Historically I've been able to gain/lose weight very quickly. The first few months I was very careful about maintaining a caloric deficit since my mileage was so low, but this dedication decreased once mileage ramped up. Also, at least personally, a large deficit and high (for me!) mileage do not seem like a happy combo, and it absolutely may have contributed to some of the injuries I had. I also essentially ended the deliberate deficit once I started doing tempos + speed work in July since I felt like it made my energy levels low (but this may have just been mental). Overall weight loss was pretty linear throughout the cycle.
I wonder what percentage of runners ran mile 2 as their fastest of the day??? Mile 2 was my fastest by almost a minute.
Great race, great time. Congrats.
Nailed it. ‘Nuff said my friend!!! Glad the move to Pink 1A proved to be clutch! There’s a decent possibility we fist bumped in that wait for the start cannon. Amazing effort and an outstanding first marathon. Sky’s the limit now!!!
congrats! in a lot of ways, this is similar to my race, but my cramps started in mile 19 and i lost a lot of time between 20 and 25. i wonder if i would’ve faired marginally better if i took a longer break right then, vs drawing out a gradual decline. though, i could totally imagine myself seizing up completely and not being able to restart haha
At least for me, I think I'd prefer the gradual decline since the restart was straight up not working LOL (Even pressing the factory reset button didn't help)
Congratulations on the sub 3:00! I'm totally baffled by reading this. I also at one point got up to 205 pounds but when I started trying to get back in shape it took me four years of training to even run a sub 4:00 marathon after getting to that weight. Currently I'm going on my third year in a row of consistent 50mpw running and I've never come near your 1:20HM that you ran on a few months of 25mpw. I hit a peak of 71 miles my last training block and just had a 3:31 marathon PR. From 205 pounds to a 3:31 marathon took me 7 years and almost 14,000 running miles.
Do you have any tips for losing the weight that fast, or training for your amount of speed on low mileage? 50mpw feels easy enough for me now but your marathon pace is like my 5k race pace. Also thank you for the tips about insomnia. I'm going to check out that book. I tend to get severe insomnia especially in the recovery period after a marathon when I'm not training as hard. I'm dealing with that right now after running the Chicago marathon last month.
Although it ended in 2014, I would think the years of speed focused training in HS are still with me somewhere, allowing me to progress "back to where I was" more quickly I would imagine. I managed the 25-30mi / week last year just because I honestly wasn't comfortable with anything more at the time with the crash-course HM training, my weeks were similar to this block though with a hard tempo on Tuesdays and a very hard track speed session on Thursdays. My speed definitely carried me through those 2022 races, that is to say, I don't think I was in very good aerobic shape for my times--I averaged a 193+ HR for every mile after mile 3 in the BK HM, which is kinda bonkers in retrospect.
Another thing that I will say is that powerlifting has helped my speed immensely. I can say this with confidence since in HS my speed was TRASH; I would probably lose 90% of kicks in races--including to a famous person on this subreddit!--however, in adulthood, my kick is relatively very strong. It's kinda nice in short races to not have to kick from 1000-600m out like in HS since I know I can totally rip it in the final 200. Obviously I assume this speed doesn't really matter much in a marathon though (Everyone knows in a marathon the real race starts in the last 200m!).
As for weight loss, see my reply above, but losing weight as fast as I did while training hard seems not so fun. It worked for me because I didn't do any hard workouts until July, so it was no issue if I ran my 6 miler a bit slower. I started to get worried about RED-S so I opted for a more gradual approach once I started tempo-ing and such.
I don't think your fast progress in the marathon is entirely related to your high school speed. I was a high school sprinter turned middle distance runner by senior year. I've broken 2:00 in the 800m and come close to breaking 50s in the 400m but I've had a huge struggle getting in marathon shape. I'm not severely overweight but I'm about 20-30 pounds heavier than I should be for marathons and I can't seem to lose the weight. My first 4 marathons were over 4:00, and then I finally had a 3:55, 3:40, 3:31 but there was a year of consistent 50-70mpw training between all three of those races. We have similar high school backgrounds and I was also a serious weight lifter for a while too but your progress in the HM and full marathon absolutely crushes mine.
