Beginner runner here, looking for some marathon advice :) .
My goal is to finish a marathon under 5 hours.
Currently my training schedule looks like this:
- Run to/from work 3-4 days a week at 11 min/mi pace. Each direction is approx. 3 miles. There's 6-8 hours of gap between the runs while I'm at work.
- Run 15-18 miles every Saturday at 14-15 min/mi pace. I take two breaks in the middle at 6 and 12 mi marks.
I did a 10k race in beginning of April and clocked almost exactly 1 hr (~10 min/mi pace). My fitness has improved since, I think I can complete a half-marathon at 10-11 min/mi pace.
The problem is, my confidence is getting shot with the long runs. Most of the time they're laborious for me. For some reason the last few miles are easier (maybe it's the "high" of being near the target), but judging by how I feel in miles 11-14 I keep dreading that my ultimate "max" can only be 20 mi -- 6 short of the marathon.
Given my goal of a sub-5 hour first marathon, what should my weekly mileage and long runs look like before I'd consider myself ready? Should I be able to run 26 miles? Should I be able to do it "easily"?
Thanks in advance for your advice.