6 weeks to PBIM and beyond....

After running 3 marathons, the sub 4 hour goal still seems to loom far away. With my last attempt at KL marathon weighing in about the same time with last year, both motivation and time seems to be wanting.

Looking through my blogs for the 3 races, the one thing that always got me was the taper and the endurance. The best so far was the 2009 SCSM, where I went pretty strong until the 31st km. I could have easily gone sub 4, even if I had to slow down to 10kph. Unfortunately, that was not to be...

Another 6 weeks to go, I hope to go into higher gear for 4 weeks, and not taper to less than 40k for the 2nd last week.

Hopefully, I'll be able to have a PB at least.

Perusing through all the articles, most pointers for those on the wrong side of 40 focus on the need to balance intensity with recovery. Hence, trying to make up for both speed and endurance at one go may not be desirable.

For next year, it would be great to work on my speed. Trudging at full effort doesn't seem to get me there faster, so I'm thinking of limiting my targets for 2011 for half marathons max and try to achieve the following goals by end 2011;

5 half marathons
5 > 10k
10 10k races

5k - 22min (PB 24+)
10k - 45 min (PB 48+)
21k - 1hr 45min (PB 1hr 50+)

With these kind of times, I'd think the base speed doesn't become an issue. The question will be more on endurance for 2012. I'll probably be working on at least 2 marathons and 1 ultra, depending if I can keep the body working in 1 piece...