How To Run a Sub 3 Marathon in Maffetone Zone 2 Low HR

[00:00:00] I tried to run a marathon in zone two, slow controlled and chill, and it

worked. Until it didn’t. Here we go. Here’s some of our paces. Oh, Darren. Three

hour team right here. Don’t choose, don’t you? A lot of people struggle staying in it

in the beginning, those first six to eight weeks because it’s boring.

[00:00:19] Smashing up boys. Obviously it’s up three hours, right? It’s up 90 in the

ah, we in the house. Another thing about we don’t talk about zone free enough.

That’s a good work. Let’s go. Well done. Thank you. Like a toenail? I think so. Oh.

This is what happens when you take the Mone low heart rate method into a real

marathon.

[00:00:41] No lab tests, no fancy voodoo, just me, my heart rate monitor, my watch

and reality. Huge spoiler. Reality wins. It always does, but you’ll learn a whole lot.

From watching me trying to fight it. Good to see some smiling faces. You never

know how long that’ll last. Over 42.2 for Brenton, the guy that I’ve been coaching

for the last six months, sub three hours was the goal.

[00:01:03] It’s the marathon version of getting your black belt. Why are you so

obsessed with the sub three hours? I don’t know. It’s a good question. I’m not

really, not really a hundred percent why I’m so obsessed, but I’m sure like once I getsub three then they’ll be like, okay, we. 2 55 or something next. Yeah, it’s stupid

though.

[00:01:22] It’s just an number. A hundred percent sub three tent today. Sub three or

the medical tent. I think we got this man. For me, it was a chance to see if this run

slow to get fast idea could survive 42 kilometers, 26 miles of real world suffering.

And let’s just say it got. Kind of complicated. Let’s go. So lemme set the scene a

bit.

[00:01:45] The morning was Crisp Small Town Energy, love Ballarat, Australia, right

outside of Melbourne, Victoria. People in Puffer jackets. It was cold, it was about 50

degrees, maybe a little bit cooler. Uh, there was some rain, people had some coffee

in hand. There was a buzz of let’s get this done type of vibe. This has been six

months of training for you, man.

[00:02:04] Let’s do this. We got this, we got this, we got this start line chatter. I saw

nerves, lots of nerves hiding under some people’s jokes and whatnot. Really

awkward smiles. And that first 10 K, six miles, absolute bliss pace was on point. Our

heart rate’s been locked in almost 15 Ks, 13, about eight, nine miles in.

[00:02:22] How you feeling? Brenton? Still feel alright? Pretty good. That’s good.

Yeah. Still that still feels easy. That’s what we want. I think we’re right at pace. Don’t

you? Don’t you? One thing I found is a lot of people struggle staying in it in the

beginning, this first six to eight weeks because it’s boring.

[00:02:45] Gotta go slow load of ego, gotta walk up hills sometimes. Gotta start with

run, walk. ’cause you spike your heart rate, but you hit that week four. See a little bit

at week six. Week eight, start moving. I go to about 12 weeks. First time I did a 16

weeks know it’s a bit much, but next time I won’t do that again.

[00:03:06] Fast forward to about the 18 kilometer, let’s say 11 mile mark for

Americans out there and the sub three hour group, it felt like a moving. Party. It was

rhythmic, steady, almost felt too easy. Jokes were happening, and for a moment I

thought maybe this is really the cheat code. This whole zone two thing.

[00:03:24] How you feeling? Brenton? Feel good, sir? Good. We got reach you over

here. We got the three hour pacer right here. How you doing, sir? Good brother. Hell

are you? Good? Good. Cameron, how you feeling? I’m feeling good pacing this guy

here. But you’re pacing me. You’re pacing me, pacing everyone with a pace drink.

So if I die, stay with him.

[00:03:44] All right. But Marathons, love to humble you. Quick pit stop. If you’re

watching this, you probably want to fix your zone two right now. You wanna improve

it? Cool. I made a free guide the 1% Better Runner Zone two, improve your Zonetwo plan. It’s a step-by-step simple, no fluff. You learn how to actually get faster at

low heart rates without wasting months doing junk miles and kilometers.

[00:04:07] Why does it matter? Because zone two is your engine. You build it right?

Everything else gets easier. Racing is faster. Recovery is faster. No burning out.

Comes with a quick start guide, checklist, and the full training plan. Calendar, week

by week, days, fueling tricks, et cetera, all tested by me, not just theories and a

whole bunch of science to back it up.

