Running journal for Perth Marathon 2024

Context

I'm running my 3rd marathon in April at Bunbury 3 Waters Running Festival . My first marathon was April 2024 where I ran 3.10.06, 6 agonising seconds off my goal. After that I set the goal of running a sub-3 hour marathon at my second marathon - Perth Running Festival. I ran 3.28.56 off ~5 weeks of training after multiple injury setbacks in the build up.

In November 2024 I ran 1.28.44 in the Freo Running Festival HM - a ~3.30 PB off about a month of HM specific training.

The next main race is Bunbury 3 Waters Running Festival 2025. I want to keep a public diary here of how the training is going. The main reason I'm pushing here is that I'm lucky enough to have a lot of paternity

Goals

  • A goal: TBC
  • B goal: Sub 3-hours

Plan

Here is the full google sheet of my plan I'm making this up based off a few things:

  • Stealing workouts from my friends and books I've read recently.
  • The volume I think I can manage as father of 7month old and 4 year old.
  • The workouts I think will confidence to go sub-3.
  • Workouts that I think will bring me joy

Journal

Phase 1 - Power, base building, weight loss

The main focus here is weight loss. Thats always the focus, but I never am able to really deliver on that despite all the different things I try. I reckon I can get sub-3 at 93kgs, but man would it be easier if I was 5-8kgs lighter.

Secondary focus is to carefully build the volume back up to a point where I can transition into the higher volume straight away in January.

The final focus which is really the focus of the workouts is nudge power up a little bit. I can't remember which book I saw this in, but I thought it made sense as a pre-marathon training phase. Having an increased focus in this phase on strength work and power (aka hill intervals) will help with the weight loss and have the body strong for kms to come.

Week 1 - 25/11 - 1/12

I need to backfill these. Check the google sheet if you really wanna know

Week 2 - 2/12 - 8/12

I need to backfill these. Check the google sheet if you really wanna know

Week 3 - 9/12 - 15/12

Weight: ~94kgs. Goal Volume: 78kms

Monday

  • Morning. 8km Easy with Gilbo in the pram around hyde park when it was 35 degrees.
  • Evening: little lunge and core workout
  • Thoughts: Man its hot why do this.

Tuesday

  • Morning: Supposed to be 6x800s @ 3.35min/km with 60s rest. Executed reps well at 3.34,3.34, 3.32, 3.35, 3.34, but knew about half way that I was pushing myself pretty hard.
  • Thoughts: How to listen to the body without being fragile. Balancing getting in good workouts without sacrificing consistency.

Wednesday

  • Morning: 10km Easy at 9am
  • Thoughts: Bloody hot.

Thursday

  • Ran with Lenni to maylands hills at 9am and did 20 hill sprints. They are supposed to be longer, but you gotta take whatever hills near playgrounds you can get.

Friday

  • Morning: 50 minutes gym at 5.30am with both boys hanging out on the balcony listening to tunes. Overhead press and front squat as main focus - some other stuff.
  • Arvo: 8km at 1pm with Gilbo in pram around hyde park to make up my kms from shorter workouts on Tues/Thurs and make up his nap.
  • Thoughts: Listened to David Roche interview with Rich Roll and found it all very inspiring. Both just his general - lead with love - approach to life and his approach to training.

Saturday

  • Morning: 27km with 5km at MP. Originally this was supposed to be all easy, but I wore my old New Balance SC elites in case I wanted to push the pace in the Claisebrook park run I was finishing the run at. Ended up being a joy of a run . I did 19km at ~5.00min/km and HR only nudged into the 140s when I was pushing the pace in the last 3km thinking I was going to be late to park run. I ended up running the park run at ~4.11min/km, but was harder work than MP for sure.

Sunday

  • Morning: 5km Shuffle at 6.20min/km. Wasn't sore, but trying to focus on slowing right down on those recovery runs.

Week 4 - 16/12 - 22/12

Weight: ~93.5kgs. Goal Volume: 86kms

Monday

  • Morning: 9km easy avg pace of ~5.00min/km in the heavy $45 Pumas.
  • Thoughts: Avg HR here was 132, but I felt I had to work the legs a little hard to get the HR up into what I think is the zone 2 range. Is working the legs too hard in zone 2 a thing? Or have I miscalculated what zone 2 actually is?

Tuesday

  • Morning: 7.30am - 10x400s at 3.15min/km - 3.20min/km with 60 second rest. That pace is probably too quick in that heat for that amount of rest. Did 5 reps with the 60s rest, but then took between 60seconds and 3 minutes (before the last rep) rest to try and hit the speed.
  • Evening: 36mins weight training - deadlifts and overhead press as main focus of the workout.
  • Thoughts: Decided to add more rest rather than drop the speed as the focus is on power. If anything I could treat these more like a gym session and always have more rest between reps.

Wednesday

Thursday

  • Morning: 29km Easy. Bloody hard work running south along the freeway to Mount Henry bridge. Not sure if I was tired from workout/gym or if it was just the 20km/h headwind on the first 13km, but it was hard going today. Tried to keep heart rate at 130 and not worry about the pace. Avg pace of 5.21min/km, but last 10km with the tailwind still had a few 4.40s and 4.50s.
  • Thoughts: Won't be doing that route again anytime soon. I reckon I got through close to 200gs of carbs in the first two hours, but I could have mis-measured my home made gels. I had 60g in the water bottle and full gel pouch.
End

Was this helpful? Let me know. It was enjoyable to think about and write.