Ask the coach: Struggling to hit my target marathon pace on long runs

I’ve been using your sub-3 marathon plan. I’m a 1:25 half runner, and I worked up to 40 miles per week (up to week 16), but in the last four big long runs (up to 20 miles), I have not been able to hit marathon pace (6:45min/mile), the plan says to hit marathon pace for the last part of the run. I’ve read about ‘accumulative fatigue’ could it be that? Or am I just not ready for the sub-3 pace?!

Oliver

Running coach answer
Mike Gratton:

It might be that you are going out a bit too quickly on the long run.

Even if you think you are starting steady, it might still be too fast, and then it is a hard task to speed up later on when fatigue has built up. It’s a hard task anyway, outside the adrenalin of a race atmosphere and may take a few attempts on your last few long runs before a marathon to get it. Start slow, build to steady through the run and only try to get to marathon pace for the last mile or so of the run initially when you try it. As you get used to it you can stretch the period at marathon pace out so that you can do it for several miles at the end.

The main reason to do the progressive session, finishing at marathon pace, is that it gives you mental toughness that you can transpose to help get through when it starts to hurt in the marathon. Your mind develops ‘muscle memory’ of you finishing quickly and is therefore a great motivator, if you can get it right. If you go out in your long runs too fast and finish exhausted, then that is not the muscle memory you want to carry into your marathon!

As I usually do, I can relate, for instance, experience: I once ran a 20-mile run with the Australian team while on a training camp in Portugal. The run included Rob d’Castella, twice World Marathon champion, Gary Henry, a 2.10 marathon runner, and Steve Moneghetti, who would later win the Commonwealth Games Marathon. The run was an out-and-back, 10 miles out and 10 back along a flat coastal path. The first 5 miles were so slow the group were chatting and actually tripping over each other’s feet – about 8 minutes per mile pace, when these runners would race at 4.55 for a marathon. The next 5 picked up to a steady pace, say 6.30 min/mile but got a bit quicker as we reached the turn. Then the pace lifted again soon after the turn, to inside 6 min/miles and the last 5 miles pushing at least to 5min miles, or faster. The secret was the very slow early pace, then the pace at the end was achievable, of course, in this case, with a bit of adrenalin and pride!

Download your sub 3 hour marathon training plan PDF today. If you are after a slightly slower marathon, take a read of our 4 hour pace marathon blog.

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