When I’ve targeted the correct marathon pace for my fitness
level and race day conditions (which I have in all of my recent marathons), on race day that pace feels smooth and
maintainable. I wouldn’t say it feels
easy, but it feels very sustainable. I get into a groove and feel like I could
keep going and going at that pace.
It doesn’t feel like work or pushing until the final few miles.
In training, I don’t run a lot at marathon pace. Most of my runs are slower; I never drop a
marathon pace mile, or even close, during an easy run. My tempo runs and speed workouts are
faster. When I do marathon pace
running during long runs, it’s typically either fast finish miles or interspersed pick-ups; I have never run an entire long run at marathon goal pace. I’ve done a 20-mile
workout, “The Hardest Workout Ever”, that contained some marathon pace running
and some faster running, along with 5 miles of easy running for
warm-up/recoveries/cool-down; when I ran that workout before BMO Mesa-Phoenix,
my average pace for the 15 effort miles in combination was 6:27, and I went on to
average 6:27 pace in the marathon.
That workout did not inspire confidence that I could run 26.2 at 6:27 pace -- 15 miles at that pace with recoveries < 26.2 miles straight
at that pace -- but it did make me feel good about trying for 6:3X pace.
Basically, whenever I run marathon goal pace in training,
one question comes to mind and that is:
How can I ever sustain this
for 26.2 miles?! I felt that way about 7:15
pace when I was trying for a 3:10, about 7:00-7:05 pace when I was aiming for 3:03-3:05,
about 6:51 pace when I was trying to break 3:00, and about 6:33 pace when I was
trying to run in the low 2:50s -- and certainly now about 6:17 pace. But then race day comes, and the magical combination of
peaking and tapering and a goal race happens, and I can do it, or sometimes a
bit faster. Because this has happened to
me before, I trust the process, but it still flummoxes me. I am pushing anytime I run marathon pace in
training; it does not feel sustainable, it feels like work.
It seems that many other people drop marathon pace miles
all of the time, and thanks to Strava and Instagram I guess I am more aware of this. It seems like that pace
is easy for them. Some people seem to do
all their long runs at marathon pace.
Obviously, there are a lot of factors at play, including overall volume and
workouts, and the percentage of VO2 max that we are running our marathons at,
but it blows my mind! I never come anywhere close to 6:17-6:27 on easy days; a fast easy day for me is when I’m running 6:55s
(and that is the exception, not the norm). I know that I am doing the training that is
best for me, but sometimes I start questioning why my easy pace isn’t
faster! Why is the pace I can run for
26.2 so much work?!
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| Preparing to work during my Phoenix build |
It blows my mind that there are people who run long runs at marathon pace. My long runs are always easy paced unless they are a workout. I believe the way you are doing it is best because you are putting less strain on your body and still getting the results!
ReplyDeleteYou're right about putting less strain on the body! I also know that physiologically it's the better way to train, and that the pros run their easy runs and non-workouts much slower than marathon pace, but it still flummoxes me. I couldn't physically do it day after day if I tried!
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