Weekly Training Log February 9 to 15, 2015 Recovery

Monday

Mid Day- 48:16, around 10k on roads in snow storm, first 4.2 with Melissa total 10k

PM Bikram yoga (90minutes hot yoga)

XT whartons, rubber band exercises, shoveling and yoga

Tuesday

AM Bear Hill 4.2 with Uta, snowy. total 4.2

PM Regular 10 on snowy roads, 68:58, roads very bad this was actually a pretty good effort, I think perhaps a bit too good. total 10+

XT whartons, rubber band 

Wednesday

PM on treadmill with Ruben. 3.5 warm up, with 4 "strides" of 15 seconds at 12.5mph, 13mph, 13.5mph, 14mph respectively. switch shirts do whartons. goal was 6x2 miles at marathon pace.  Very tired so didn't figure that would happen.  1/2 mile get up to speed then 2 miles in 10:15, 1/2mile in 2:50, 1 mile in 5:06. Stopped just tired as shit.  Ruben manned up for 5 reps.  I did 3 miles cool down total 10.5 miles

XT whartons, rubber band

Thursday

PM 50mins in snow storm with Uta, the dog, at least she was having a good time.  total around 8 miles we were moving pretty good.

XT whartons, rubber band

Friday

PM On curve treadmill (manual) 3.3 miles warm up with 4 strides, 25mins, Moneghetti fartlek on curve (2x90, 4x60, 4x30, 4x15 with matching rest) 20 total minutes covered 3.55 miles, my best on the curve before this was 3.46 two weeks ago.  This was only 5:38 pace but a very good effort.  The curve is much slower than regular running.  At the end of December I did this session on the curve and only covered 3.25 miles.  To put this in perspective I ran around 4:57 pace on the roads a week or two after that.  I have dropped my time on the curve by 32seconds per mile since then.  I doubt it transfers directly but the improvement is still very very good.  20 minutes cool down ended up with 65minutes on the curve and just under 10 miles 

XT whartons, rubber band

Saturday

Spent the morning shoveling and breaking up ice jams on roof. This sucked.

1pm road 7.8 solo, very poor road conditions for most of run, 52mins total 8-

4pm road 10k, 46:19, first 4.2 with Melissa and Uta, roads very rough shape tot. 6+

XT whartons, rubber band

Sunday

had first specific workout scheduled but pushed it to monday because of Blizzard

AM 50mins steady on Curve and then 5 strides with 1min breaks between them total 8 miles

PM road 10k solo very very cold total 6,2 miles 

XT whartons, rubber band, pull ups on assisted machine

Summary

  Not an impressive week at all. Basically a recovery week after the bit special block last weekend.  It was supposed to end with our first specific session but we'll be suffering through that in sub zero wind chills on some poor footing this afternoon because it is better conditions then during a blizzard yesterday.  The weather in New England is never helpful but it has sort of been becoming a bigger pain every few days for the last month or so.  I'm hoping it starts to move in the other direction over the next two weeks or so.  The biggest difference between training now, with a full time job, and the good old days is that it is very hard to deal with curveballs like the weather.  Luckily I have February vacation this week so I could bump the run to today but now as we get into the specific phase I really don't want to be doing modified 'effort' workouts and that is what snow storms generally force.   Hope things are going well for you!

Sunday Long Run "The Kenny Moore"

  Kenny Moore is largely remembered for as a writer but just how great he was as a marathoner is often forgotten.  He had a lifetime best of 2:11:36, set in 1970, held the American Record in the event before a fella named Frank Shorter came along to break it.  He finished 4th in the 1972 Olympic Marathon, one of two he competed in.  Kenny had some of the more interesting marathon training I have seen.  Coached by Bill Bowerman who made each athlete an experiment of one rather than fitting guys to his program.  Kenny was not nearly as exceptional at the shorter distances though he was an effective runner he was truly world class in the marathon.

  This long run was one that Kenny would do in his marathon build ups.  It is super hard and should not be attempted unless you are very fit.  It is a great session for both the aerobic system and for teaching the body to burn more fat while running marathon pace.

  Kenny would run 30 miles, not a typo, at about 7min pace as a consistent 2:11 to 2:13 marathoner this can only be described as a very easy pace.  After 30 miles of very easy running he would run 6 miles at 5:00 pace, his marathon pace.   This workout is not the most intensive you will ever find but it is one of the toughest extensive type workouts you can do.  You will completely run your tank dry on this one for sure.

  Most people will not be able to just go from regular long runs and traditional workouts to completing this session.  I would suggest that in building up to this session you should do at least one 30 mile long run in advance of this session.  Also you should do a "Rothlin" long run, http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/sunday-long-run-rothlin.html

  Finally you may have to do the 6 miles as a 10x1k or 6x1mile at marathon pace the first time you do this session.  Frankly you have to be quite close to ready to run your marathon at goal pace before you can succeed at this session so it isn't worrisome if it takes you a few workouts to build up to completing this session.

  Why do this workout?  The 30 miles of easy running burns the vast majority of your glycogen stores and tires you out muscularly, mentally and emotionally.  In short it simulates the kind of exhaustion you can expect late in the marathon.  When you shirt gears and start trying to run marathon pace your body is very aware that its glycogen stores are very low so it will automatically try to run the pace as efficiently as possible, meaning burning as much fat as it can.  Once your body learns it can run a pace on more fat it will likely run that pace that way in the future.  This will enable you to avoid the dreaded "wall" where you run out of glycogen and are reduced to training pace in the final miles of the marathon.

