u/_bladerunner_

Longtime commentor, first time poster. I'm a mid 40s M who runs 5 days a week and is currently a few weeks post-marathon (was my 6th), and after putting together a decent training block and targeting a flat / fast course, I still wasn't able to get close to sub 3:30. See attached my recent 12 week plan i was working to, preceeding that was about 3-4 months of chilled base-building (about 40ish kms per week). The weather was a bit warmer on the day, and had crap sleep, but overall I felt like I had rocked-up with a decent aerobic engine, but by about 15km I realised i was struggling to hold the 4:55km/min pace i had been targeting, and kept drifting into the low 5:00-5:10's. At that point i decided to just run to HR and feel, and subsequently kept a very consistent heart rate in the 160s for the rest of the race to finish with a chip-time of 3:44 (actual strava time was around 3:40 due to running a few hundred extra m's somehow on the course).

I'm now targeting another flat / fast marathon in the first quarter of 2027, and proposing to essentially train to "overshoot" what is required for sub 3:30 i.e. try and get myself to a place where i have a few minutes buffer for any fading at the end / extra m's run due to course tangents etc. See attached my proposed plan which is now 18 weeks, and the main differences being more weeks of higher mileage north of 70kms per weeks, more weekend long runs north of 30km, the addition of a midweek long run that is roughly 2/3 the weekend long run in length, and a set tuesday threshold run when i really spin the wheels every week (not the biggest fan of intervals and have no access to a track). With all this in mind, would all the sub 3:30 marathoners out there feel this new proposed 18week plan should get me to where i need to be? Anything I should change / add to ensure I can finally hit this milestone? Before anyone asks, I was taking in 2 x 40g gels per hour, and sipping water from most aidstations after about 10km onwards, so my fueling I think is fine?

Many thanks in advance guys 🙏🏻