This post is part of my annual review process for 2024. This year, I’ve committing to writing a more comprehensive review, but to do so I’ve structured myself into particular areas that I think are important to cover.
To read more,
I think 2024 was the year where I stopped hating running and recognized it for what it is to me. When I run, I can’t think about anything else. I can’t think about work. The wife. The kids. No. All that matters is putting one foot in front of another, feeling the burning in my lungs.
For me, running has evolved from that thing that I hate, I hate so much, that the only thing that I can think about is how much I hate running and how badly I want to stop - and into a kind of moving meditation. A way to get out of my head and into my body.
Whenever I feel myself getting too in my head, running is by far my best way to mentally reset.
I still don’t feel like I enjoy it. I don’t like lacing up when it’s cold outside. Or knowing that I’m going to make my lungs burn for a hard effort.
But now, at least, I appreciate that I need it.
Sub-2
2024 was the third year of running the late-summer/early fall, and after previous performances in the 2h02 to 2h06 range I was pretty determined to make this year the year that I went sub 2.
Setting the stage
Well that was the plan anyway, but then the summer got away from me a little bit…
Morgan on 7 Aug at 09:16 wrote: I just now realized that the Montreal (Demi) Marathon is 6 weeks away.
Annnnnd… I haven’t really tried doing any run over 10k this year. 2k/week is a reasonable training plan, right?
And again, over the winter I’d put on a little excess padding. So begin a fairly rapid preparation for race day.
I started on August 8th, with a 10k benchmark run along the canal to see where exactly my fitness was at.
It wasn’t pretty. I started out strong, at around 5:00/km pace and almost immediately started to regret it. 5k in, I’d already slipped to 5:30 pace, and by the 8th km it was slowing almost to 6:30, for a final 10k in 57'24 with an average of 5:44/k pace.
Not too shabby I guess for having not much much attention into my running all year. But if the dizziness and metal taste in my mouth were anything to go by, a good chunk of my running fitness had disappeared.
Then the realization struck, that to make my desired sub-2 effort, requires a pace of 5:30/km for more than double the distance than I’d just done - and with only 6 weeks of training.
Training
I was trying to make two runs during the week, typically a Tuesday and Thursday lunch time run around the mountain of 10k - which thanks to my competitive nature, ended up being near-full gas efforts every time. Which was probably not the smartest strategy.
Then on the weekends, typically on a Sunday morning I’d try and do a longer, slow run to build some endurance in the legs and joints. Sometimes this would be by myself along the canal and other times I’d put the little guy in the trailer and take him to therapy and take a long loop on the way back. Adding an extra 30kg of weight to a run - even if it has wheels - certainly knocks the pace back, but does build the endurance.
In the next month, I got the 10k around the mountain down from 1h05 to 55m - an impressive improvement to be sure in such a short time. Proof that fitness comes back surprisingly quickly. And amazing to see that in just 3 weeks of running regularly, my strong effort 5k was comfortably faster than my full-gas benchmark from a month earlier.
Importantly, these lunchtime 10k’s got me used to running in and around the 5:20/km pace. I knew that the chances of me being able to maintain that pace for the double the distance was doubtful - but I was feeling strong.
Raceday
Come race day, it was near perfect conditions. 13 degrees, overcast, gentle breeze - exactly what you want for a fast time. Or put it another way, my excuses were limited.
As per last year, I’d dropped a kilo or two of weight ahead of day, but I was still over the 90 kg I targeted to be - and miles off the 85 kg I’ve been trying to get for a few years now.
With my 2h target, my race number got me into the second wave of runners, just behind the professionals, but I assumed that there would still be a lot of “run club” types that would be going for 90 minute targets.
The imposter syndrome was strong. Surrounded my skinny beanpole types. All wearing $300 memory foam, carbon fibre, graphite re-enforced super shoes.
The nerves built, and as I crossed the start line, the sun began to come out.
Immediately, I realized that I should have pushed through all the posers at the start line and actually gotten to the front of the wave. There was so much traffic, which lead to inevitable bobbing and weaving, zigging and zagging, and constant acceleration to get around people.
Even when I thought I’d found someone matching my target pace, they’d gradually slow down meaning that as the next half km ticked by, the watch would shout at me that I was below target pace. Meaning that once again, I’d have to kick up a gear, feel my heart rate go up and get on with it.
