When does easy pace=MP?

Bowling Green wrote:

PrZ wrote:

If I were trying to run a marathon in 2:40, I wouldn’t be running at 6:08 pace for easy runs.

Can we talk about that Instagram model who was running ALL of her "easy runs" at 6:50-ish pace who recently ran 3:01?

That being said, I'm training for the marathon right now. I'm a high 37's 10K runner and I'm quickly finding out that running everyday at 7:20-7:30 pace on higher mileage has prevented me from doing well at my 2 workouts per week. At 7:20 pace, I have nothing left for my quality days, so I have to run well over 8 to 8:30 pace just to keep afloat.

A high 37 10K is equivilant to a 2:58-ish marathon....but I can tell you that I can't break 90 minutes for a half and never officially have.

You are running your everyday "easy" runs way too fast. A 2:58 Marathon is something like 6:45 per mile. Your easy pace should be somewhere near 8:15 per mile.

Lip Kitten wrote:

You are running your everyday "easy" runs way too fast. A 2:58 Marathon is something like 6:45 per mile. Your easy pace should be somewhere near 8:15 per mile.

I know. I've been training like a complete idiot thus far. Hence the reason I absolutely tanked my workout this morning. I need forget the Garmin and just run by feel on my easy days.

to answer the original question, marathon pace = easy pace for a high-schooler training 30mpw for the mid-distances.

I think I see where you're getting tripped up.

Let's take a 25 min 5k runner who has only been running for a few months. Now, according to Daniels', their easy run pace should range from 10:10 - 10:50 and MP is 9:05. Let's also assume this runner only does 30 MPW. Now, if this runner were to go out and try to run a 3:58 marathon (VDOT equivalent), there is no way they could sustain 9:05 for 26.2 miles. There would probably be walk breaks, fatigue, what have you. Say they then finish in 5 hours. This would make their actual marathon pace 11:25. This would make their easy pace faster than their marathon pace.

So we're wondering about how a person's easy run pace does relative to their actual MP, not their theoretical pace. Just since lower mileage runners won't be able to handle the actual, prescribed MP

MP: is the pace that you would run a marathon at, IF you were prepared to run a marathon.

Someone who runs less than 30 mpw is NOT prepared to run a marathon and therefore does NOT have a MP.

MP is faster than EP (easy pace).

EP is faster than SS (Survival shuffle)

In Hadd terms, marathon pace produces a constant 2.0-2.5 mmol of lactate in an aerobically trained runner. If you are running at higher than 2.5, you are probably using too much of your anaerobic system and it is, in fact, not really easy pace although it can feel easy.

MP for that same runner is approx. 88-90% of max heart rate. If you are a 30-40 mpw runner, anything in the 70-83% of max heart rate is probably safe. And that would ALWAYS be slower than MP.

This doesn't get into ANY sort of training philosophy, just what is easy pace.

I believe that the posters who are thinking about this in terms of time rather than distance are thinking about this the right way.

https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillans-six-step-training-system/

If you scroll down to "Step #2" and the graph that goes with it, you can see that in McMillan's system, the "Endurance Zone" is 10 hour race pace up to 3.5 hour race pace. In McMillan's system, the "Endurance Zone" includes recovery pace, long run pace, and easy run pace. If, for example, you plug 5 hours into McMillan's calculator for a marathon time, it says that long run pace = 11:14 to 12:25 and easy run pace = 11:12 to 11:57.

For a 5 hour marathon, race pace = 11:27, in other words right in those long run and easy run pace ranges.