Running, So Far

A year of training, and the plan to go Sub3 in 2027.

Contents
  1. The secret master plan
  2. Progress so far
  3. Lessons from early training
  4. Current kit
  5. What’s next

In any worthy pursuit, you have to love the atomic unit of the thing itself. For running, it’s putting in the miles. Everything else is stacked on top of that. An abstraction, a strategy, or a plan. I really do love the day-in, day-out process of training and covering the ground for its own sake. I’ve been running consistently my entire life but never seriously trained for running itself (it was always secondary to a main sport, or a precursor to lifting weights), and the past year has been rewarding in new and surprising ways. It’s extremely fun to apply effort and discipline in pursuit of a goal, and to watch the body and the mind adapt. All the better if the goal is sufficiently big and just out of reach.

The secret master plan

Primary goal: Sub-3-hour marathon in 2027.

I’ll be tracking progress against these milestones:

  1. Run a sub-20 5K
  2. Turn that into a sub-39 10K
  3. Turn that into a sub-1:25 half-marathon
  4. Finally, turn all of that into a sub-3:00 marathon

The marathon is shaping up to be Chicago or California International (CIM), depending on entry, fundraising, and travel timing. Either would be a good course for the attempt.

I would estimate less than a 50% chance that Sub3 is physically possible for me by next year. Training adaptation takes time. That said, I’m still picking up rapid gains, and I feel confident that there is a worthwhile chance that a full year of training could get me under 3:00. If it’s not possible in 2027, I’ll try again in 2028.

Progress so far

Here is my training progress from July 2025 through November 2026.

PBPaceDatePredictedPaceChange% Chg
5K23:197:30/mi10/14/2621:176:50/mi−2:02−8.7%
10K49:538:02/mi1/10/2644:077:06/mi−5:46−11.6%
Half Marathon1:58:10*9:01/mi11/22/251:38:317:31/mi−19:39−16.6%
Marathon4:19:239:54/mi11/22/253:26:547:53/mi−52:29−20.2%

* Time recorded from the marathon on the same day.

The 5K PB is from training. 10K, HM, and marathon PBs are from races. The predicted times and paces are from a recent Coros threshold test, so take them with a grain of salt. I’m including them here because they feel representative of roughly my current fitness (current actual 5K time is likely a touch faster than predicted, and the marathon predicted time is probably closer to 3:30 today).

Most of the past year has been ramping up weekly volume to 35-40mpw and setting up the various foundational pieces of training:

  • Adapting to much higher energy requirements with adequate fueling and nutrition.
  • Fine-tuning stride mechanics.
  • Learning the PT and mobility necessary to deal with minor aches and early injuries before they become serious.

I feel substantially stronger and faster today, especially at longer distances, than I was in the fall of last year.

Lessons from early training

I started ramping up toward more serious training in July 2025, and started the marathon block in September 2025. The goal was explicitly to get to the marathon as quickly as possible (in hindsight, I don’t think this is necessarily the right goal, and wouldn’t recommend it to someone else just getting started). I was following a Runna plan with a 4-hour marathon target, and the pace was probably a bit too fast for my fitness at the time with 10 weeks of training. The app would keep recommending that I adjust the target paces to be a bit slower, but I would ignore it and keep pushing through.

I’ve been strength training my entire life, but stopped lifting weights almost entirely during this period (which was a mistake). As I know now, you have to keep lifting and make the training volume work even if it’s a lot. Weighted Bulgarian split squats are your best friend. The lack of strength training during those months likely contributed to tendonitis in my right sartorius. This went on to be a recurring issue for the next six months. I’ve fully solved it at this point with, wait for it, strength training and targeted PT.

My kit during training and the race was basic. For tracking, I had an Apple Watch Ultra 2, no separate heart rate monitor, and no pace pod. For shoes, I was rotating Asics Superblast 2s and Nike Pegasus 41s. During training I was using Maurten gels and Haribo Performance Sport Fuel (gummy bears). For fuel during the race, I took 8 Maurten 100 gels, 4 caffeine, 4 original.