Pacing for the first 5k or so was very challenging - not just because of the traffic, but also the route around the race track had been adjusted, so my familiarity with the track from previous years actually made things worse.
Again, this struck in the final few kilometres. In previous years, the final three k have gone around the back of the Botanic Gardens, before the final k turning into the car park, gone under the road, kicked up the underpass and finished in front of the Olympic Stadium.
With this in mind, I was holding just a little back in the tank for the kick up the ramp and the final sprint in front of the crowd. But then this year, I turned into the Botanic Garden car park and crossed the finish line.
The whole thing was totally unexpected and sudden. It made the finish feel a bit anti-climatic. And if I’m honest, a little annoying - last year, having known exactly where the finish line was, I could adjust my position in the crowd so that the photographers could get a good shot of me crossing the line. This year, I crossed without barely realizing what was happening and stuck behind a pair of girls. No matter, I have plenty of photos.
When all was said and done, final time was 1h56 with Strava recording a personal best half-marathon of 1h55:31 and an average pace of 5:30/km. An excellent result! Not only did I get under 2 hours, I smashed it by nearly 5 whole minutes.
Unfortunately, my brain being my brain, immediately moved the goal posts and rewrote history such that I was annoyed that it wasn’t under 1h55 or 1h45. Further, if I managed to go sub-2 with only 6 weeks of real training - there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to go 1h45 next year if I give it a real training block and keep up some running fitness over the winter.
Targets for next year
So there we have it, that’s the target. 1h45 for next year. I’ve already signed up and paid the entrance fee.
I’ve already done the calculations, to get 1h45 requires maintaining a pace of 5:00/km for the whole 21km - a pace that last year I was using frequently in my 4 minute interval sessions on the treadmill. So that’s scary.
But with the ice and the snow in Montreal already here, I’ve begun my winter training program. I’m trying to keep up at least 2 runs a week. 1 of sprints for speed work and aerobic fitness, 1 of something low and slow to keep the endurance. I don’t expect to keep all of my fitness until spring, but I’m already trying to draw out my sprint intervals.
I’ve started with my traditional Scandi 4x4 (4 minutes on, 4 minutes off, repeated 4 times), at just a little past 5:00 pace (as I find treadmill running a little easier without the wind resistance). With a few sessions the 4 minutes on are becoming four and a half minutes on, and I’ve already reduced the recovery segments from four minutes down to three. Subject to a few setbacks thanks to a couple of weeks of sickness.
I’ll keep extending the length of the segments on, and reducing the off segments until I’m pretty consistently running at 4:45 pace - and then as with the tail end of the summer, if I just keep running 10k loops at this pace it should slowly drop my heart rate and make the pace more and more tolerable.
So that’s the plan. September 2025, 1h45 half marathon.
But I’m no spring chicken and I’m not getting any younger, so we shall have to see how the plan progresses.
So when are you doing the marathon?
That being said, I’m already looking towards the 2026 season. 2026 will be fifth year of longer distance running. The kids will be a little bit older, and I’ll be a position where I can disappear for a few more hours every week for training without feeling too guilty.
I have found myself looking at training plans for marathons already, and they don’t look exceedingly extreme - but they do look like they require a big time commitment. Well… a big commitment to do well. There are plenty of stories out there - my uncle included - of rocking up to a marathon start line with no training and being able to get around. The only question is in what state to they finish. How many toenails do they have left? Are their nipples bleeding? Thigh chaffing? Could they walk the next day?
And I know what I’m like. If I’m going to do a thing, I want to do a thing well. If I’m going to sign up for a marathon, then there’s no way I want to do it in anything less than 4 hours.
But a sub-4 marathon, requires running a sub-2 half-marathon. Twice. Back-to-back. And getting the sub-2 half was no mean feat and took me a few years to achieve.
But I’ve reached that point. I think I want to do a marathon in my life - if nothing else to say that I’ve done one.
It’s big and it’s scary. But that’s sort of the people.
Do scary things.
Remind yourself of life outside of all the comfort.
Besides in 2026, I’ll be turning 39 - and I’d really like to do it before I turn 40. There’s a nice ring to 40 under 40.
September 2026, sub-4 marathon