“The question I try and ask myself when I consider whether or not to train more is what is my body craving and what is my body ready to absorb? Sometimes pushing harder is not the answer. It takes self control, confidence, and intuition to know when to train and when to rest, but when in question error on the side of being over rested.” – Ryan Hall.
Ryan Hall is the fastest Non-African runner over the Marathon distance, boasting a personal best of 2:04:58 set at the Boston Marathon 2011. He also ran 59:43 for the Half Marathon at the Houston Half Marathon in 2007, which is still an American Record as of 2019.
Below are 3 of Ryan Hall’s toughest training sessions he used to complete in the lead up to important Marathon races.
24 miles (38.6km) continuous: 12 miles (19.3km) @ Approx 50-60sec slower than Marathon Pace + 12 miles (19.3km) @ Goal Marathon Pace
Hall would only do a short 1-1.5 mile warm up and a few dynamic stretches before getting straight into his 24 mile run with the first 12 miles being at around 1 minute slower than his goal marathon pace. So for Hall, this is a brisk long warm up. At his fittest, Hall would be ticking off 5:40 miles (3:31/km) and feel comfortable at this speed. There would be no rest before shifting the pace to goal marathon pace after the first 12 miles and it was 4:45-4:50 per mile (≈3:00/km) for the final 12 miles. In a podcast interview with Lance Armstrong, Hall said this was his toughest training session. Leading in to the London Marathon in 2008 when Hall ran 2:06.17, Hall nailed this workout by running 5:40/mi average for the first 12 miles and 4:48/mi average for the second 12 miles.
“Animal Style” Fartlek (14.9 miles / 24km) 3 miles hard, 3 miles float, 2 miles hard, 2 miles float, 1 mile hard, 1 mile float, 1200m hard, 1200m float, 800m hard, 800m float, 400m hard, 400 float.
Hall would regularly complete this session in the lead up to marathons, usually around once a month. He would also do this session on a challenging cross country course, with hills to break up his rhythm. This made the pacing difficult to note, however Hall would usually start his 3 mile (4.8km) effort at around 5:00-5:05/mi (≈3:07/km) if it was on the flat, his 2 mile (3.2km) effort at around 4:55/mi (3:03/km), his 1 mile (1.6km) effort at around 4:45/mi (2:58/km) and hold around the same pace for the 1200m, 800m and 400m, sometimes speeding up the final 400m to under 70seconds. During his “floats” he would try to average under 6min/mi (3:45/km). Hall refers to this session as one of his tougher sessions and usually did it alone on the hills, making it even tougher for himself.
20 x 1km @ Between Half Marathon and Marathon Pace with 2 Minutes Recovery.
In an interview with Letsrun before the 2012 Olympics, Hall shared a few of his key workouts. Before the 2012 Olympics, Hall completed the 20 x 1km session a few times, trying to average 2:55 for each 1km rep (4:41/mi), which is right between Hall’s Half Marathon Pace (≈2:50/km) and Marathon pace (≈3:00/km). Hall would take 2 minutes of recovery between the reps and let’s keep in mind that he would complete this session at Flagstaff, Arizona which is at 2100m (7000ft) altitude.