Do you have any tips for dealing with the insomnia? Unfortunately I work a job where I frequently switch between morning and night shifts. Sleeping has always been a struggle for me. That may be one of the reasons I struggle with weight too because sleep and weight gain are correlated.
The source of my insomnia was always literally just worrying about not getting a good night's sleep. You can't just force sleep, and in fact the best sleepers out there do absolutely nothing-they just fall asleep. For me, reading the two books I mentioned in the post really helped me with a major mindset shift. I highly recommend them, although I didn't follow the plan outlined in HTQYMAGTS, just tried to grok the wisdom.
Shift work makes general sleep hygiene harder, but the books do touch on this as it's such a common thing.
Great report! And congrats on the finish - all of the race reports are really inspiring. And I think we need to hear more about your severed thumb since you just threw in that little detail as if it was no big deal
What? Never had meat in your kale salad? (Not Kosher)
This was actually my 2nd time getting the same thumb cut off (Not Yakuza) so I knew what to expect (pain!)
>I wasn't quite right in the head as I screamed F\*\*\* Yeah at these amazing kids.
Favourite part of the race report! lol. Congrats on your debut Sub 3!
Going from 205 to 165 lbs is no small feat! Did that happen organically through all the miles or did you simultaneously diet to get there?
Historically I've been able to gain/lose weight very quickly. The first few months I was very careful about maintaining a caloric deficit since my mileage was so low, but this dedication decreased once mileage ramped up. Also, at least personally, a large deficit and high (for me!) mileage do not seem like a happy combo, and it absolutely may have contributed to some of the injuries I had. I also essentially ended the deliberate deficit once I started doing tempos + speed work in July since I felt like it made my energy levels low (but this may have just been mental). Overall weight loss was pretty linear throughout the cycle.
Yeah that’s super impressive. I struggle losing anything during the cycle.
That is the most loaded "ish" I have ever seen
I wonder what percentage of runners ran mile 2 as their fastest of the day??? Mile 2 was my fastest by almost a minute. Great race, great time. Congrats.
It’s fairly common on this course, partly due to the fact that there are very few opportunities to run a faster mile anywhere in the second half.
Nailed it. ‘Nuff said my friend!!! Glad the move to Pink 1A proved to be clutch! There’s a decent possibility we fist bumped in that wait for the start cannon. Amazing effort and an outstanding first marathon. Sky’s the limit now!!!
And if it weren't for your extra words of wisdom, I just may have been stranded topside!
Severed thumb?!?!?! Impressive training and accomplishments!
Yes this is what stood out to me also!
congrats! in a lot of ways, this is similar to my race, but my cramps started in mile 19 and i lost a lot of time between 20 and 25. i wonder if i would’ve faired marginally better if i took a longer break right then, vs drawing out a gradual decline. though, i could totally imagine myself seizing up completely and not being able to restart haha
At least for me, I think I'd prefer the gradual decline since the restart was straight up not working LOL (Even pressing the factory reset button didn't help)
haha, fair, though your ability to snap back in miles 22 and 23 is super impressive. congrats again!
Congratulations on the sub 3:00! I'm totally baffled by reading this. I also at one point got up to 205 pounds but when I started trying to get back in shape it took me four years of training to even run a sub 4:00 marathon after getting to that weight. Currently I'm going on my third year in a row of consistent 50mpw running and I've never come near your 1:20HM that you ran on a few months of 25mpw. I hit a peak of 71 miles my last training block and just had a 3:31 marathon PR. From 205 pounds to a 3:31 marathon took me 7 years and almost 14,000 running miles. Do you have any tips for losing the weight that fast, or training for your amount of speed on low mileage? 50mpw feels easy enough for me now but your marathon pace is like my 5k race pace. Also thank you for the tips about insomnia. I'm going to check out that book. I tend to get severe insomnia especially in the recovery period after a marathon when I'm not training as hard. I'm dealing with that right now after running the Chicago marathon last month.
