Marathon pace

Woddle

How do you judge at what pace you run a marathon, obviously your training long runs are run at a slower than normal pace and most schedules the max long run is 20 miles.
So my question is if you are inexperienced at the marathon distance but you have put in the hard work in training, how do you know what pace to run the marathon on race day without blowing up?
Is it done through a % of your max heart rate?

Racing Flat

Woddle wrote: »

How do you judge at what pace you run a marathon, obviously your training long runs are run at a slower than normal pace and most schedules the max long run is 20 miles.
So my question is if you are inexperienced at the marathon distance but you have put in the hard work in training, how do you know what pace to run the marathon on race day without blowing up?
Is it done through a % of your max heart rate?

Double your half marathon time and add on 15-20mins?

Woddle

don't have a 1/2 marathon time and a 10k has been my longest race in 6 years, so I feel a bit in no mans land

Racing Flat

Woddle wrote: »

don't have a 1/2 marathon time and a 10k has been my longest race in 6 years, so I feel a bit in no mans land

Multiply 10 k time by 4.66?

Krusty_Clown

Try Mcmillan's race calculator. Input your 10k time, and it should give you an approximate guide for the marathon, assuming that you have trained adequately.

Calculator here

Peckham

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Try Mcmillan's race calculator. Input your 10k time, and it should give you an approximate guide for the marathon, assuming that you have trained adequately.

Calculator here

McMillan a good estimation, assuming the 10k time is from a recent race. You've also got to factor in that you're likely to get faster with training over the summer, so is good to do a few races to benchmark yourself and input these into McMillan to estimate marathon pace.

--amadeus--

Another thumbs up for McMillan. The only thing I would add is that as a first marathon you should perhaps go conservative.

If it predicts (for example) a 4:00 race then maybe start at 4:15 or even 4:30 pace. It's better to start slowly and build speed as you feel strong later in the race than to start too strongly and fade (passing people is a great motivator, being passed isn't!)

Racing Flat

I've said on here before mcmillan is great, but for me it is a little too optimistic for the marathon.

Last time I did one, my times in the few months leading up to it were

5miles 29.57
10miles - 64mins
1/2mara - one in 84.30, another on tougher course in 85.30

These along with other distance race times all predicted between 2.59 and 3.01. But I ran 3.06. So I would tend to add 5 to 10mins to the mcmillan prediction for a marathon.

tunney

You can't break three hours unless you're running a 1:20 or less for a half.

hunnymonster

Of course you can.

Racing Flat

tunney wrote: »

You can't break three hours unless you're running a 1:20 or less for a half.

Elaborate?

I think that's going to be true in my case as I am better at shorter distances. Afetr my 3.06 I was so disappointed I said I wouldn't do another marathon until I ran 75mins for a half. 3 years on I have reneged on that, but if I don't go under 80 for the half, I'll be less confident of my chances.

BUT I do know someone who did 2.56 off an 83 half marathon, another who did 2.56 off an 84 half. So it does work for other people.

I've also heard people say that you have to be close to 60mins for 10miles in order to have a chance of breaking 3.

Peckham

tunney wrote: »

You can't break three hours unless you're running a 1:20 or less for a half.

Not sure I agree with that. Would think you'd need to be less than 1:25, but not necessarily faster than 1:20. Some people can do better over longer distances than their 10m or half-mara would suggest. (On the same basis, a sub-3hr marathoner may struggle to get under 30mins for 5 miles).

As the McMillan website suggests - it should be used merely as a guide, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to predicting race times.

TheRoadRunner

Peckham wrote: »

Not sure I agree with that. Would think you'd need to be less than 1:25, but not necessarily faster than 1:20. Some people can do better over longer distances than their 10m or half-mara would suggest. (On the same basis, a sub-3hr marathoner may struggle to get under 30mins for 5 miles).

As the McMillan website suggests - it should be used merely as a guide, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to predicting race times.

I wouldn't agree with that either. I ran 3 sub 3hr marathons off 1.23-26 half marathon pbs. I've improved over the years and the general rule of doubling your half time and adding 10 minutes usually works for me.

Racing Flat

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

I wouldn't agree with that either. I ran 3 sub 3hr marathons off 1.23-26 half marathon pbs. I've improved over the years and the general rule of doubling your half time and adding 10 minutes usually works for me.

Doesn't work for me.
My 2 marathons:

84 min half = 3.06 marathon (x2 add 18)

90 min half = 3.15 marathon (x2 add 15)

Stupid_Private

Judging paces is a pain to be honest. I just listen to my legs. I don't wear a watch training or racing and just go at a pace I feel I can maintain for the distance. For last years marathon I set out at a pace that wasn't pushing it, above comfortable so that I still felt somewhat fresh by half way and had to dig in to keep it for the last 10 miles or so.

tunney wrote: »

You can't break three hours unless you're running a 1:20 or less for a half.

I've never run sub 1:20!

Last year I ran 1:21 in the Phoenix Park half a few weeks before running 2:46 in Dublin.

SUNGOD

out of the 29 sub 3 hour finishers in cork this year 19 had splits of over 1:20, one even as high as 1:28 .the top ten who had half way splits of under 1:20 were running the full in 2:47 or better

Racing Flat

SUNGOD wrote: »

out of the 29 sub 3 hour finishers in cork this year 19 had splits of over 1:20, one even as high as 1:28 .the top ten who had half way splits of under 1:20 were running the full in 2:47 or better

I think he meant you need to do 1.20 in a stand alone half marathon to get sub 3, rather than a 1.20 split at half way.

I'd say most people who get just under 3 probably go through half way in between 1.28 and 1.31. An awful lot who go through in 1.28 or so go out the back door though and end up with 3.05 or so...

SUNGOD

Racing Flat wrote: »

I think he meant you need to do 1.20 in a stand alone half marathon to get sub 3, rather than a 1.20 split at half way.

I'd say most people who get just under 3 probably go through half way in between 1.28 and 1.31. An awful lot who go through in 1.28 or so go out the back door though and end up with 3.05 or so...

thanks RF thats makes an awful lot more sense to me now

Euchrid

tunney wrote: »

You can't break three hours unless you're running a 1:20 or less for a half.

That seems way off the mark... I've gone sub-3hrs (Barely) and never gone sub-1:25 for a half.. and I've tried!