Training question
safarigirlelka
Posts: 29 Member
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?
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?
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Replies
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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.0 -
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.0 -
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. xx0
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