Are you seeking sub 3hr marathon tips to help get you under the barrier? If so, welcome to Rundreamachieve.com. I'm glad you are here. The fact that you are seeking how to run a sub 3 hour marathon already tells me you are winner. Average people are not seeking how to run a marathon under 3 hours, respectfully. A 3 hour marathon is a an elite time that only a few athletes around the world achieve each year.
You need to sustain 6.52 per mile for 26.2 miles or 5.41 per kilometer for 42.2 kilometers. No rest breaks between miles. So, you need to train in such a way to get you the results you want. I have run 2.19.35 for the marathon distance. My goal in writing that is not to impress you but to impress upon you what is possible. I didn't have a lot of talent but what I did possess what an enormous amount of work ethic. So, what I lacked in talent I knew I had to make up for with sweat equity. Listen, what you are aiming to do is not going to be easy.
My goal as a mentor and coach is not to make you feel good. You need to be taken outside of your comfort zone. A marathon finish time starting with a 2 is what you are looking for. My aim is to ensure you get that goal time and do it in a smart way. I'll also add that the hardest working athletes are not always the athletes getting their goals achieved. Who, often times, are? The smartest training athletes.
Is a Sub Three Hour Marathon Possible?
Of course it is. Someone else has done so why cannot you? Yes, it may take you longer if you are lacking in talent like I was. It may take someone with a great deal of genetic talent a couple months to do it. It may take someone with little to no talent 5 years. The key thing to remember is you have to rely on your tenacity. You came to this site because you wanted to break a 3 hr marathon. So, let's get you to that goal.
The suubconscious mind, cannot tell the difference, between reality or imagination – Billy Mills, Olympic gold medalist, 10,000m
I created an in-depth course called the Sub 3 Hour Marathon Pro. The course covers all angles of what it takes to run a sub 3 hour marathon. In addition, it concludes with the exact sub three hour marathon program I would follow if I were aiming at a sub 3 marathon time.
What Does it Take to Run Under 3 Hours for the Marathon
It takes a smart plan and some patience. You need to train at, near as well as far below 6:52 mile pace and often. In addition, you need to learn to jog on recovery days. Remember, the benefits of all of your hard work come within the rest period. I encourage you to research the word “supercompensation”. There are a lot of runners who have never heard of the term. My goal is for you to not only train hard but also have the same discipline to run slow on easy days.
Why? You want to get a return on your investment on all of your hard work. You need to not only train faster than 6 minute pace but also learn to jog at 9 minute mile pace. I trained with sub 2:10 marathoners who would run 9 to 10 minute mile pace on their easy days. So, if runners of that caliber can slow down when it counts most so can you and I. I broke the 2:20 marathon barrier only once in my career. A big reason for achieving that level of running was taking into account all areas of my training.
The same goes for you. I do a deep dive of sub 3hr marathon training in the sub 3 hour marathon pro course. In addition, we touch on other topics such as…
- Heart rate monitor training
- The proper paces you need to be running on easy, moderate and hard days
- How long should your tempo runs really be
- What tactic you need to start using in your long runs to get maximum results
- Nutritional tips that sub 3 hour marathoners must use in order to be great
- The exact strategies I used to run 2 hours, 19 minutes and 35 seconds for the marathon distance
- and much more
How Hard is It to Run a Sub 3 Hour Marathon?
I will not lie to you and write that it will be easy. The fact of the matter is running a sub 3hr marathon is an extremely demanding goal. That being said, I already know you have the capacity to it by you being here. The trick now is to switch off what has not worked for you in the past and get you results. Of course, I cannot guarantee you a sub 3 hour marathon time. What I can promise is that what you will learn will drastically increase your chances of running 2:59:59 or faster.
Running a marathon under 3 hours will mean you need to get comfortable running at closer to 5 minute to 5 minute and 30 second mile pace in training. Of course, you will not start off immediately running at this pace in the course. The overall goal is progression and getting you acclimated to the stresses you will be placing on your body. I am also a big believer in a 10-day rather than a 3-week taper. I set the following personal bests using a 10-day taper…
- 14:18 – 5K
- 50:54 – 10 miles
- 1:07:06 – half-marathon
- 1:21:31 – 25 kilometers
- 1:44:05 – 20 miles
- 2:19:35 – marathon
How Many Miles a Week Should I Run for a Sub 3 Hour Marathon?
Remember, quality over quantity. The Sub 3 hour marathon course focuses on smarter training. You already know how to work hard. How many hard working athletes do you know who still miss hitting their time objectives? So, you need to focus on training properly anaerobically but also aerobically. It isn't just about how high your mileage is. Runners brag all the time how many miles a week they run. You know what 140 mile weeks got me? Nothing. It left me tired, fatigued and stressed out.
In addition, I was second guessing myself wondering when I was going to get the marathon right. I broke the 2:20 marathon barrier on 80 to 90 miles a week. Can you run under 3 hours for the marathon on 50 to 60 miles per week? Of course. Again, it goes back to attention to detail and setting up your plan accordingly.
Closing Thoughts
So, if you are aiming to run under the sub 3hr marathon barrier I hope this brief post has been helpful. There are resources here that will speed up the process of you becoming a sub 3 hour marathoner. I also created a sub 3 hour marathon training plan that may be of interest to you. Of course, if you really want to know the ins and outs of how I ran 2:19 check out the RunDreamAchieve Academy.
I look forward to hearing about your success. Make sure to visit our nutritional sister site NutritionGeeks for all your nutritional needs. Running success involves doing many little things right to get big results. Remember, the key thing I want to leave you with is to use leverage. Leverage simply means doing more with less. 78 percent of the working population are living paycheck to paycheck.
Do you not think these same people not know how to work hard? Of course they know how. So, do get better results you need to think outside the box. Working harder isn't always the answer in running or in life. You need to find out what successful people do and in this case runners and simply duplicate their work habits. Visit the RunDreamAchieve YouTube channel for free tips and strategies to get the most out of your training.
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