Subject: Running Marathon in Z4 For background: Done a couple marathons, last one in 2013 before I started in Tri. Have done IMWI 2015, many other HIM and several 1/2 Marathons since. I had not used a HR monitor before Tri so I have no info on how hard I ran those marathons.
This is an light year so just a one HIM, some running races and my A-Race is a marathon to PR in October.
This year in April and just today I did a 1/2 marathon race. Both were mostly flat with a couple rollers on part. I needed to stay in Zone 4 entire race to keep up my target pace (8:30/mile ) for my A-Race marathon in October. I am 30-45 seconds/mile off my peak when I did the same race in 2015 during IM training. I also ran that 2015 1/2 marathon in Z4.
I had my zones professionally tested in 2014. Even though that was a while ago, the zones feel pretty accurate as once I go into Z5, I have about 15-30 seconds there before I start getting light headed and need to back it down. I did hit Z5 on a couple hills in April and today.
My training in last 6 months has been less than optimal because of family scheduling, additional load at work and simply not a big enough A-Race to motivate me. Upside is that I am down 15 pounds from a year ago and within 5 pounds on day of IMWI 2015
I think I know the answer to this question, but is it possible to run a Marathon in Z4? Is it reasonable that a re-committment to my training schedule (planned by Outrival ) could get me to my target pace per mile by October? Is more mileage or more speedwork going to get me there?
Edited by scottficek 2017-05-07 1:47 PM
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