Ever want to pace an elite marathoner?

[Bateluer]

http://news.runtowin.com/2011/11/12/new-yorkers-can-race-ryan-hall-for-60-feet.html

They created a display that shows Ryan Hall running for 60 feet down the hallway at his marathon pace of 4:45 per mile. Subway travelers were invited to race against him and then given some stats…for example, did you know that his stride length is 6 feet 10 inches? Wowzas…

Would be neat to see how I fare. Bet I could do it for at least 60 feet. 😛

 

[MotF Bane]

I can't figure out what that is in seconds, my math worked out to 194, which has to be wrong.

 

[Zorander]

My sprint speed can't even match his speed. 😱

 

[SociallyChallenged]

He's running about 12mph. I could maintain that for about an 800m dash when I used to run 🙁

 

[brikis98]

Awesome idea. Terrific way to display the mind boggling speed that guy can maintain.

 

[Megatomic]

I'll be honest, on a flat straightaway he'd make me look foolish, but it would be fun to give it a try on my terrain. He trains on trails out in Mammoth so he's gonna be good on trails too, just not THAT good. He's amazing.

 

[tedrodai]

He's running about 12mph. I could maintain that for about an 800m dash when I used to run 🙁

Yeah his pace is mighty close to what my old 800m pace was. I maybe could have kept it up a tad longer, but heck...he'd have kept up with me, then done it another 52 times after I stopped to keep myself from passing out.

 

[roguerower]

I can't figure out what that is in seconds, my math worked out to 194, which has to be wrong.

He's running a quarter in the low 70s. That's fucking fast for that distance, I don't care who you are or used to be. I flirted with 5 minutes miles late in HS and early in college. In my current shape I'd be lucky to flirt with 7min miles.

Fuck, I'm out of shape.

 

[SWScorch]

That is an awesome idea! I ran a 4:56 mile in a workout, so I'm pretty sure that when I'm in shape I could keep up with him for at least a mile, but I would probably puke immediately after. That's cool knowing how long his stride length is; I wonder what mine is!

 

[Bateluer]

In my current shape I'd be lucky to flirt with 7min miles.

Fuck, I'm out of shape.

I'm not sure what the average mile pace is in the US, but I'd wager its a lot slower than 7min.

Remember, the average finish time in a marathon has increased in the last couple of decades as more and more people run them.

 

[drteming]

Just to see what I can do, today on a flat section of my rail-trail route, I went as hard as I can for 1/2 mile. 5:23 pace per my Garmin watch. That screwed up the rest of my run. I thought I was going to pass out and puke at the same time...

 

[darkxshade]

How the heck do you run like that for 26 miles and not hit the wall? Damn, dude burned nearly 3k in calories in roughly 2 hours.

It takes me 4 hours to run a marathon. How do you improve your speed? I'd like to get under 3:30 for my purposes. I'm 170lbs and do resistance training as well. 🙁

 

[Bateluer]

How the heck do you run like that for 26 miles and not hit the wall? Damn, dude burned nearly 3k in calories in roughly 2 hours.

There's some articles about his training diets, he consumes ~6K per day during peak training if I remember.

It takes me 4 hours to run a marathon. How do you improve your speed? I'd like to get under 3:30 for my purposes. I'm 170lbs and do resistance training as well. 🙁

You improve your speed through a few ways. Speed work is a big one, like fartleks, interval training, and rolling hills. I'd also say that keeping a consistent training regimen will also improve your speed, but only to a point if thats all you do. If you Google Ryan Hall training, you'll find his training plans too.

 

[SWScorch]

How the heck do you run like that for 26 miles and not hit the wall? Damn, dude burned nearly 3k in calories in roughly 2 hours.

It takes me 4 hours to run a marathon. How do you improve your speed? I'd like to get under 3:30 for my purposes. I'm 170lbs and do resistance training as well. 🙁

Actually, I doubt he even burns 2000 calories. The higher trained you are, the more efficient you become. At that pace, he is still below his lactate threshold and his heart rate is probably still fairly low. Remember, this is a guy who came within a second or two of breaking 4 minutes for the mile. He is an endurance machine and is so highly trained (and so loaded up on carbs) that he can run just over 2 hours and probably not even use up his glycogen stores.

For the marathon, the best thing you can do to get faster is to simply run more. Every mile you run increases your aerobic capacity, strengthens your heart and lungs, and teaches your body to use carbs more efficiently. I'm guessing you probably run 3-5 times a week; try to bump that up to 5-6, with a long run of at least 2 hours and another medium-long, faster run every week, and you will see your times drop.

