What does it take to get to Boston?
It’s April and one of the annual signs of spring is the running of the Boston Marathon. This year will mark the 114th running of America’s oldest and most prestigious marathon. For many runners Boston represents a lifetime goal and would be on most runners’ bucket list. The only problem, they just don’t let anyone in. Boston is the only combined elite and non-elite marathon that requires qualification times. So what does it take to qualify? And more importantly, how long and hard do you have to train to get yourself there? This article will tackle Boston head on and give you the breakdown of what it really takes to get to Beantown.
Boston Training Essential
- Know Your Qualifying Time (Not all times are created equal)
It may seem pretty basic, but it is important to know where you are going before you set out on your training journey. While the Boston standards have changed over the years, mostly getting easier, for many they are still a formidable challenge. However, not all qualifying times are created equal. How can this be? Well you would have to take that up with the Boston Athletic Association. But I can tell you this; in general the times are harder for men and slightly easier for women. The way all of the qualifying times are compared against each other is by using an Age Grade Calculator. The calculator takes into account the world-record time for your age and gender in the marathon and divides it by your actual time. Thus, if you are a 40 year old male and need to run a 3:20:00 to qualify, this means you are 64% as fast as the world record (which is currently 2:08:46!) For a 40 year old woman it is a bit easier as you only have to run 3:50:00 which is 61.8% as fast as the current world record (2:27:42). I tell you this because knowing your qualifying time and factoring in your age and gender can greatly increase your chances of qualifying. An easier way to qualify is to hit the time standard for an age group above you. However, you have to be on the border of your current age croup in order to do this. An example would be a 54 year old man qualifying for the 55 year old age bracket. You can do this because the Boston marathon is only concerned about what your age will be on race day not when you qualified. Thus, a 54 year old can run a 3:45:00 as opposed to a 3:35:00 as long as he is 55 on race day. So you basically are a year older but the qualifying standard is 10 minutes slower! To see what your qualifying time is and how you compare against the world-record for your gender and age group click on the links below.
Boston Qualifying Times:
http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/Qualifying.asp
Age Grade Calculator
http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/agegradingcalculator/0,7977,s6-238-277-415-0-0-0-0,00.html
Take Two
If you are not on the edge of your age group and really need to see some big improvements then this step is crucial. As my time as a coach I have been fortunate enough to work with several Boston qualifiers, but when a new runner approaches me and says they want to qualify for Boston, I usually tell them to take two training segments to do it. For some this may seem like a long time to wait but if you tell yourself, “by this time next year I can be a Boston qualifier,” it won’t seem that long. However, the ability for each person to qualify varies greatly and depends on several factors. For many runners I have worked with, qualifying for Boston represents at least a 10-15% improvement in their current marathon time. When you do the math on this it can mean a substantial amount of time.
For example: A male runner who is 30 years old and has a current time of 3:39:00 will need to run 3:10:00. That is obviously 29 minutes and would mean improving by at least 12%. While this is certainly obtainable it is hard to realistically improve this much with just one 12-16 week training plan. Instead I typically try to get runners to cut off a big chunk (7-8%) in the first training segment and then get the last 4-5% in the second training segment. Usually this takes 24 to 40 weeks but it is well worth it. It is much better to make the standard in one year rather than three or four. A real life example of how the numbers might break down is listed at the end of the article.
Improve Your Training Habits
While that last paragraph might seem to simply the qualifying process there really is more to it than training a little bit longer than you have in the past. One of the most common issues that I see runners struggle with is general training habits. These include but are not limited to;
- Nutrition
- Stretching
- Sleep
- Recovery
- Resistance training
- Injury prevention/Treatment
- Pacing both in workout and in races
- Mental training
- General lifestyle
You don’t have to be perfect on any single one of these, however if you completely neglect one of them it can really hurt your training. All of these training habits are part of a well rounded training plan. Many of these habits are simple to incorporate; you just have to seek out sound advice and then follow it. Most likely you will not pick up on all of them at once. Part of the training process is just learning and exploring what works for you and what you can improve upon. These habits are great things to focus on during your first training segment. It may take some trial and error but by the time your second training segment has started you will have a solid understanding of what you need to do to keep your body healthy and improving.
Run More, but Slower
I can’t tell you how many times I have said this in my coaching career. This issue seems to be one of the biggest problems for runners. The common trend that I see is that a lot of people start on training plans that have them running 3-4 times per week. This is fine. However, commonly runners will use the 3 or 4 days to really push hard even on easy days and then run hard again on the workout or long run days. This, along with less than stealer training habits, can lead to overtraining and injury. The approach that I have been successful with is getting runners to run more often but much slower on their easy recovery runs. They still incorporate typical speed work, tempo runs and long runs but they make sure they are running relaxed and recovering on their easy days. I can’t stress this enough. In fact the aforementioned marathon runner who went from 3:39:00 to 3:19:00 in one training segment only had 4 days off during his training! Now I don’t recommend that for everyone but the point is that the marathon is all about an accumulation of work on your body. Running more often but doing it the correct way can significantly improve your performance. I have also written training plans for individuals that still only run 3 to 4 days a week but on the other days they are resistance training or taking one well deserved day. Everyone is different but the general tread that runners need to accept is that they will most likely have to train differently to get a different result.
Weigh In
One of the simplest but often over looked ways to improve your marathon time and fitness is to improve your diet and overall body composition. Image if you carried a 5lb pound weight for 26.2 miles. Think it might affect your time? The answer is that is does. However, the way to lean up is not to go on a crash diet or severely restrict calories. Often simple training and dietary habits can be modified to help you lose that extra 5-10lbs. However, in the marathon a few pounds can make a significant difference.
For information on how to safely run and loss weight reference the February newsletter article:
http://www.bigriverrunning.com/TimsTrainingFeb2010.pdf
Numbers Breakdown
What will it take to get to Boston?
Runner Profile
Gender: Male
Age: 30
Old Marathon PR: = 3:39:00
Current Marathon PR: = 3:19:14
Boston Qualifier Time = 3:10:00
3:10:00 = 7:15 per mi = 4.5% improvement on current marathon pr
1st Training Segment Improvements
Old PR: 3:39:00 = 219min
New PR: 3:19:00 = 199min = 9.1% improvement
+ 4.5% improvement in 2nd segment =
Qualifier Time: 3:10:00 = 190min = 13.6% total improvement over 2 training segments
Projected Impact of Wt loss on Marathon Time for 150lb male runner with 3:19:00 PR
1.2% wt loss = 2lb = 156lb = 3:17:35 = .05% improvement
1.8%wt loss = 3lb = 155lb = 3:15:55 = 2% improvement
3.1%wt loss = 5lb = 153lb = 3:14:16 = 2.5% improvement
3.7%wt loss = 6lb = 152lb = 3:12:36 = 3% improvement
5.0%wt loss = 8lb = 150lb = 3:09:16 = 5% improvement
Tim has trained seven different Boston qualifiers and is currently training two runners for the 2010 and 2011 Boston Marathons.
For more information about this article or to set up your own Boston Marathon training plan contact Tim at the information below:
Coach Tim Bradley
Phone: 314-882-1778
Email: tim@bigriverrunning.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/coachtbradley
