Training question

safarigirlelka

I have a question...

I am training for a marathon in October. For safety reasons I run with a friend....and I really enjoy her company and we have great fun chatting while we run.

But the thing is her pace is much slower than my comfortable pace. I only have two days in the week where I get to unleash my inner cheetah (wannabe).....that's when we run our club time trial on a Wednesday and when I do hill work/intervals.

Is running with a slower partner a disadvantage or is two days per week enough for developing speed? Or should I be doing more?

lporter229

Actually sounds like you have a pretty good thing going, IMO. 2 days per week for speed work is generally all that is recommended for most marathon training plans. Running at a slower pace is going to do a lot for increasing your endurance and ultimately, making you faster (check out Matt Fitzgerald's "80/20 Running").

I trained for my first marathon with a friend who was a good bit slower than me at the time. We only did our long runs together, but she set the pace. After the marathon was over, I was amazed to see how much faster I had gotten. Logging miles is the best way to build your aerobic base and by doing them slowly, you will stay fresh and injury free.

snowflakesav

is this your first marathon? If that is the case then running your long runs slow is exactly the right approach.

If you are training with a pace goal and have run multiple marathons then perhaps you would want to run your long runs at a target pace every other week.

Most people run too fast and the result is injury or overtraining so running at least a full minute to 90 seconds slower on your long runs than goal pace is where you should be.

safarigirlelka

Thanks guys for the awesome advice! I kind of new it was right but needed that reassurance.

Yes it will be my first marathon....that explains my need for reassurances! ;-)

Thanks again for your help. xx