Even though my first marathon didn’t go as fast as planned, the training really improved my fitness, evidenced by a solo 5k PR of 16:39 (from 16:54) two months after the marathon.
At first marathon training was really hard for me. My coach
and I settled on training for 2:40-41, based off of mile and 5k recent PRs since
we didn’t really have any recent longer PRs to go off of, but I had adjusted well
to the threshold training and increased mileage. It seemed very ambitious to
me, but my coach really believed I could handle 6:08/mile marathon paced (MP) workouts.
The first workout (8 miles @ MP) was solid, but the second
one was warm and humid and felt so long! Granted since my half marathon PR at
the time was 6:05 mile pace running 10 miles at 6:08 felt overwhelming. I began
to fall only a few seconds off pace and felt very overheated so stopped at 8
miles, then ended up running a few miles easy and did one mile at threshold.
Overall a solid session. For a beginner maybe starting at 6 miles, then 8 miles
would be more appropriate. Another option –especially in hot or windy weather
or with sudden training fatigue – would be to break up the session into say 2 x
5 mile at marathon with one mile easy recovery.
Nonetheless the next 2 marathon LR sessions (12 continuous
miles, 15-16 continuous miles) I was able to complete without issue.
Interspersed between marathon sessions I still ran threshold miles in LRs (2-4
miles worth) and completed 2 depletion runs (22 miles). For these depletion runs
I cut down on carbs the day prior, and only drank water and black coffee in the
am before, consuming nothing during.
Weekday workouts consisted of threshold 1- 2- 3- mile repeats
(6-8 miles total) with equal minute active recovery and continuous runs
alternating marathon and threshold miles (5-6 miles total). It was a hard
adjustment cutting out interval training, as I was so accustomed to getting
these sessions in every week basically ever since I started running! However, focusing
on a new area – marathon pace – as well as building my mileage up to 80-85
miles/week, running further than I ever had (22 milers), as well as continuing
to run faster threshold workouts really helped me feel stronger and like I had
so much more endurance.
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