Running more miles or running faster miles? (Read 1397 times)

So I am getting a little worried that maybe what I am doing is not going to be a good idea come marathon day.  Now keep in mind almost all of my runs these days are outside but I am not hitting marathon pace or below very oftern and this has me worried.  I am getting lots of workouts and starting this weekend I am going to start to ramp up my long runs to 16+.  However, with this cold, rain, sleet and wind I don't get to under 8 min pace very oftern.  I am getting a lot of 8:30 pace in which is a minute off my race pace. 

So is more miles and runs going to pay off in the end?  Am I doing the right thing?

You have plenty of time before pig.  Get your miles and your base in now and you can do a little sharpening in late March and early April.  Some would argue that for the majority of your runs you are still running too fast.

And dont underestimate the training effect of cold, rain, sleet & wind.  If you are going slower because the conditions are shitty, that doesnt mean you arent training at the right effort.  When the conditions improve the effort will produce faster paces.  

I do a lot of my running at 8:30 pace, touch (not a hero workout) your race pace once every week to 10 days. she will be there on race day.

mta: so long as its not 88 degrees.

A 10K race here or there would be very good.  That is perhaps one aspect that is not immediately clear from your log, which is whether or not you are doing "tempo" runs -- runs of a few miles slightly above marathon pace to improve lactate threshold.  I read somewhere too that marathoners training for the Olympic trials did 28% of their weekly miles at or above marathon pace, which is a lot by most standards, but they are trying to get their LT as high as possible.  A few miles in the middle and/or near the end of a long run is a great place to throw in some miles at MP.  Follow that long run with an easy run of a few miles on the next day in the high 8's/low 9's per mile.  Easy/recovery miles still count!

I like a lot of what Pfitzinger has to say about training and am currently following my own variant (trail ultra specific) of the 55 mpw plan.  I've never had the disclipline to follow a plan before but it has helped a whole bunch.

Without time to look at your log, I would lean to adding more miles over speed.

One note:  Marathon pace is in a "no man's land" from an aerobic development package.  Apart from running it occasionally to get used to what it feels like, IMHO you are better off devoting your time to either a) more miles, or b) work in the 5K-tempo range.

You have to do a LOT of MP work before it begins challenging your aerobic system to improve -- and these will then be long faster runs with great need for recovery.  You will get faster with more efficient use of time and mileage with 4-6 mile tempo runs and longer (800m-3000m) intervals on relatively short recovery.

Thanks for all of the great replys and advice.  I think part of my problem is I will plan to do some speed work and then boom we have bad weather and so I can't do speedwork outside because of the conditions.  Like Tuesday I have speedwork planned but we are supposed to get 2-6 inchs of freaking snow. 

I'm also trying something new in running everyday at least 6 miles with some swimming thrown in.  I keep wondering if this is a good idea or if I would be better served to take a day off say Tuesday and run speed work on Wed.  I also wonder if I should stop swimming.   The marathon is my focus but I like the new challenge of swimming and I have an OLY-Tri in July. 

However, I don't have any pain and besides one day of runnintg 13 miles and then playing soccer for 90 minutes my legs have felt okay.  Not great/fresh but not sore/tired.  In between somewhere. 

Maybe I am just getting the bad weather blues.  IThis was a good point:

I mean, my main goal is to keep running and enjoying competition for a long time - not just doing all I can to peak for a certain race.  It means I may not ever get to be the fastest I could be at that distance but maybe I can get close AND run well over the long term.

 

I want to follow this advice as much as possible but I know myself and I like to see myself improving.  I don;t have a couple of cycles worth of patience to keep doing the same thing unless I see improvement.  I keep tweaking until I find out what my body does best.  However, as long as I am not hurting myself and it might work out for the best no reason to change what I am doing at this point but add in a little more speeed work.   Sounds like the easy miles is a good thing not a bad thing.

I want to follow this advice as much as possible but I know myself and I like to see myself improving.  I don;t have a couple of cycles worth of patience to keep doing the same thing unless I see improvement.

The way I've been motivating myself over a period of years, not months, is to run other races.  I'm really a longer distance guy but I run 5K, 8K,10K, 12K, 10miles and 1/2's really just to 'document' the progress I'm making.  Marathons, as indicators of improvement, are not good for me because the sampling period is too coarse - one or two marathons a year and then maybe you get sick or the conditions are bad or whatever and then whaddya got for all your hard work?  No results - pretty demoralizing if that were to happen to me. 

Best of luck at Pig.