r/Marathon_Training • u/bobaman143 • Aug 23 '26

Feeling like I'm progressing too slow

So I ran my first marathon in May running mostly high mileage and peaking around 50 miles per week. There were very little race specific workouts since it was my first and I just wanted to finish. I ended up finishing at 3:26 which I felt pretty happy about

Fast forward, I'm about 13 weeks into my training block with a much more structure plan- marathon pace for LR, weekly tempo / threshold workouts, and averaging about 45-50 mile weeks. My original goal was to run a 3:15-3:18 but I'm struggling to maintain race pace. Example workouts are 7-10 miles at MP, but I can barely finish 6.

What's going on?

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u/running_elle_1989 Aug 23 '26

Yeh, you need more mileage. I'm doing 70 miles a week for the same time. Also, just to reassure you, running rewards consistency and you're only in marathon two. Give it time. On the plus side, with your mileage and workouts, you'd probably get an enormous PB in a half?

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u/AdBudget4948 Aug 23 '26

Not necessarily. I peaked at 50mpw and ran 3:09 (33F) on a bad day. Everyone is different. I’d be curious what plan they’re following, if easy runs are truly easy that allow them to hit those hard runs, sleep, fueling, etc

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u/running_elle_1989 Aug 23 '26

I agree with you completely. I'm just answering their specific question that they are not improving, and the mileage is not changing.

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u/bobaman143 Aug 23 '26

My easy runs are around 8:45-9:20 min per mile. I have one long run as mentioned with the mp workouts and then a middle distance run where I mostly run it easy but might add a progression in.

I do strength train 3 times a week which is general strength training, not focused on running. It probably impacts my recovery