Any benefits of such workout?
Seems hard long runs are beneficial but take long time to recover from.
At what pace you do your marathon long runs workouts?
Any benefits of such workout?
Seems hard long runs are beneficial but take long time to recover from.
At what pace you do your marathon long runs workouts?
Pfitzinger recommends running goal marathon pace under the principle of specificity. Perhaps your goal marathon pace is too ambitious if you're unable to sufficiently recover? I only mention this because obviously if you go out 5% too fast in a marathon you're likely going to hit an unpleasant wall before the finish.
26 miles MP
Perfect workout. Works like a charm.
Real marathon pace is fine for a workout up to 18 miles, but I wouldn't go further than that, sweet spot is between 14-18 for your longest MP workout. Slightly slower than MP on purpose is fine for more like 20 miles. I think the biggest benefit of these is more the confidence to think you can run 26 miles at a certain pace since you just ran a big chunk of that in a workout. But generally running 10k-half marathon pace is more beneficial, even for the marathon.
I could see maybe 1 long run in a build where you do 90-95% of GMP for an 18-24 miler. Canova calls for 1 or 2 efforts like that in a build.
But this advice is good for most mortals. 8-16 miles @ MP in a 16-22 miler is going to pay dividends for most runners. Over a 12-16 weeks build, hit tempos of 8-10-12-15, or so. 4-5 weeks out maybe aim for the 90% MP in your longest run of the build. Your weekly workouts are going to be threshold focused. As much volume there as your training allows for. Most can knock their marathon out of the park doing something like this.
marathon pace workouts wrote:
Any benefits of such workout?
Seems hard long runs are beneficial but take long time to recover from.
At what pace you do your marathon long runs workouts?
90-95% for a long run (average pace) I find to be a good workout, and I don't find that I have to take extra long to recover. Two days later I feel fine, and 3 days after I am always ready for a midweek workout. I wouldn't necessarily do every long run in that range—alternating with slightly easier LRs (80-90% MP) has always just made sense to me. If my MP is 6:00, then 20 miles at around 6:40 (starting slower, finishing faster) isn't too hard and feels like good work. I tend to like these LRs, feel confident, and recover just fine.
I am highly interested in anyone who has done blocks with harder LRs and no hard LRs and maybe got similar results? Or not similar results?! Please share if you have experience doing both.
I’ve run 10 marathons with 8 between 2:48 and 2:59 and tried different strategies for long runs. Overall I found what matters most is going well over 2 hours (I.e. 2:10+) with fueling practice at least 3 times and having SOME harder running towards the end of these runs on tired legs. But whether it’s slow for 16 miles, MP for 4 or closer to MP the whole time seems to matter less. The other thing that seems to also matter is what I’d call general 10K/half fitness
, how well I can do 30-60 minute tempos, or mile intervals, etc.
So far, my two key marathon workouts are 20 miles with 15 at MP, and 24 miles in your goal time. So if you're aiming for 2:40 for the marathon, complete 24 miles in 2:40. If I can do that, I know I can hit my goal time in the race
24 miles in your goal time = 24/26.2 or 91.6% of MP. Pretty quick but definitely specific stimulus on untapered legs.
22 miles in your goal time = 22/26.2 or 84% of MP. Seems too slow to be specific but good for "time on feet"
Anyone doing these for say the 2:40-3:00 marathon range? Feels very long...but so is the marathon and I've really struggled in the last 30 minutes from 2:30-2:59.