Finish fast runs? Last 5-10 miles of your long runs (don't know how long your long runs are now), building up over the weeks, at intended race speed, to give your legs the feel of running on tired legs.

I hit my PR building up to 40 mpw for 1 week and then tapered. So now that I have a solid month at 50 mpw plus what I do in the next few weeks, I am hoping for an improvement.

My long runs now are right at 13.1 miles and I get that done in just under 2 hours. I think I am going to stay at 50 mpw and just do what you said finish fast runs at my goal pace once a week with maybe 1 other speed day with fartlek runs or higher tempo runs.

If your legs have been feeling good, and you're not particularly injury-prone when doing tempo pace, then you'd be shooting yourself in the foot if you didn't sharpen at least a little.

In each of the next three weeks, I'd suggest one fast-finish long run (at goal race pace, ~7:26/mile) and one 3-4 mile tempo run at whatever pace you could sustain in an hour-long race (I'd guess around 7:00/mile or a little faster). Then include some mileage (like 3-5 miles/week) of marathon pace in your taper too.

I'm a little skeptical of training that has you doing all LSD at ~9:00+/mile until now and then hoping to run 7:30/mile in the marathon. If you pull it off, it makes me think you are way underperforming at the marathon distance relative to what you could do with a more conventional training plan (some workouts through the whole cycle, longer long runs than 13.1 miles, and more volume). Your triathlon background may be blessing you with strong endurance for a 3-4 hour race despite relatively nonspecific run training.

I read an article about a runner having a improved marathon time on nothing but LSD training. Although sometimes boring, I have thought I would give it a try since i knew my mileage was pretty low for every marathon I have ran. I am pretty comfortable at the required 7:26 pace for a 3:15 marathon so either this LSD plan is working or like you said, I am just under performing and have some more speed to tap into.

Since I have about 3 more weeks, I am going to take the advice. Increase my long run distance, and turn 2 of my shorter runs into higher speed work, with the rest of my runs just being a normal pace run with a strong finish.

Thanks all!

You'll never really know until you try. So much depends on your physiology and susceptibility to injury. Adding miles and speed will increase your risk of injury, but it should also increase your speed on race day if you stay healthy. If.


I try something a little different for each marathon, adding a little more mileage on the long runs and a little more speed on some key workouts. So far so good, but there's a point of diminishing returns and a point of negative returns. I've raced best with long runs of 24-25 miles, but that doesn't mean 26 is a good idea for me (I'll find out in April), and it doesn't mean 24-25 is a good idea for you. n=1

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<The Dew Abides>