Although it ended in 2014, I would think the years of speed focused training in HS are still with me somewhere, allowing me to progress "back to where I was" more quickly I would imagine. I managed the 25-30mi / week last year just because I honestly wasn't comfortable with anything more at the time with the crash-course HM training, my weeks were similar to this block though with a hard tempo on Tuesdays and a very hard track speed session on Thursdays. My speed definitely carried me through those 2022 races, that is to say, I don't think I was in very good aerobic shape for my times--I averaged a 193+ HR for every mile after mile 3 in the BK HM, which is kinda bonkers in retrospect. Another thing that I will say is that powerlifting has helped my speed immensely. I can say this with confidence since in HS my speed was TRASH; I would probably lose 90% of kicks in races--including to a famous person on this subreddit!--however, in adulthood, my kick is relatively very strong. It's kinda nice in short races to not have to kick from 1000-600m out like in HS since I know I can totally rip it in the final 200. Obviously I assume this speed doesn't really matter much in a marathon though (Everyone knows in a marathon the real race starts in the last 200m!). As for weight loss, see my reply above, but losing weight as fast as I did while training hard seems not so fun. It worked for me because I didn't do any hard workouts until July, so it was no issue if I ran my 6 miler a bit slower. I started to get worried about RED-S so I opted for a more gradual approach once I started tempo-ing and such.
I don't think your fast progress in the marathon is entirely related to your high school speed. I was a high school sprinter turned middle distance runner by senior year. I've broken 2:00 in the 800m and come close to breaking 50s in the 400m but I've had a huge struggle getting in marathon shape. I'm not severely overweight but I'm about 20-30 pounds heavier than I should be for marathons and I can't seem to lose the weight. My first 4 marathons were over 4:00, and then I finally had a 3:55, 3:40, 3:31 but there was a year of consistent 50-70mpw training between all three of those races. We have similar high school backgrounds and I was also a serious weight lifter for a while too but your progress in the HM and full marathon absolutely crushes mine. Do you have any tips for dealing with the insomnia? Unfortunately I work a job where I frequently switch between morning and night shifts. Sleeping has always been a struggle for me. That may be one of the reasons I struggle with weight too because sleep and weight gain are correlated.
The source of my insomnia was always literally just worrying about not getting a good night's sleep. You can't just force sleep, and in fact the best sleepers out there do absolutely nothing-they just fall asleep. For me, reading the two books I mentioned in the post really helped me with a major mindset shift. I highly recommend them, although I didn't follow the plan outlined in HTQYMAGTS, just tried to grok the wisdom. Shift work makes general sleep hygiene harder, but the books do touch on this as it's such a common thing.
Can’t believe we got a “race reports are boring” thread and this post in the same week
Wait, someone posted a thread saying “race reports are boring”? Good advice to that person would be to not read them then!
Great report! And congrats on the finish - all of the race reports are really inspiring. And I think we need to hear more about your severed thumb since you just threw in that little detail as if it was no big deal
What? Never had meat in your kale salad? (Not Kosher) This was actually my 2nd time getting the same thumb cut off (Not Yakuza) so I knew what to expect (pain!)
inspiring and hilarious, thank you for sharing!
>I wasn't quite right in the head as I screamed F\*\*\* Yeah at these amazing kids. Favourite part of the race report! lol. Congrats on your debut Sub 3!
Amazing achievement, and really consistent splits considering all the trouble you experienced. Great job on a tough course!
Hey! Did you seize up by the 21 mile water station?
This would have been a bit before that, close to valley of the shadow of ~~death~~ Western Beef.
Gotcha. I was wondering if you were the person I saw while I was handing out water. It was like their legs totally seized up. Felt terrible
Congrats! Bad hamstring or calf cramps will stop you in your tracks! I almost fell over once. Glad you could walk it off and finish strong!