Today I did a marathon specific training - running in your goal pace range, 7 minute intervals. The idea is that as you progress and extend these intervals you get more efficient holding this pace.
For now I have set my goal pace at 4:15-4:25 (while this is a little faster than required for a 3:15:00 marathon, I might take an attempt at 3:00:00 if all feels well). My training was structured as followed;
- warmup (easy pace)
4x - interval 1 (pace between 4:15 / minute and 4:25 / minute) - recovery (3 min zone 2)
Entering this workout via Garmin Connect will give you real time updates on your pace by showing if it is within range.
The intervals went pretty well, I think I should narrow the range a bit to ensure I get feedback faster as I found my self going too fast at times (which trains something else - not my trainingsgoal today)
While there was some light rain, the temperature was pleasant.
The trainingsweek is going pretty well sofar (66 km in), tonight I will have a shorter strenght session (bodyweight based).
Nevertheless I am considering skipping my recovery run tomorrow and give the legs real rest, that way I expect to do an better long run on Sunday
I have grown to love working with chatgpt on analysing my interval workouts. Most of the times I just import an activity report and ask it to compare it with my earlier runs on pace, durantion, heartrate efficiency and consider how this training alligns with the targetted goal time. Fun to play around with!
Happy running