How long should your marathon workouts be?, Adding the right amount of volume to your marathon training can result in tremendous aerobic gains

Running a marathon can be intimidating, especially if it’s your first. Your success in the marathon depends on a fairly significant chunk of time devoted to training. If you plan a 16- to 20-week build, your marathon will most likely go well (barring unforeseeable’s like extreme weather, illness or injury). But if you want to get closer to reaching your goal, paying attention to running the right volume in speed workouts can help you get the most out of your training plan.

When planning your marathon workouts, it’s important to understand that the race itself is entirely aerobic. The marathon requires next to no anaerobic work; your heart rate will stay well below your maximum HR for the entire race unless you somehow find yourself in a sprint to the finish line.

Considering that, you’ll want to curate your workouts around improving your aerobic capacity. This means that workouts consisting of 15 reps of 400m at 10K or half-marathon pace will not be beneficial to your preparation.

Your mileage and time on your feet are the most important elements when training for a marathon, therefore you want your workouts to be a particular length to simulate a race setting.

Your marathon workouts should be at least 12 to 25 kilometers of volume. Here are a few examples.

10 to 12 reps 800m at goal marathon pace (or faster) with 400m float (faster-jog) rest. (12-16 km)

Three to four reps of 5K with five minutes’ rest at goal marathon pace or faster. (17-22 km)

3K, 5K, 3K, 5K alternating from half-marathon pace on 3K reps to marathon pace on 5K reps with four minutes’ jog rest between reps. (16-19 km)

Two reps of 3K, 2K, 1K at goal marathon pace with two minutes jog between reps, and three minutes jog between sets. (12-15 km)

Unfortunately, speed development for the marathon is not done with your classic short interval workouts, especially for new and intermediate runners. There is no need to run fast track workouts for the marathon unless you are experienced and looking to improve your previous marathon time. This can be done by doing short intervals with short rest at your goal marathon pace.

posted Wednesday March 2nd
by Marley Dickinson