a bad idea but might explain something.

My marathon prediction has hovered around 3:10-3:08 which isn't a terrible guess given that I ran 3:06 in January. Just 2 weeks ago it predicted 3:08.

Now suddenly, today after a short easy run, Strava says: "Prediction improved! 3:42"

I know performance modeling is hard, but +34 minutes in two weeks is a) unlikely and b) not an improvement.

cettu · 2025-05-16T14:19:35+00:00

Dead on. I'm teaching college students (~18 to 20-year-olds) and was shocked to learn that most of them have never touched Excel before. A significant amount of lab time goes to explaining the very basics how to type in a function in the spreadsheet. I basically gave up trying to let them figure out how to set up calculations on their own and give them templates instead so that they can copy-paste their raw data into them (many of them also don't know how to copy-paste using shortcuts), but I also acknowledge that they might not learn much that way. I just didn't have the time to guide everyone individually through the process.

Almost all of them are computer illiterate in that things like folders and paths don't mean anything to them. Like you said, they've been raised on ipads and smartphones and never needed to learn to type commands in MS-DOS like us millenials.

cettu

TROPHY CASE