Does anyone have an idea how fast you should run your longer intervals in relation to your goal marathon time/pace.
Example if you are aiming for a sub 2:30 marathon what times should you be aiming for during workouts suchs as:
3x's 5 miles
3x's 4 miles
3x's 3 miles
Are these types of workouts more valuable then the tradition mile repeats?
Thanks for your help.
6:24, 6:24, 6:12, 6:12, 5:48 - 31:00
rest 5 minutes jogging
6:12, 6:12, 6:00, 6:00, 5:36 - 30:00
rest 5 minutes joging
5:48, 5:48, 5:48, 5:48, 5:48 - 29:00
Threshold pace (faster than marathon pace, slower than 10k pace). These are a variation of what you might find in a Daniels' cruise interval workout, although he recommends in his elite training plan more 4, 3, 2, 1 or 5, 4, 3 miles at T pace, with something like 2 miles easy pace warmup and cooldown, and equal minutes (4 min, 3, min, etc.) of easy pace recovery in between waech cruise interval.
T pace for average 2:30 marathoner would be about 5:30 pace.
3 x 5 mile @ 1% slower to 1% faster than Marathon Pace(MP)
3 x 4 mile @ MP to 2% faster
3 x 3 mile @ 2-4% faster than MP
1 minute recovery jog per mile or repeat.
correction - mile "of" repeat
These are stamina workouts in the same category as tempo runs, these work your threshold (aerobic or lactate) and are not "classic" speed workouts.
"Speed workouts" in marathon training would be 6% to 15% faster than marathon pace. They have a different purpose and are handled differently (i.e 50% to 100% recovery times).
Examples of speed workouts in marathon training would be:
6 x 1 mile @ 6-9% faster than MP w 2:30 jog
8 x 1000 @ 9-12% faster than MP w 2:00 jog
16 x 400 @ 12-15% faster than MP w 1:00 jog