ive seen this asked before with no answer. assuming one wants to run a marathon, but has never before, how do you go about predicting MP? and are MP runs at goal marathon pace, or what pace you think you could currently run a marathon at?
ive seen this asked before with no answer. assuming one wants to run a marathon, but has never before, how do you go about predicting MP? and are MP runs at goal marathon pace, or what pace you think you could currently run a marathon at?
Train at your goal MP. You find out your MP by plugging numbers into one of the numerous pace calculators on the web.
Pace calculators are terrible for new marathoners. Best predictor is to run a 10 mile tempo at a hard, but sustainable pace. First five miles should feel pretty smooth. Last five will be hard, but not all out. Should not be a race effort and should not leave you sore the next day or exhausted afterwards. That will be your best of all possible words marathon pace, meaning the fastest pace you should try to run.
If you are in the 3 hr range, 2x 1/2 marathon time plus 10 minutes will also get you a good goal marathon pace.
If you are a strong and well-trained distance runner, you should be able to manage 5k pace x 1.15 (85% of 5k pace) for the marathon. Runners without enough mileage and high end aerobic work obviously won't be able to manage this.
This is true. Depends on what time range you're in, what your weekly mileage is, how long you've been running, how many ST/FT fibers you have etc....General rule of thumb: you could probably train 20 sec/mile slower than half marathon pace PR as a rough estimate of MP (if well trained). In any case, do lots of long runs that get faster and hit around that pace (at least for 4-5 miles at the end), lots of slow easy miles about 1-2min per mile slower than that pace, a ton of Lactate Threshold workouts at half marathon pace down to almost 10km pace, and a couple of Vo2max or 5km to 10km type of pace long intervals (more for leg turnover).Good luck!
dfsfdsfds wrote:
If you are a strong and well-trained distance runner, you should be able to manage 5k pace x 1.15 (85% of 5k pace) for the marathon. Runners without enough mileage and high end aerobic work obviously won't be able to manage this.
Others have given good answers. I will add that in the Marathon, it is probably better to just go out and do a lot of 10 mile moderate/hard runs where you run by feel. Those times will be good predictors of your Marathon pace. In other words, don't just pick a number from a chart train at that pace. Let your body tell you what it can do and get stronger and faster through your training. You might end up faster or slower than what the charts say, but you'll live up to your potential.
Absolutely have no time goal. Just try to finish. The marathon is different. Assess how you feel during the race,such as at 13 and 20. Basically walk thru the first ten until you get a feel for the effort. If you feel good at 20, move. Time-goal and pace-oriented first timers crash and burn. A lot of newcomers do long, three-week tapers. I found this way too much. I dropped my long, which was 20-24, to 8 the weekend before the race, did shake outs during race week and did nothing for 2 or 3 days before the race. Eat. Rest. Don't think about pace. Enjoy the race.
5k pace plus 1 minute per mile. You might be able to run it a little faster than that but that's a good place to start.
Precious Roy wrote:
If you are in the 3 hr range, 2x 1/2 marathon time plus 10 minutes will also get you a good goal marathon pace.
Sounds about right for a debut. 4 hour marathon runners should add 15-20.