Whenever the types of runs for marathon training are discussed, the first thing that often comes up is running lots of slow miles. Rarely are intervals mentioned, outside the context of don’t do too many interval sessions. 

 

Too many interval sessions?

There are many methods of training, some including lots of high intensity running, others with little to no faster runs. My personal preference and what I often use with clients (where appropriate) is a couple of moderate intensity interval sessions per week, with the occasional week of high intensity intervals for one session followed by an easier session.

More than two interval sessions per week, when combined with long runs, would probably be pushing your luck, but as ever there are people who seem to be anomalies to the norm.

 

What types of interval session?

There are several traditional methods of interval training, each with their own major benefits. You can use sessions such as aerobic intervals and cruise intervals very easily to build your aerobic capacity and push your lactate threshold up respectively.

That said, there can sometimes be limitations to these. For instance, a typical aerobic interval would be 3-4 minutes long at around 10k to half marathon pace, followed by a jog or easy pace run for 2 minutes with repeats of this. The usefulness of 10k pace work will be limited depending on the stage of your marathon block that you’re in. Slower paces, like half marathon effort, will be better but running for 4 minutes at this pace isn’t going to be that challenging in reality.

 

Longer intervals

Marathons are long! Interval lengths should adapt accordingly. The same 3-4 minutes of hard work that’ll see you bringing down your 10k time, won’t be as much help when you’re into your marathon-specific training block. 

I’m a big fan of keeping longer than typical interval lengths in training. If running 1-2 miles at your half marathon pace for 2-3 repetitions sounds daunting, start at 1 mile, and walk between each repetition for a couple of minutes. I often walked in these types of sessions when training for my first marathon a couple of years ago and still do at times if I feel heavy-legged at all. As you get used to it, you can take a gentle jog instead, or increase the length of the intervals.

Before anyone reading this starts proclaiming how it’s harder for “slower runners”, that’s why I’ve given a range of distances. Runner’s don’t get faster without a LOT of hard work, no matter their natural speed.

 

Interval alterations

Progression runs and pyramids are at times under-used for marathon training. Again these are classic sessions for shorter distances, but with a couple of tweaks, can become fantastic endurance builders for a marathon.

Pace progressions can just be made longer e.g. progressing pace every 2 miles (4 paces) for 8 miles before running a cool down. You’ll start slower and run a longer total distance, perfect training for the 26.2 miles of racing to come.

Pyramids for a marathon just involve reducing the pace targets from 5k and 10k work, to marathon +30secs/mile and 10 miles for example. Where you’d take a walking or static recovery between each 5k to 10k repetition, the slower paces of a marathon pyramid leave no rest. It’s essentially a pace progression (around 800m to 1 mile per stages), followed by a pace regression.

 

You can hopefully now see that it’s not all about easy miles all the time. You can use the same types of sessions that you normally would, with some minor adjustments, to make your next marathon your best one yet, and with any luck, you’ll alleviate some of the boredom that can come from a heavy focus on slower running.

 

Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk