In the training plan I’m following for the New York Marathon (the plan in Matt Fitzgerald’s book, Brain Training for Runners), there’s a huge emphasis on running your training runs at specific paces.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve just entered the peak phase of my training for the marathon. This phase incorporates a few longer runs at my goal marathon pace. I did the first one last weekend.
Although the run was kind of tough, the saving grace was that it was shorter than a lot of my long runs have been lately - only 10 miles. The middle 8 were supposed to be run at my goal marathon pace. I’m happy to report that I was able to achieve this. I can’t say it was easy, but I felt fairly strong after the run, and it really boosted my confidence.
If you’re training for a marathon, I wouldn’t recommend doing these marathon pace runs every weekend, but I do see the value in doing them a few times as you’re peaking for a race, because:
- They’re a huge confidence booster, and
- They train your body to understand what race pace feels like.
If you’d like to incorporate some goal-pace workouts into your training schedule, this article from Running Planet has some great suggestions.
Some of the other “tune-up” workouts in my schedule during this peak phase are a half-marathon time trial, tempo runs at half-marathon pace, and of course, the standard base pace long runs.
Those of you that are doing a fall marathon - what are some of the workouts you’re doing to reach your peak?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, how are you?
Glad to see you’re still training hard for your marathon.
Coach Al has had us run at least a few miles of each long run at our race pace. Starting with the first 12 miler.
My marathon is next Sat. I can’t believe it’s this close already. Praying to get to the starting line feeling ready.
I learn a lot from everything you write. Thanks so much for helping me to become a better runner!
I train with http://www.vicsystem.com. Vicsystem is a dynamic training plan which adapts to your feedback that your provide after your runs. Vicsystem is designed around the training philosophy of Viktor Roethlin (Swiss Marathon Runner). He finished sixth at the Olympic Marathon in Peking, won the Tokio Marathon in February.
Vicsystem incorporates Marathon Tempo runs into the training plan as well. However, I think the special trainings are the long runs which are run a little bit faster than what is usually recommended. For example, vicsystem calculated a finishing time of 2h 38min for me. My last long-run 4 weeks before the marathon was of 38km with a pace of 4min 20sec.
I have yet to run the marathon tough and I’m not sure if I can run below 2h 40min as I have back problems since shortly after this run. However, I still think vicsystem works quite well as I improved my marathon time from 2h 51min to 2h 43min this spring.
@Rachel - Best of luck on Oct. 4. You’ve been working hard - you will be ready.
@leslie - Thanks so much!
@Daniel - sounds like a good plan. I hope your back problems resolve quickly.
Great post! Congrats on maintaining your goal pace for your long run. My coach has me run my last 5 to 8 miles of my long (15 - 22 mile) runs at goal pace or faster. It’s a wonderful challenge and I find it helps me focus my mind on something other than being tired.
Sandy
Thanks, Sandy. I like your coach’s variation on the goal pace training runs. Good luck with your taper and your race.
Wow and I feel lucky to get through my long runs, period. But then again it’s my first, so I am trying not to be too hard on myself. That’s awesome you were able to keep up at your marathon pace.