[00:04:24] And when you download it, you’ll get subscribed to my weekly

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[00:04:45] Quick running science nerd moment. Zone two is your aerobic base. It’s

not a magic trick. It turns out my actual zone two ends at 161 VPMs. But I did a

threshold test. A threshold like threshold test. Found out my zone two. Well, I

thought it ended at 1 52 heart rate. It actually ends at 1 61 heart rate, which is crazy.

[00:05:11] So maybe I have an under training, I don’t know, but I have a huge on

two, which is really interesting. Again, is that MA Platoon? I don’t know. My LT one

is that sub threshold. And even Imma test, which Mike Trees, who’s uh, co-host on

here, who’s been on here a bunch, he has the Imma test if Mone isn’t working.

[00:05:29] Both those tests, both those guys didn’t work for my Zone two. And here

is the absolute kicker. If I used the straight Mone formula, my zone two would’ve

stopped at 137. ’cause I’m 43 years old, minus a hundred and eighty one thirty

seven Rich. That’s not even the end of my zone one, I’m not even in zone two.

[00:05:46] It’s crazy. So it’s not helpful if you’re trained up. And another thing about

myone is you don’t talk about zone three enough and, uh, sub sub-threshold

training at like LT one, LT two. So I’ve been doing a lot of that, which is above my

tune. That’s been interesting the last year, year two, which is the Norwegian stuff,

and uh, it’s kinda like you’re pulling the threshold versus pushing it up.

[00:06:15] Mafa Tune is a great starting point, but it’s not the whole story. The more

advanced you get the. The more you need proper testing. Yeah. This is like, you

know, rich people problems sort of thing. It’s like, oh yeah, what was, what was you,

Darren, for being so fast in zone two. But it is a thing and sometimes Moit tone zone

two doesn’t work for everyone, so you need to make sure you are using the right

one and testing and using different types of formulas to make sure your zone two is

correct.[00:06:37] And for me, this meant I had more to give in my training and also in the

racings, but it also meant I was riding the fine line of where zone two ends and the.

Uh oh begins because running long at zone two, it’s totally different than running for

20, 40 minutes is zone two, so around 25 to 30 kilometers, that’s 15 to 18 miles for

the Americans.

[00:07:00] The party was over that pace. Party started. Thinning out. I was like, what

happened here? The pacer dropped off. I was like, what’s going on here? Things

started getting weird. Legs got heavy. My heart rate was slowly creeping up. I was

still in his zone too. Still in zone too, but it was like spiking on little Hills.

[00:07:15] How you feeling? Yeah. Feeling that? Sorry. He’s feeling it. I’m feeling it.

Alright, so we got 12 more Ks left. Less than that. Oh, this is when you gotta dig

deep. This when the race starts. I had a little calf and hamstring twitch, which is a

warning shot before the cramps and even my shins, they were like, Hey man, I’m

tired too.

[00:07:38] Which I was like, wait, my shins are tied. What’s going on? I was still

pretending everything was fine. Spoiler, it was not the marathon. It taxes and takes

over. Everything, and that’s the game that you decide to play.

[00:07:52] So we’re at 32 to 37 kilometers. That is 20 to 23 ish miles. This is the pain

cave. A lot of people say the marathon starts at 20 miles, 32 Ks. So true. So true.

You gotta get there. And then it’s like, now you gotta hang on. All the cramps

started properly happening, slowing down that pace. Even though my effort was

pretty high, I thought.

[00:08:13] Absolute ego check time. I had the, it’s time for a real talk moment with

Brenton and I told him, look, we’re slowing down. Sub three might not happen at

this pace and ’cause we’re just gonna gradually slow down. I don’t wanna push you

any further because you might blow up. So what do you want to do? I said, you’re

gonna still get your best time.

[00:08:32] If we, if we hang on here, I promise you, and that is still worth it. And he

said, look, let’s keep it here, and we will make sure that we can get to 37 38 Ks,

which is about 23, 24 miles. And he was like, then we’ll push it from there and see,

you know, it’s like, okay, let’s see if we have more in the next 20 to 30 minutes.

[00:08:50] But you never know. So the goal shifted from. Go as fast as we possibly

can to hold on. Don’t blow up. Bit of damage control. But then Brenton started

pulling ahead at about 38 Ks, about 24 miles, and I was like, whoa, what’s going

on? Looking strong. Brenton. Push through. Push through, buddy. I couldn’t match

him.[00:09:08] I actually tried to go. Cramp happened and I was like, this, this ain’t good.

