I am a 40 year-old male training for the Chicago Marathon. I was originally hoping to break 2:40, but my training partner has been trying to convince me that I am 8-10 minutes faster than this. Here is some training info:
Averaging 85-95 for 2014 with 13 straight weeks of 100+ this winter. Lately, I have been in the 90s with 3 workouts per week. Recent "hard running" includes:
1) 22 mile run at a 6:13 average broken up as follows:
6 mile warm-up to the track starting at 6:59 dropping to 6:28
8 miles alternating every mile between HM pace (5:29 average) and Marathon pace (5:51 average)
7 miles home at 6:22 average
No rests… 22 miles continuous
2) 6 x 1k hilly repeats (3:15 avg, 1:45 slow rest) pacing the top boys on the local HS team
3) 15:40 5k (comfortable 15 second win)
4) 1:12:02 HM (basically a time trial - 2nd was 1:18+)
I realize that #2 and #3 are not very strongly related to marathon training. I have been hitting #1 somewhat comfortably every 5-7 days (ranging between 18 - 24 miles) for the past couple months. I recover from it very quickly and am usually ready for another workout after 2 easy days.