Welcome to the next edition of Ask Coach Parry. In this episode we heard from Scott. He has given us a bit of background here, Scott says he is 46 years old and has been running seriously for 2 years now with the following pb’s: 10km 43’, 15km 108’, 21km – 137’.

The problem he is sitting with is he battles to run a sub 4 hour marathon where he reckons he should be running between 3.30 and 3.40. Can you offer him some advice on how he can improve his marathon time?

Brad Brown:Welcome to the next edition of Ask Coach Parry. In this episode we heard from Scott. He has given us a bit of background here, Scott says he is 46 years old and has been running seriously for 2 years now with the following pb’s: 10km 43’, 15km 108’, 21km – 137’.

The problem he is sitting with is he battles to run a sub 4 hour marathon where he reckons he should be running between 3.30 and 3.40. Can you offer him some advice on how he can improve his marathon time?

Lindsey Parry:    This is very similar to the question we dealt with yesterday. There is definitely a disconnect between the shorter distances and the longer distances. As he goes longer, he is getting relatively slower than he should.

That tells me that there is a problem with the balance of the training. Either the volume is too low and the intensity is too high or, and he is definitely not doing his long runs at the appropriate pace or the appropriate distance for going longer.

It could be something else

But there could be another reason, and it is a very common mistake that people make, is that their easy runs are run at too high an average. Even if they feel like they are getting the balance of their week right, because they do a lot of their runs at a speed that is too high, they get more and more and more fatigued.

Obviously the longer we run, the harder it is to hide that or the more exposed we become. Therefore the further you run, the more your time will slide relative to what it should. He needs to go back and have a look at those 3 things; are the easy runs being runs at an appropriately easy pace, is there too much high intensity work in the week.

In other words are we over stimulating the anaerobic system which is not allowing the aerobic system to develop, or are you not doing enough volume to allow you to step up to each next distance and therefore have a normal rate of slowing down and therefore being able to meet that 3.30 or 3.40 target on the marathon.