And at 41 Ks I was hanging on for dear life, and this happened all right. Less than

one k. I blew up no 18 V. Even though I have a low heart rate,

[00:09:26] my body’s not used to this. So what on mine we’re done. Brent is up

ahead, which is great. I think he’s gonna get the best time, but I’ve cramped a

million times. Still gotta train distance, even though with a little heart rate. Lots of

winning lessons. Oof. And that’s racing. That’s the beautiful stupid magic of this

sport of distance running.

[00:09:46] You can’t simulate any of this in training. Huge. Crank 42. Gotta be joking

me. Oh wow. Huge crank. So roll down. 50 meters a good one. Let’s go

[00:10:07] job, man. That’s all we have, man. Dude, that’s. That’s a three minute PR

dude. That’s like 53 4%. Man. I’ll take that any day. Dude, you did great man. Boys

get through. Yeah man. We got through. We made it. Appreciate you man. Thanks.

Sweaty. Solid Pac too. Good. Good job man. Three hours, 50 seconds. It’s all dude.

Next one.

[00:10:30] Did I start feeling like my lose my hip Flexes? Yeah. And like legs it with

my legs. That was the worst race I’ve ever done. I’ve got the best race. You going?

Alright start. I saw you. Coming before I felt so good and then my mom not wanna,

and then I vomited at 27 K. Oh, 27 is the worst. It’s so, and it was too early.

[00:10:48] And then I caught for this one and then I was like trying to keep going

and go. And then I just, every gel after I just came right back up Adam, I just, here

we go. How’d you go? Three 14 baby. How you feel? You felt like fine. Like the

whole thing? Nah, there was, uh, it was tough in the middle. 26 to 37. Good job

boys.

[00:11:14] We didn’t hit sub three, but Bretton smashed a three minute best time.

Huge. It was actually more than three minutes. He was only 48 seconds off of

actually getting sub three. So this is something that I actually didn’t explain earlier,

but I realized about a week before our race that we had been training to GPS watch

Garmin time and Strava time, which.

[00:11:35] I knew that we would overrun the marathon ’cause everyone does. I

started seeing a bunch of people doing the Boston Marathon and everyone’s

coming in at 42.4 Ks 40, 42 0.5 Ks, which is like 20, 26 0.3 miles, 26.4 miles. And I

was like, hold on, we need to actually run about five to six seconds per mile faster

than what we trained.

[00:11:54] I was like, if we actually wanna hit the time. So I told him that. He said,

cool, cool, cool. Maybe that blows up. Maybe we should have been trending faster.So a lot of things that 48 seconds, he actually, I, I did some research on his, his

splits and I was like, oh my God, if he didn’t slow down in the last four to five Ks,

the last three miles, he actually lost about 40 to 45 seconds in the last three to four

miles.

[00:12:17] So all he had to do was hang on and he would’ve actually ran his best

time, which is crazy. The marathon race, there’s so many more layers to it outside of

training, and that means that he’s ready. So I’m looking forward to seeing what he is

doing in Gold Coast. And I, he, he’s a man, he’s a sub three hour marathoner.

[00:12:31] I’m gonna say that, but for me. I was only less than 1% off my lifetime

best marathon. I have ran a sub three hour marathon and eight years later, so eight,

that was eight years ago. I’m 43 years old, and I did that with way more life chaos,

way more things happening. I probably trained about the same, probably smarter

this time.

[00:12:49] Um, I would say that. I got injured before the actual race last time, so I’m

making sure that I didn’t get injured this time, but some other stuff happened. Zone

two, it did not fail me. It built the engine and the marathon. It just demanded way

more than I had on the day, as it always does. Alright, if you’re still here, you’re

obviously serious about improving your running.

[00:13:09] So here’s what to do next. Grandma, 1% better runner. Improve your

zone two training plan, which you can hit the QR code right here or the link below in

the show notes. It’ll help you build a bulletproof aerobic base, which is faster and

smarter. No junk miles, no dumb training. It’ll help you mentally get through the

beginning parts of zone two training, which is tough, and you’ll sign up for that

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[00:13:30] So every week I’m gonna hit you with practical tools. Like I said, VO two

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[00:13:45] Right here. Jesus. Whoa, buddy. Yeah. Oh, because I feel gross. Or what

does it feel like? Does it hurt? Yeah. No, that’s, oh, okay. Time, time, time. I’m

obsessed with it as it’s the one thing we can’t make more of, but ironically, we as

humans, we made the whole concept of time. Thanks for giving us your time by

listening, watching or reading this.

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[00:14:46] All in five minutes per week. This episode and all this content is produced

in Sydney, Australia, and I’d like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Your nation, who

are the traditional indigenous custodians of this land. Much, much, much respects.

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[00:15:04] We’re also on the socials, mainly Instagram and Strava. Right now, just

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