In terms of long repeats for the marathon (1000s, miles), how many do you all typically do?
My background is more 10k training, so I would do 5xmile of 8x1000 at most. For the thon, should I be doing more in these sessions? 8 or 10xmile seems more reasonable, but at that point why not just go out for a hard 10 mile run?
This thread may help:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=142050&thread=142050
Khannouchi and most elites build to 10-12 x 1000m repititions at 5K race pace.
I would say that unless you are planning on running sub 5:30 miles, that intervals are not necessary for marathoning. Grind out the miles. Do two of your weekly hour runs at your goal marathon pace. Do an anaerobic threshold run of 30 to 40 minutes one of the other days and keep your long run at least 1 hr and 45 minutes weekly, with the ubiquitos 20 miler at least 3 times in the 2 months prior to beginning your taper. If you are planning on sub 5:30 pace, then 3 or 4 2 mile repeats at your race pace with a 400 recovery will prove beneficial.
Run longer/slower intervals. 3x2miles at 10k pace. 3miles, 2miles, 1mile going from 10k pace for the 3 and 2 and 5k pace for the 1. 8xmile or 4x2miles at halfmarathon pace with 1 minute recovery. 4-5 x 5k at marathon pace. Other than that you can still run your basic speed sessions, just not as much (16x400, 10x800, 5x1200, 6xmile). I think a good 6 week speed workout progression would be: 16x400, 10x800, 5x1200, 6xmile, 3x2mile, 3-2-1 with your second workout of the week being someting like the above 8xmile or 4x2mile.
Alan
One spring when I was training for a half-marathon I ran this workout a few times and felt very strong during the race. I adopted it from a workout that Renaldo DeCosta was said to do before he ran 2:06:05 for the marathon. The workout was 5k-4k-3k-2k-1k all with 3 minutes rest in between. Looking in my old running log I hit 16:42/13:19/10:08/6:32/3:10 one of the times I did it. The last time I ran it before the race was 4 weeks out so that I could properly recover. My goal for the race was run negative splits like I simulated with my workout. I also hoped to win. I did win and the race started very slowly 6min miles and I finished with a 4:55 mile and a time of 1:12:50. The time is not spectacular but I won by 2 min and felt amazingly strong doing it. I hope this helps you.