How far SHOULD you be able to run marathon pace?

I'd put it like this:

1-3 miles: if you're old, sick, or injured, just call it a tempo run for your fans on Strava

4-6 miles: you felt good and ran fast for a bit, big deal

7-9 miles: a decent start to your marathon buildup

10-12 miles: solid workout, might blow up at the end if something's off

13-15 miles: peak workout for us hobby joggers, might require a HM race to hit your M pace

16-18 miles: the elites do it, but most hobbyist buildups never make it this far

19-22 miles: stupid far, just run the extra 4.2-7.2 miles and record your time, you're leaving your race in practice

You almost got it, but 26.22 miles is how far you should run marathon pace. Or 42.195 kilometers if you're feeling especially...European.

In training I've gone 18 miles at marathon pace. 2 weeks later, crushed it.

I've done up to 16 as a hard but not extremely hard workout. I think 18 is doable, but you have to be very fit for that to be beneficial. Personally I think 20 @ 15 seconds/mile slower than marathon pace is a better workout.

the longest tempo runs i've done were 9 miles in marathon prep. and they were at sub marathon/ almost half marathon pace. for example 9 miles at 6:15 pace. It got me to a 2:56. I don't believe in or enjoy long efforts at marathon or close to marathon pace.

I feel like the good answer is between 10 and 16.

I did 17-20 at my marathon pace pretty much every week. I don't know about "should" but I did.

HRE wrote:

I did 17-20 at my marathon pace pretty much every week. I don't know about "should" but I did.

That is crazy but I am not judging it, just kind of surprised. It never entered my mind to run more than about 5 miles at that pace and that was even rare. Of course my marathon pace was kind of fast but your post makes me wonder. I would have dreaded trying to run 17 miles at my marathon pace in practice. I could do it in a race but in practice it sounds like a killer workout.

HRE wrote:

I did 17-20 at my marathon pace pretty much every week. I don't know about "should" but I did.

That most likely means you coulda raced your marathon faster than you actually did. 17-20 at true marathon pace every week would wreck most ppl I think, unless you did no other hard workouts.

Assuming you are RACING a marathon and not just RUNNING a marathon....

6, 9, 12, 15, 18....

15/18 should probably be part of some sort of race.

I did a 30k race at MP 3 weeks out from my two best marathons. But I went 6, 9, 12, 18.

Each long run should include some kind of "running to the barn".....or just a structured quickening the last 5-10 miles. 10 easy/10 hard is pretty good. Or 22 w/last 5-6 at MP.

I think back in the olden days when you could find local half marathon races more readily guys used those as training.

Alan

When running workouts it's important to distinguish between 'goal pace' and effort.

Your current marathon pace when you're in the middle of your highest mileage weeks is going to be a lot different from your marathon pace when you're freshened up on race day.

The weather plays a big factor as well. If it's a very windy day, or really cold and you're wearing a lot of layers, or a lot hotter than the ideal racing temperature, then your marathon effort should result in a slower than 'goal pace' speed.

But for what you're trying to get at, I'd say 15-18 is the longest it would make sense to run marathon pace in practice. If you hit 20 or go above 20 it starts to be too close a race and racing a marathon in preparation for a marathon is dumb.

I'd say you answered your own question. 16 seems to be the sweet spot for most. 10-13 is more something you could do every week in place of a longer run (say in a 14-16 mile run).

I found long tempos @ goal, or close to marathon pace helps to transition into running long tempos @ 1/2 pace. I think that is the thinking behind doing longer runs 15-20 seconds slower than MP too: you can get more volume @ a slightly slower pace.