"If I'm not almost able to go at this pace for 28 kms, how am I going to be able to go even faster for 42 in a few weeks?" Who hasn't asked themselves this question not once but many times?
Every time we try to do a long run at a more or less constant pace we have been left pondering this question. We notice that we're running too fast, sometimes too fast, at a pace lower than that of the marathon, and we hesitate to lower our ambitions.
We must not forget that doing a long run at the pace we are referring to is a very demanding training session that takes place in totally different conditions from those we will have on the day of the marathon:
- We arrive rested thanks to the progressive decrease of the training we have done in the previous days.
- We are in the best physical condition due to the accumulated training load that together with the decrease of the last days has managed to optimize the effect of supercompensation.
- Our motivation is extra: the atmosphere, the other participants, the goal in sight ... this is the day for which we have been preparing for so long and in which we will give 100%.
Therefore, we should not be obsessed with always running at marathon pace during training and even less in long runs. As a general rule, the better the athlete's performance, the higher his race pace, the more difficult it will be to reach those levels.
Let's look at an example
For a 2h35m athlete, i.e. who runs the 42195 meters at 3:40, it is almost impossible to run at those paces in training for many kilometers while a 3h30m athlete, who in this case completes it at an average of 5:00, can surely get closer to those of competition during the long session at least for a good part of it.
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A few tricks
Of course, to master marathon paces you also have to train "under", faster, and this is achieved with sets, fartleks and in general with interval work in which you alternate fast paces with slower paces or with rests. With the right combination of all the workouts and their different rhythms we manage to arrive in the best conditions, so the pace at which we do the long run is less important than we usually give it (always within limits) while there are other aspects that we also work on that we do not give importance to or that we do not even notice.
It remains for another occasion to focus on another way of approaching these long training sessions among runners, the famous LSD or Long Slow Distance, i.e., running a long distance at a very slow pace, a system that for many people is little less than a philosophy of life.
How to do a tempo run
A very veteran athlete with more than 30 marathons and countless popular races on asphalt and mountains told me that the long runs, especially the last two strong ones before the marathon, he does them at the maximum pace he can and already from the first kilometer moving at those speeds. Depending on how they go he will decide the pace at which he will try to go out in the marathon, although it will be practically the same.
Although this veteran's case is a little bit particular, as we have been saying, the most common thing is to try to run a little bit slower than the expected pace in the race from the first kilometers of the long run. We should not fall into the error of thinking that because we are going to work at a slower pace than the marathon it is a session free of hardness, on the contrary so, more rightly than ever, we should start with a good warm-up that will prepare us both physiologically and mentally. Since from the first moment we are going to move at demanding rhythms, trying that the pace between the first and the last kilometers does not differ in more than 10-15 seconds (approximately) and that we also go around the marathon especially at the end of the training, we must start with the body ready and the musculature and cardiovascular system prepared as well as the head centered.
The phases of the run
Once we start running, we usually feel a little uncomfortable during the first few kilometers, and we may even feel a little forced. It is still early to have warmed up even though we have done a good warm up, the pulse has not stabilized and the stride has not settled.
As the minutes go by we will feel better, with the desire to go further. It's time not to get carried away by euphoria, to keep the pace and feel the stride firm to swallow a few kilometers at this pace, at those 10-15 seconds of the pace at which we will run the marathon trying to prolong it, noticing that the pulse does not accelerate (some do not even need the heart rate monitor to know) and that we move with relative ease. It also coincides with the sensations that we will have around kms 15 to 25 of the marathon, when we feel more at ease and even feel the temptation to accelerate. In both cases we must keep a cool head.
When we reach the final part of this run the difficulties will begin, especially at a muscular level, we will feel our legs getting heavier, it will be difficult to maintain the stride which will also be less rounded, the hip will move at a point closer to the ground and the pulse will increase somewhat. It is in those moments when the doubts we mentioned at the beginning arise, doubts that we have all had.
And it is when we have to keep in mind that all the training we do is focused on a specific day, that in the 42 kilometers at that pace we are thinking about we are going to get all that preparation and that we are going to achieve our great objective.
Photo: Asics
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