Borneo International Marathon 2012 – My Sub-5 Hour Training Plan

Last month, I signed up for the Borneo International Marathon which will be held on May 6, 2012.  This will be my marathon no. 4.  I completed 3 marathons in 2010.  Zero in 2011.  This year, I want to complete 3 or 4 marathons.  If all things go well, number 5 will be the Milo Marathon 2012 in July and number 6 will be in Macau in December.  Probably another one between September and October.

I hope that in one of these marathons, I can set a new PR.  In fact, my goal is to finish within five hours since that is the cut-off time of the Macau Marathon.  My best time in a marathon is still 5:29:48 during the Hong Kong Marathon last 2010.

My Marathon Strategy

I have very little mileage last 2011.  I had to start from scratch.  I started running 5Ks end of November.  By December, I was able to complete 10Ks again.  But all of them with regular walk breaks.  This is my strategy to complete the marathon.

I am using the run/walk method popularized by Jeff Galloway.  I would run for 5 minutes and walk for 1 minutes.  I would just repeat it over and over until I reach my target mileage for the day.

The Training Plan

I did not follow a specific training plan.  I just followed these tips.

• Run 3-4 times a week.  In my case, it’s 3 times a week.  I seldom reach 4 runs in a week.
• Increase mileage gradually by 10%.  That is adding about 2-3 kilometers a week.
• One of the run is an LSD.
• The other runs will be my base mileage and tempo runs.  I started with 5Ks and increased it to 8Ks.  Now, I am doing 10Ks and probably end with 12Ks in the final month.

By January, I am running close to 20Ks.  I was hoping that by February I would reach the 30K mark.  But I felt my body needs to recover for a few weeks.  Thus, I spent one week repeating the mileage of the previous week.  This weekend, I would reach the 32K mark.

Many training plans would tell you to stop at 32K and ask you to taper or cross train.  But I prefer running close to a 42K in my training.

Along the way, I only joined two races.  One 10K and one 21K.  Both events fit my training schedule that’s why I joinined.  I would probably join a 16K and run it twice to fit my mileage for that week.

The sub-5 Hour Marathon Plan without Injuries

In order to finish within 5 hours, I need to keep a pace of 7:00 mins/km.  Actually, it should be 7:05, but I need a buffer to make sure I finish ahead of my target time.

But with the run/walk method, it means that I should run faster in the run interval.  During my runs, I found out that I need to run at about 6:30 mins/km for five minutes and walk easily for one minute.  If there are hills, I need to run close to 6:00 min/km just to catch up.  Keeping it at 6:30 is doable, but once I hit 6:00 with the hills at the later part is very challenging.

The walk interval makes a difference.  I helps me recover during the run.  I am less prone to injuries.  Since I started training for this marathon, I never had a major injury that kept me away from the road.  I had the usual muscle aches but nothing serious.  Hopefully, it stays that way.  Injury-free.

46 Days to go

It’s 46 days to go before the marathon.  So far, my training looks good and I would hit the target finish times of my LSDs most of the time.

But there are times that I would feel slow and miss my target.  It’s discouraging and I would wonder if I can really finish in 5 hours.

Yet, I just stick on the plan and eventually make it up in the following week.  I would finish my LSD a few minutes ahead which gives me the confidence again that I can break the 5 hour barrier.

Pinoys Represent! at Borneo Marathon

So far, I know that Ellen and Roselle aka Running Diva will be running the same marathon too.  But it’s funny that we haven’t trained together.  We would see each other running once in a while but never ran together from start to finish.  Anyway, wishing you luck in your training ladies.  And see you on the road.

Who else is joining?