What are some good, ball-busting marathon workouts?

Big G wrote:

Would 10 times a mile at MP goal pace with a minute recovery be good?

How about 4321 mile going from MP pace down to HALF-MARY to 10k pace for the 2 and 1?

Ouch!!!

ben kwelllerrrr wrote:

20 miles.

First 5 at 645

Second 5 at 530

Third 5 at 615

Fourth 5 at 550

Not the hardest ever, but definitely takes discipline and a strong mind to ignore the wear and tear over 20 miles.

This information is not very useful if we don´t know what your MP is.

well wrote:

ben kwelllerrrr wrote:

20 miles.

First 5 at 645

Second 5 at 530

Third 5 at 615

Fourth 5 at 550

Not the hardest ever, but definitely takes discipline and a strong mind to ignore the wear and tear over 20 miles.

This information is not very useful if we don´t know what your MP is.

Haven't run one yet, but my MP goal is right around 540 pace.

Thanks for all the responses, guys. This thread could be pretty awesome. Id like to try a few of these workouts myself.

Run 12 miles daily and every minute tak a bat and hit yourself in the balsa with it

or

run 78.34 miles every morning at eight and then watch any Nicholas cage movie.....this will put you in pain enough

Runny the kid wrote:

Run 12 miles daily and every minute tak a bat and hit yourself in the balsa with it

or

run 78.34 miles every morning at eight and then watch any Nicholas cage movie.....this will put you in pain enough

I think a keanu reeves movie would be worse

go out on a long country road and run hard and fast, every time you see a telephone poll, rack yer ballz against it.

when you've busted yer ballz the workout is done.

I like the Daniels workout of 2M easy, 2 x 10 mins at HM pace with 2 min recovery between, 60 mins easy/steady, 20 mins at HM pace, 2M easy. Amounts to 20-22 miles depending on your pace and running hard on depleted legs is tough work!

I modified a workout of Bordin. He ran 40 k at 4 min/km then 10k at 3 min/km. For Bordin this was essentially 40k at regular easy training pace then 10k at around LT. I did the same workout only proportionately slower given my marathon goals.

One of my staples is 5k at 95% MP, 8x800 at %110 MP w/ 200 recovery, 5k at 105% of MP. At the beginning of marathon specific workouts, I take 7 minutes between the 5ks and 8's, but cut that to 4 as things progress.

I also tried what some on here suggested last year and did 27 at 7:45 pace (MP 5:40). It was pretty brutal. I'll have to try just doing 24 next time and then throw some repeats at the end.

Thanks.

4 x 5K at 20k pace. Usually pretty tiring.

4 x 5K at 20k pace. Usually pretty tiring.

morning

we like to warm up a bit and go out for an hr 15min and see if we can get back under an hour

afternoon

3x10mile or 3x50 min which ever comes first. recovery is 5km around 16

My favorite marathon wo is a variation of the 4321. I do it twice during the build. First time is 3213, with the two three miles at marathon pace and the 1 mile close to all out (say 5:30 for the 3s, 5:20 for the 2 and 5:00 for the 1) with 400m easy jog/walk in between, the hard part (obviously) is repeating your time for the 3 mile. A month later I add a 4 mile rep at the front of the workout for a 43213 where the 4 is about 90-95%MP (about 5:45-5:50s), don't expect to have much left for a cool down.

"train don't strain" -arthur lydiard.

If you find busting your balls appropriate to improve, then go ahead but the priority for the workout should be to improve not to bust your balls.

15 minute warmup jog,

then 20 minutes tempo pace,

then 80-90 minutes at usual long run pace,

then another 20 minutes at tempo pace

I can only complete this workout satisfactorily when I'm very close to peak marathon shape.

I'm a waddler by letsrun standards, so I'll note that I've borrowed this one from a coach who has coached lots of good runners, and acknowledge that it's being my favorite doesn't add a whole lot of cred.

I like workouts where you run 5 to 10 easy miles in the morning and then another easy 10 in the evening. And you run 11-3 times a week. And yes you do a couple of hard workouts but don't give a damn about "ball-busting" stuff because you are smart enough to realize that marathon speed comes from the strength you get from all that running not from any one "special" workout and workout heroes are race-day underperformers.

Please share those stories.

5X26.2 @MP with NO REST!!!!!!!!!

An old friend of my coach who was in the olympic marathon trials back in the 70's ran a few 30 milers in his day at 5:30-5:45 pace. His P.R. was sub 2:20.