Ask the Coach: How to go from a 3:30 to a Sub-3-Hour Marathon in one year

Hi Mike, this year, I ran two half marathons (1:45 and 1:38) and a full marathon three weeks ago (3:30). I have an ambitious goal to run a sub-3-hour marathon in October of next year.

Could you advise me on how to improve my time from 3:30 to sub-3? What kind of training plan (e.g., Henderson, Norwegian) should I follow? Also, is it realistic to achieve this with one year of non-stop training?

Ayesha

Running coach answer: Move from a 3:30 to a sub-3-hour marathon in one year

Ayesha, it is good to have ambitious targets – challenging yourself is what running is all about – reaching a tough goal is what gets most out of the door, training much of the time. However, one of the conundrums of the sport is that you never know where your final ability is – you can ask, ‘Am I aiming too high or am I not ambitious enough?’

To some extent, if you have been running for some time at other distances, you may well have a feel. If you are new to running, you really don’t know.

Our ability limits would appear to be genetically set, but for most, we don’t know where that limit might be – it will probably be better than what you think is possible now. This makes setting targets difficult, and you probably want to go for medium-term incremental improvements – the endurance training for marathon racing has a long-term gain, and you could be looking at a couple of years to improve to 3 hours.

Your current times give you a feel of what is possible in the short to medium term, but as you improve, new targets present themselves. I would say, improve your half to 1.30, then a 3.15 marathon would seem reasonable. That’s not to say that you can’t get to a sub-3 marathon in October by improving your half significantly to support it.

But, for now, let’s assume you get to 3.15. The next improvement to 3hrs is suddenly in sight in your next marathon. Once you get to 3hrs, your ambition will shift to 2.50, and so on. At your starting point of 3.30, 2.50 (or faster) may seem like a dream.

Learning from other runners

A while back, I had a blog on Runners World that asked for volunteers who were currently running 3.30+ and looking to improve to 3hrs. This was in response to a reader asking the same question as yours.

One of the volunteer runners stands out, Dawn. Dawn had run 3.35 and was still predominantly a swimmer/triathlete who had turned to running. Gradually, we increased the volume of run training while reducing the triathlon-type training she was doing. She didn’t get to 3hrs straightaway, after a couple of PB’s, she managed to get a women’s championship qualifying place in London (sub-3.15). In London, she ran 3.05. With a little more volume, Dawn got well under 3hrs and also went on to win the women’s section of the tough South Downs Marathon.

It was a similar story for Janice, who I met on a training camp. Janice ran her first marathon in 4.48, then came on the camp to learn about running. Three years of gradually increasing training volume, including running twice a day on several days each week, she got down to 2.48 – a 2hr improvement – she won the Harrow and Manchester Marathons, finished second in the Manila Marathon and ran for Team GB in a marathon in Puna, India.

Another runner, Jenny, went from 3.15 in Berlin to 2.31in Frankfurt several years later. And Ollie went from 3.10 to 2.54 and is now targeting sub 2.50 in Manchester.

My own story is somewhat similar. I was already an English Schools track 5,000m winner and moved onto the road after my College years. Eventually, I ran the marathon as an established runner over middle distances in my 20’s. In my first marathon I finished 11th in the Essonne (Paris) Marathon in 2.21.30, I went on to win the Polytechnic Marathon in Windsor in 2.19, then finished 12th in the GB Olympic trials (Milton Keynes) with 2.18, went on to finish 3rd in the AAA of England Champs (Rugby) with 2.16, followed by 2.12.30 in the London Marathon, 2.12.06 in the Commonwealth Games (Brisbane) and then 2.9.43 in London. The point being, I never thought when I ran the 2.21.30 that I could eventually run under 2.10 and win a major title.

Each improvement led me to believe the next target was attainable – although improvement was with a few hiccups in race results on the way – it was not a straight-line graph.

The theme, with all of these runners, including myself, is that improvement came over a period of two to three years, with an increase in training volume with each new marathon training block.

If contemplating which marathon training technique to follow, I would say, when you get down to it, all of the marathon systems are based on a high volume of steady state running; Henderson and the Norwegian methods, as asked about in the question, do the same thing aerobically. The differences are in the way speedwork is used in the final months of the training block; the rest of the time (most of the training), there is a concentration on lots of easy to steady running, keeping at a pace below lactate threshold. The volume of running at a steady pace is known to be physiologically beneficial.

This, in fact, goes back to the 1950’s and 60’s when the influential coach Arhtur Lydiard developed his theory of ‘aerobic capacity’ building. This depended on a long period of steady running, moving through to leg strength training on hills, then to threshold and then event-specific speedwork. I coach the Lydiard technique; building a big base to the pyramid, then increasingly running faster so that the marathoner is doing 10km, 5km and even mile-type training in the final weeks, to come to the peak of the pyramid in race week.

I am not suggesting that it is not possible to go from 3.30 to 3hrs in a 10-month time scale – it definitely is possible but it depends on your background, the type of runner you are, how easily you adapt to increases in volume, as well as the real unknown, your genetic limits.

Get into a cycle of gradually increasing volume by building consistency and the frequency of runs, work on your half-marathon and 10km speed this coming spring to get faster by early summer. Then, with the October marathon in mind, go back into an aerobic base period through the summer, followed by 16 weeks of progressively more intense pace work alongside the long runs, then, who knows?

Ready to smash your marathon goals? Whether you’re aiming to conquer the 3:30 barrier or break the elusive 3-hour mark, we’ve got a plan for you.

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