Yes they make Marathon pace feel easy but don’t beat you up like VO2 max intervals
Yes they make Marathon pace feel easy but don’t beat you up like VO2 max intervals
Like others have said, it's to get some turnover in & make marathon pace seem easier. If you look at NAZ Elite, they mix in 200-400 type workouts once or twice a month. Salazar was quoted saying Rupp will do some 300s in marathon training. Tinman has his athletes doing 8-10 x :20-30 strides two to three times a week. It's not like this is all marathon training is. It's a very small percentage of actual workouts. Good to still do some faster stuff every now & then.
Isn't a day of short reps every week or 2 part of summer of malmo? Maybe he's just following a very basic base training plan before he does marathon specific stuff.
Like that poster said, it relieves the boredom of the miles. Running 200's once a week (say) won't increase efficiency or speed and physiologically is worthless for the marathon - other than adding miles.
Psychologically they might help, though. It's like distance runners doing drills or plyos. They make you feel tingly and 'fast' but don't improve your 10k time at all.