The target pace was 9:17/mi, which I held for the first 17 miles. That’s the thing I was most proud of from that race. At mile 18, I hit the wall extremely hard, even though I was fueling decently. This was a small local marathon and the course was literally many laps of Prospect Park, which is hilly. Half of the lap is uphill, with some steep sections, and then the back half of the lap falls down to the low point at the southern end of the park before climbing again. It is not ideal. From mile 18 onwards it was a mental game. I basically blew up but still finished. The total time was 4:19:23. Not fast, but for a first marathon on a couple months of training from scratch… not terrible.

Current kit

One piece of advice I’ve always believed about gear, for running or anything else, is to start as soon as possible with what you have. Over time, the process of doing the work will naturally lead you to the kit that fits your style and preferences. But the early part of the process is getting a baseline sense of what other people like. So, here is my current running kit to give a sense of where I’ve landed. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend copying these choices. People have different stride mechanics and foot types, and height/weight do play a part as well for shoes in particular. A good running shop is a real asset, especially for getting started.

Shoes

I prefer Asics shoes over everything else on the market right now. Specifically, the Superblast 3 and the Megablast are the two best shoes currently in production. Saucony also makes great mid-range shoes. The Azura is ~$150 for a solid shoe that’s great for absorbing lots of miles.

If you’re still in Nike Pegasus and Apple Watch land11A real shame because both Apple and Nike obviously have the talent and resources to make great serious amateur gear., keep searching. (I get it, I was literally that person). There’s a lot of good gear out there.

Data & Tracking

The best thing I’ve done since that first marathon is switch entirely to Coros for tracking. I was stuck on this idea of staying entirely within the Apple ecosystem, which is a good strategy for almost everything else except running. Apple doesn’t focus on runners beyond the absolute basics, so Coros (and Garmin to some extent) have filled that gap in the market.

Here’s what I’m using now:

I use the included Coros app for tracking and analysis. It’s not the prettiest, but it’s highly functional and does everything you need and then some. I’ve found it to be more intuitive and organized than Strava, which I’ve stopped using primarily because it’s bloated with social features and organized in a way that makes finding the data you need unnecessarily difficult.

Performance Sport Fuel44I may never stop doing the Sport Fuel bit. It’s too versatile. Cacio e pepe is starch-core Sport Fuel, a burger is protein-carb-hybrid Sport Fuel, a half plate of fries on the other side of the table… “Babe are you going to eat the rest of your Sport Fuel?”

I use Maurten gels primarily, they’re not cheap but they work the best. GU’s are the cheaper, classic option (I cannot stomach them in any of their forms). Some people like SiS gels or Nick Bare’s GO gels, and Precision Fuel gels seem to be getting popular. Skratch is great for chews and carb drinks.

The Feed is the best place to buy fuel. They’ll let you mix-and-match individual gels, which is a godsend for easily trialing a bunch or testing new products when they come out.

What’s next

My next race is a sub-20 5K attempt in late November (exact race TBD). After that, I’ll be increasing weekly mileage to 50-55mpw through the winter to prep for the 10K and half-marathon in the spring. From there I’ll build mileage into the marathon block and race in either October (Chicago) or early December (CIM).

Footnotes

  1. A real shame because both Apple and Nike obviously have the talent and resources to make great serious amateur gear. ↩︎

  2. The Endorphin Speed 6s are available now. I haven’t tried them yet. ↩︎

  3. I’m on my second pair of the SB3s (all black colorway for the winter). This is an absolutely all-time shoe. Asics have fully outdone themselves. ↩︎

  4. I may never stop doing the Sport Fuel bit. It’s too versatile. Cacio e pepe is starch-core Sport Fuel, a burger is protein-carb-hybrid Sport Fuel, a half plate of fries on the other side of the table… “Babe are you going to eat the rest of your Sport Fuel?” ↩︎