20 Miles at MP +7 seconds- Am I ready?

Yes. But for God's sake, don't do another one of those. Trust me. I've learned the hard way. Your hamstring will thank you.

If you can run 20 miles you can finish a marathon.

But the 20 miles should be significantly slower than target pace,

anywhere from 30 seconds to 50 seconds.

A half marathon test run at pace would have been better than a

fast 20 miler. Hopefully you still have a month before the actual race.

stateroftheoblivious wrote:

If you can run 20 miles you can finish a marathon.

But the 20 miles should be significantly slower than target pace,

anywhere from 30 seconds to 50 seconds.

A half marathon test run at pace would have been better than a

fast 20 miler. Hopefully you still have a month before the actual race.

My goal isn't just to finish the marathon. This will be my 6th marathon in the last year. I'm just trying to get a handle on if I will be ready for the pace.

I did the same a month out and nailed my time (just under). And your mileage is better than mine. What’s the goal?

Good luck.

stateroftheoblivious wrote:

If you can run 20 miles you can finish a marathon.

But the 20 miles should be significantly slower than target pace,

anywhere from 30 seconds to 50 seconds.

A half marathon test run at pace would have been better than a

fast 20 miler. Hopefully you still have a month before the actual race.

Slow long runs have their place, but fast long runs are key. Look at Kipchoge's training. He alternates 30k and 40k tempo runs at 5:20 or so pace on hilly dirt roads at 7 to 8000 feet altitude! Daniels says that altitude is worth 18 or so seconds and the terrain is slow, so really he is doing long runs at MP + 20 seconds up to 24 miles long. He starts slow too, so at the end he is going close to marathon pace.

Sure can wrote:

I did the same a month out and nailed my time (just under). And your mileage is better than mine. What’s the goal?

Good luck.

I'm hoping for a 2:15.

stateroftheoblivious wrote:

If you can run 20 miles you can finish a marathon.

But the 20 miles should be significantly slower than target pace,

anywhere from 30 seconds to 50 seconds.

A half marathon test run at pace would have been better than a

fast 20 miler. Hopefully you still have a month before the actual race.

oblivious is just the right name for you

4 weeks out! wrote:

Thread title says it all. I'm four weeks out from my goal Marathon. I've been averaging around 90 miles a week for the last 12 weeks. On Saturday I did a long 20 mile tempo at my goal marathon pace plus 7 seconds per mile. Will I be ready to go for the race after a good taper?

I've been doing lots of hard workouts and started the tempo feeling pretty fatigued already.

It's a very good workout, and it suggests that you're close, but that alone can't tell you for certain. How did you feel? Did you finish strong? Were you falling off the pace? Did you feel like you could've dropped it down faster but it would've been rough? Did you bounce back reasonably quickly? Or were you wiped out for a week? How did you feel aerobically? When your pace inched up (as it inevitably does from time to time), did you instantly perceive that you were working harder, or was it all the same?

Also, this can be the hardest workout of your cycle, but make sure it isn't your last hard workout period. 4 weeks is too long to taper. I'd hit some MP minus 5 seconds as well so you're getting it from both sides.

800 dude wrote:

It's a very good workout, and it suggests that you're close, but that alone can't tell you for certain. How did you feel? Did you finish strong? Were you falling off the pace? Did you feel like you could've dropped it down faster but it would've been rough? Did you bounce back reasonably quickly? Or were you wiped out for a week? How did you feel aerobically? When your pace inched up (as it inevitably does from time to time), did you instantly perceive that you were working harder, or was it all the same?

Also, this can be the hardest workout of your cycle, but make sure it isn't your last hard workout period. 4 weeks is too long to taper. I'd hit some MP minus 5 seconds as well so you're getting it from both sides.

I negative split it, finishing the last 3 miles at MP even though I didn't feel any real increase in effort. I felt like I was going hard, but it was not a race effort. I did take a few days to recover, but I still got a decent fartlek in this week.

I will for sure do a couple more hard efforts.

Yes. You are ready now. Unfortunately your race is in 4 week. You likely peaked too early.

Sorry