Marathon Specific Training – 5 Long Interval Sessions Used By Elites
“To fulfil your potential as a marathoner, you need to progressively extend the distance you can run your goal pace, over a period of months and years. What we do is to increase the volume and the duration and the single length of every type of interval at this type of speed. We need to extend the ability to run at the speed you want and you can produce.”
The above quote is from Renato Canova, arguably the most successful elite Marathon coach of all time, having influenced the performances of most of the top 20 male and female marathon performances in some way, whether it be directly coaching them or advising them.
Below you will find 5 Marathon Specific training sessions aligning with Canova’s belief that to fulfill your potential as a Marathoner, you must practise running at the right pace and extending that as far as possible in training.
Workout: 6km, 5km, 4km, 3km, 2km, 1km at Marathon Pace.
Recovery: 1km @ 15% slower than goal Marathon pace.
At minimum you should be aiming to complete all repetitions at your goal Marathon pace, but ideally you should try to increase the pace in the final 3km, 2km and 1km reps to being slightly faster than goal Marathon pace, towards your Half Marathon pace.
Between each interval, the recovery is 1km at 15% slower than your Marathon Pace (approx 30-45 seconds). The continuous run totals 26km and 21km of it at your goal Marathon Pace or faster.
This training session is used by Renato Canova with most of his Marathoners in the build up to a key race.
Workout: 5 x 5km @ goal Marathon pace.
Recovery: 1km @ 10-15% slower than goal Marathon pace.
29km in total and 25km of it at goal Marathon pace. This workout was completed by German Marathoner Arne Gabius a month prior to running 2:08:33. Gabius managed the repetitions in right around 15:00 which is 2:06 pace. A similar alternative to this session is 5 or 6 x 4km with the same recovery (1km @ 15% slower than Marathon race pace). Kenensia Bekele prefers this workout when preparing for key Marathon races and completes the 4km intervals at around 2:55/km at altitude with his 1km recoveries in around 3:30/km.
A third alternative to this workout is 7 x 3km with the same 1km recovery. This session has been used by Julien Wanders, Zane Robertson and Jake Robertson in their build up to Half and full Marathons and typically all 3 aim to average right around 2:55-3:00/km for the repetitions and 3:20-3:25 for the 1km recoveries.
Workout: 3 sets of (3km, 2km, 1km).
Recovery: 1km @ 10-15% slower than goal Marathon pace.
The 3km and 2km reps should be at your goal Marathon pace and if you feel up to it, try to run the 1km reps at slightly quicker than your goal Marathon pace. The recovery is once again 1km @ 10-15% slower than your goal Marathon pace.
This workout is 18km of running at or faster than goal Marathon pace and 26km in total – making this a very specific Marathon training session.
Workout: 5 x 4km (alternating 1km @ slightly slower than goal Marathon pace, 1km @ slightly faster than goal Marathon pace).
Recovery: 1km @ 10-15% slower than goal Marathon pace.
There’s a bit to remember in this workout as the pace changes after every 1km, but it’s 5 repetitions of 4km and within each 4km repetition the pace changes each 1km. If your Marathon goal pace is 3:30/km, you would aim to do your 4km like this: 3:40, 3:20, 3:40, 3:20. Then a 1km recovery in around 4:00-4:15 (approx 10-15% slower than goal pace).
This workout totals 24km and you need to be focusing at all times and thinking about the next pace change.
This session was used by Stefano Baldini multiple times in his lead up to winning the Marathon at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Workout: 24km continuous run, alternating 1km slightly faster than goal Marathon pace with 1km slightly slower than goal Marathon pace.
Recovery: None.
This goes without saying – this is a very challenging workout. 24km continuously where you should end up averaging close to your goal Marathon pace for the full run. If your goal Marathon time is 2:40, your goal pace per kilometre is right around 3:47/km. In this session, you’d want to be running the faster 1km reps in around 3:35/km and the slower 1km reps in around 4:00/km to average out at right on your goal Marathon pace.
This session has been used by some of Australia and New Zealand’s top Marathon runners to prepare for key Marathons.
