So my girlfriend runs for fitness, and doesnt do 'workouts' or have any structered training. She runs a decent amount of mileage though - probably 40-50 miles a week.
I think she does most of her running at ~9 min pace. A sub 4 marathon is around 9:10 pace, so this seems like a reasonable, if not conservative goal. She has told me she wants to run her best possible time and often asks me for training advice, so dont think I'm one of those overbearing people pressuring her to care about racing when she doesnt. I just dont know what to tell her.
I'm by no means fast (3 hour marathon), but take my training seriously. Do the same 'rules' apply to her training - ie a lot of MP stuff, workouts, etc? Its weird because her 'normal' pace is around her MP, whereas that is not the case for most faster runners.
Is it worth it to structure some sort of training program for her, or should I just say run as much mileage as you can, get in good long runs, then the race will come?
You can probably tell I'm lost here, so any input would be appreciated. Thanks.