RunningAHEAD - Topic: Marathon training speed sessions

HankAchieve

posted: 3/27/2008 at 11:20 PM

Hi all After some advice and suggestions as to what are appropriate speed sessions to be doing in preperation for a marathon? ie what sort of intervals work best, i am presuming the longer the better such as 1mile @LT with appropriate recovery repeated 5 times, but after some real structured work outs if any one has anything they use and know works. Got 13 weeks until my race with a 14.1k fun run this weekend which will be my first run at any real pace in 3 months as I did LHR aerobic training for that period. Thats been fine as it made my training schedule very easy - simply alter distance and HR by a few beats here and there but now I need to incorproate speed but don't want it to be random. Cheers Hank

Just running for the fun of it!

Bugs

posted: 3/27/2008 at 11:53 PM

I am not expert in this AREA at all, but I like pace runs and 3/1 long runs. I think you get the most for your miles with this. Just becareful about increasing insensity and miles at the same time, the cardio gets in better shape before all the little tendons. For my first I ran a series of 10K's, 8K's and 5's about 16 weeks before, two weeks apart. Then I cut back on miles when I got on my training plan. Really helped and want to repeat that this year. Erika, you probably do more speedwork than anyone? Inertia, what does Jack Daniels suggest?

Bugs

dnice

posted: 3/28/2008 at 5:17 PM

If you want some suggestions as far as pacing for interval work, I'd suggestion looking at McMillan's calculator. Just punch in a recent PR and it'll give you set paces for a host of runs. There are simialar calculators around, but I like his the best. Armed with your pacing info, come up with some runs. I know a lot of folks like tempo workouts, and I agree that they can be very effective. My problem is that I really dislike them. Recently, I've got turned onto cruise intervals and tempo intervals. Both are nice because they are not straight up speed workouts but are still likely to improve marathon performance by building stamina and, to some extent, increasing VO2Max. This week, I ran 8x1000 at 6:50 minute mile pace (this is a smidge below my Tempo pace) with 200 recovery. I followed this with 3X200 fast, with 200 recovery. Next week, I'll run 5x2000 at 6:55 minute mile pace, with 2:30 recovery. I'll follow with the 200s. I feel these runs may not offer as much as a 5 mile consecutive tempo run, but they do help. And, as and added bonus, I don't feel that beat up from them.

pace2race

Happy Camper

posted: 3/28/2008 at 6:03 PM

I agree that for the marathon tempo is the best. 1-mile at longrun pace, 6-miler with pace between 10k and 1/2M, 1-mile cool down at longrun pace. Planning the tempo portion over hills can build leg strength. I like one tempo workout per week If I'm fresh and not having soreness issues. Staying injury free trumps speed workouts. Mile repeats are good but I like to use them to memorize marathon goal pace average.

Determination: The feeling you get right before you try something incredibly stupid.

evanflein

posted: 4/4/2008 at 4:31 PM

dnice said it all pretty well. I like to do cruise intervals and mile repeats. I'll embed some 10k pace miles or so into my tempo runs. Also sprinting uphills is great... Smile

Mr Inertia

Suspect Zero

posted: 4/6/2008 at 8:07 AM

This time around I've been doing tempo ala Pfitizinger - as long of a tempo run as I can in the midst of medium to long run. In his 18/55 plan, it goes up to 7 miles at tempo during a 12 mile run. I'll probably hit about 6 miles during a 10 miler. Next time around I'm going to try some cruise intervals ala Daniels. In his Running Formula there are tons of great cruise interval workouts that can be part of a medium/long or even long run if you're tough enough. If you don't have Daniel's Running formula, I'd be happy to post some of the workouts he recommends.

Marathon Trainers

Marathon training speed sessions (Read 129 times)