 

[Bateluer]

Actually, I doubt he even burns 2000 calories. The higher trained you are, the more efficient you become. At that pace, he is still below his lactate threshold and his heart rate is probably still fairly low. Remember, this is a guy who came within a second or two of breaking 4 minutes for the mile. He is an endurance machine and is so highly trained (and so loaded up on carbs) that he can run just over 2 hours and probably not even use up his glycogen stores.

True, runners become extremely efficient. But, he is consuming 6K calories per day during training, according to himself and his nutrionists.

http://www.fitsugar.com/Ryan-Halls-Marathon-Race-Diet-20415189?page=0,0,0

While training for a marathon, Ryan's said he eats around 6,000 calories per day and never goes more than a few hours without snacking. (The man is running 20 miles per day, five days a week, after all!) "When training for an endurance run, your body needs a lot of food since it is always recovering or refueling," says Ryan. Some of Ryan's favorite training foods include pasta, fish, and nut butter sandwiches.

Here's another article where he talks about food.

http://ryanhall.competitor.com/2010/08/09/nutrition-secrets/

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I'll be honest, on a flat straightaway he'd make me look foolish, but it would be fun to give it a try on my terrain. He trains on trails out in Mammoth so he's gonna be good on trails too, just not THAT good. He's amazing.

Seriously? It wouldn't even be close and that's putting it nicely. I remember hearing Lance Armstrong ran an amateur mountain biking race or something like that in his prime and blew everyone away badly. He also rode that race on a flat tire for a good amount of time.

 

[darkxshade]

For the marathon, the best thing you can do to get faster is to simply run more. Every mile you run increases your aerobic capacity, strengthens your heart and lungs, and teaches your body to use carbs more efficiently. I'm guessing you probably run 3-5 times a week; try to bump that up to 5-6, with a long run of at least 2 hours and another medium-long, faster run every week, and you will see your times drop.

I was pretty much doing that during my marathon training... ran my first one last month... been running for 3 years only though. Finished in 4:09, could have done under 4 but there was a crazy headwind throughout not to mention there was no gu/gatorade(only water) until mile marker 13(they said it would start giving them out on mile 8) which threw off my game plan.

Anyway, now that I'm done with my marathon, I've significantly tapered back to my usual 3x/week(totaling about 20 miles). I ran for speed last night and could only punch in 3 miles in 25 mins. 🙁

 

[Bateluer]

I was pretty much doing that during my marathon training... ran my first one last month... been running for 3 years only though. Finished in 4:09, could have done under 4 but there was a crazy headwind throughout not to mention there was no gu/gatorade(only water) until mile marker 13(they said it would start giving them out on mile 8) which threw off my game plan.

Anyway, now that I'm done with my marathon, I've significantly tapered back to my usual 3x/week(totaling about 20 miles). I ran for speed last night and could only punch in 3 miles in 25 mins. 🙁

That would tick me off. You plan based on the information the Race people provide. When they don't follow their own plans, its throws off everyone.

For the marathon, the best thing you can do to get faster is to simply run more. Every mile you run increases your aerobic capacity, strengthens your heart and lungs, and teaches your body to use carbs more efficiently. I'm guessing you probably run 3-5 times a week; try to bump that up to 5-6, with a long run of at least 2 hours and another medium-long, faster run every week, and you will see your times drop.

This strategy only works to a point. If you want to get faster, you have to run faster. Speedwork, like the fartleks and interval training I mentioned, are great for building speed. You will find these in every 'pro' runner's training regimen.

darkxshade, if you have a Garmin Forerunner, I know fartlek/interval training is actually built into the watch. I'm just not sure how to set it up for that. Its something I should now, since I've had a 305 since 2007. :sheepish:

 

[SWScorch]

This strategy only works to a point. If you want to get faster, you have to run faster. Speedwork, like the fartleks and interval training I mentioned, are great for building speed. You will find these in every 'pro' runner's training regimen.

darkxshade, if you have a Garmin Forerunner, I know fartlek/interval training is actually built into the watch. I'm just not sure how to set it up for that. Its something I should now, since I've had a 305 since 2007. :sheepish:

Couldn't agree more. But for the marathon, I have found that most people will improve just by increasing their mileage. Speedwork is very important too, but I like to have the mileage first and then think about speed (mileage lays the base, and speedwork sharpens it to achieve the end result).

Put another way, if I ran 40 miles and did 2 speed workouts a week, I could probably run a decent mile or 5K, but my marathon time would suffer. If I did 80 miles a week with no speedwork, I could probably still run a comparable mile/5K, and my marathon time would be much faster. But if I did 80 miles AND 2 workouts a week, all of my times would be much faster. So my experience just tells me that for longer races (especially the marathon), unless you are elite or sub-elite, mileage matters more than speedwork. But I still agree that speedwork is a crucial aspect of training for the marathon too. You really can't choose one over the other. You need both in order to be successful marathoner.