The marathon is a very popular distance. Last week we chatted all about the importance of building a proper marathon training plan. This week we want to dive into the details of what type of workouts really matter when it comes to success in the marathon. We often see runners doing speed workouts during marathon training. This is not often the most effective way to become faster at the marathon. The marathon is 99% aerobic in nature, so it is very important to work on building that aerobic system. We are going to chat about the 5 workouts that are the best for marathon training. Here is a brief overview of what they are: the long run, easy runs, steady state runs, threshold runs, & medium long runs. 

WEEKLY MILEAGE: We want to look at the history of an athlete

Mileage is key and becomes very important in the marathon training basket

You can BS a 5k

“I am not a high mileage runner”

EASY RUNNING should comprise 80% of your training plan

80% of weekly miles should be 2-3 min slower than 5k pace

LONG RUNS should typically be done at an easy pace unless there is a workout portion in the long run in which only part of this weekly long runs will be fast.

If you run 45 miles per week and your long run is 15 miles, we cannot run the full 15 miles at marathon pace because this would be 33% of your weekly mileage as a hard effort. Within a 15 mile run you may do 5 miles at marathon pace and this would be 50% of your weekly workout mileage.

A long run is a stress day already- when you add pace work it makes it even more stressful!

MEDIUM LONG RUNS There is a lot of talk about long runs when you are marathon training, but what about the medium long run or the med week long run? This is a run that is shorter than your longest run but a little longer than your weekday run. Let’s say you are running 45 miles per week with a 15 mile long run. You have 30 miles to split between the remaining 5 days of running. Sure, you could run 6 miles every day, but where we find people have more success is doing 1 medium long run mid-week. This might look something like rest, 5, 10, 4, 7, 4, 15. The 10 mile run in the middle of the week is a medium long run. This run helps to build endurance and your aerobic base. 

Tempos & Steady State Runs

This is where the fun comes in. The 20% hard efforts. Some of these workouts might be mixed within a medium long run or long run. 

20% of weekly mileage can be workouts

Best workouts are tempos

45 miles per week → 9 miles can be workout 

2 workouts per week could be: 2 x 2 mile tempo + 5 x 1 mile

40 miles per week—> 8 miles can be workout

2 workouts per week could be: 2 x 2 mile tempo + 4 x 1 mile

Threshold workout vs tempo workout

Marathon pace vs steady state