d00d wrote:
One of the workouts in the plan is a marathon pace (mp) run, which is usually the day before the long run. What if you consistently run the mp run faster than the pace you intend to run at your marathon? The longest mp run is about 10 miles, so it's not really all that far. Will running an mp run faster than the intended speed help with fitness? I am doing a disservice to myself by not following the mp run to a tee?
Don't run faster. The specificity of running the pace at which you intend to race is important. If it feels easy for you to run that MP, try running more miles at MP instead. Make the 10 mile MP be 12. Or perhaps do workouts where you do multiple long blocks at MP (4 or 5 mile blocks) with short recovery between. You don't have to do it all in one block.
An inability to run your goal pace is not the tough part of the marathon. An inability to hold that pace the whole way is. You don't need faster. You need more.