I believe in being very race-specific, especially during the last phase, but I find that including some cruise intervals at LT pace are beneficial as far as feeling more "economical" at race pace.
I believe in being very race-specific, especially during the last phase, but I find that including some cruise intervals at LT pace are beneficial as far as feeling more "economical" at race pace.
With the exception of tune up races and 3 runs at marathon pace, every workout I do during the period from 12 weeks out until my 2 week taper is at LT pace.
What plan do you follow?
See...my last phase (race-specific) calls for 5-6 marathon pace runs which range from 10-16 miles. It's much shorter than 12 weeks though. My overall cycle, in fact, is 18 weeks. I added a couple LT workouts this time around and thought maybe I was tinkering a bit too much with the formula. Glad to know I was wrong in thinking that.
You should be hitting on all your paces throughout the year.
I use a Daniels plan as the basis for my training (although I modify it some to fit my race scheduled, personal preferences and lifestyle). For marathons, that means work at vo2max/5k pace from 18 weeks out until 12 weeks out (1 day vo2max, 1 day LT, 1 day long run), and then tons of LT work from 12 weeks out until race day (with 3 days of 13 miles at mp mixed in over those 12 weeks).
The rationale behind the Daniels approach is that the marathon is a purely aerobic endeavor, so you want to be aerobic at as fast a pace as possible to maximize your race performance. Accordingly, you reduce your LT so that it would require a faster pace to go anaerobic (or, said another way, to reach your LT).
The marathon paced work is important in the Daniels approach in that it allows you to lock in muscle memory of goal pace, and it helps build mental focus and toughness (focusing on pace for well over an hour tends to do that). I would expect that there is also some LT benefit in that, even though it is done at mp, it is done at mp in advance of you peaking and it is done for such an extended period that there may be some lactic acid (and associate byproduct) buildup.
So there is nothing wrong with running at mp - in fact, my modifications of Daniels approach is to work in a few miles at mp at the end of a couple of longish runs during the taper - I just don't think that having them be the core basis of marathon training is the most efficient way to get where you want to be.
Thank you for the well-thought out response, Smoove.