  So if you are getting ready for a marathon and you are really fit why not give the Kenny Moore a try.  Just be sure you have plenty of time to recover.  You don't want to be doing a hard 36 mile workout a couple weeks out from your marathon.  That would be a recipe for disaster.  However 3 to 6 weeks out this may just be your secret weapon to fly by "the wall" to the finish.

Saturday Stories My Road 10k Personal Best

 In the Summer of 2010 I had long been beaten down by my coordination issues.  I still had a shoe contract but I had done little to keep it.  I was however, despite having very strict limits on what I was capable of doing in terms of training because of the coordination issues, quite fit.  I had qualified for and competed in the USA indoor track championships that winter and I had run a couple of my fastest 5k's earlier in the year, a 13:56 in January and a 14:01 in June.  However my training lacked direction or focus.

  In fact in late May I finally got health insurance thanks to my wife, Melissa, and my focus was going to various specialists in hopes of finding a solution to my troubles.

  Most of my years of dealing with the coordination issues I give myself grades ranging from D's to F's on how I chose to train.  Mostly I was true to my stubborn ass self and just tried to force the long tempos and the similar workouts that I love and that I knew worked.  Frankly, however, they were guaranteed failure because of the coordination issues. Somehow despite knowing this I only had a few cycles where I got out of my own head enough to make a nice rational decision to experiment a little bit so that at the least I would learn something and at the most I might actually improve a bit in spite of my issues.

  This stretch of time, leading up to my 10k road best, was one of those rare times I made some good choices.  I had no intention of racing much that summer, again my focus was getting my leg fixed, so I hadn't tried to get added to any races.  My hope was to spend the summer getting healthy and come back in the fall cured and ready to get back on the horse and run the way I knew I could.  That was generally how I have viewed every cycle for the last few years.  I would be hopeful whatever treatment I was currently doing would fix my leg and the next cycle I could get back to the marathon.  Generally this was a disaster for two reasons.  First the treatment never worked so the 'next phase' never came.  Second I would do a marathon base phase of which I couldn't complete many of the most important workouts.  This time however I decided to try to follow basically a Joe Vigil base phase based on his 'Road to the Top' book.  I would have to make some adjustments as I couldn't do the long moderate tempos and I would have some trouble with some other workouts but really they were very small tweaks.

  Starting at the end of June I was doing 2 week cycles.  Each week had 3 to 4 hard or moderately hard sessions.  I was still running full time so I also was trying to do a bunch of Dan Pfaff general strength work for cross training, that is the stuff John Cook's athletes do.

  In each two week cycle I would do something like this

 Monday 10x400m at 10k pace ~69 or 70 with 100m jogs, for the last 400 I would do a 500m so that I would cover 5k on the track continuously in one session.  The reps were easy but I kept the jogs pretty quick.  I would cover the 5k in 15:30 to 15:55.  I'd do an easy run for a second session.

Tuesday Easy double generally 10 and 7

Wednesday 8x1k at around goal 10k pace or bit slower, 2:55 to 3:00.  It was summer and very hot and I didn't want to work hard on these.  I would take 400m jogs in about 1:45(7min pace) for rests which would mean I was running under 5:30 mile pace including the rests. I would do an easy second run

Thursday Easy double generally 10 and 7- most weeks I had a doctors appointment this day- or would be getting x-rays or mri's.  I don't remember if I was purposely booking these on this day or if worked out that way.

Friday I would do a 5k tempo run on the track or around the Phillips Academy fields in the morning, 14:50 to 15:00.  Not hard. Sometimes very hot. That was about as far as I could run around threshold pace without losing coordination.  I would do an easy 7 in the afternoon

Saturday Easy double and some drills followed by max speed 2x100m.

Sunday I would do a fartlek on the grass at the Phillips Academy fields and just go until I lost coordination.  Some weeks this was only 10k, one week I went 24k.  The soft grass helped me hold coordination.  I know now that was because the soft slightly uneven surface was preventing my ankle from locking up as much as it would on a harder surface.

2nd Monday easy double generally 10 and 7

2nd Tuesday I would try to do 10x 1600 at half marathon to marathon pace with 400 jogs in around 90 to 100 seconds.  Often I would have to stop on the jogs to stretch to keep control of the leg. I would run these around 4:55 to 5:00.  It was often very hot.  If I had to stop it would be because of the coordination.  I would do an easy 7 mile in the afternoon

2nd Wednesday easy double generally 10 and 7

2nd Thursday I would generally do 30x100m in 14/15 seconds "on the minute" which is to say I ran a watch constantly without it stopping and I started the first on 0 the second at 1:00 the third at 2:00 and so on.  So if I ran a 100 in 15.0 I got 45.0 for rest.  This session for a middle distance runner can be an aerobic war for a marathoner it is just a lot of strides. Great muscular work.  If you do this and it is hard aerobically you need more aerobic training and you should take longer rests on this session because it is all about building the strong muscles to stay smooth while running fast.  I would do a second easy run.

2nd Friday easy double generally 10 and 7

2nd Saturday I would try to get through a 10k progression run on the Phillips fields generally the coordination held.  This was sometimes as fast as sub 32 with the 2nd half in the low 15's. PM an easy run.

2nd Sunday an easy double. generally 10 and 7.

  I went along like this for a couple months and I started to realize I was actually quite fit.  Scott Douglas from Running Times where I had my blog at the time suggested I jump in the Beach to Beacon 10k last minute and said I could stay at his place.  He got me contacted with the race people and I was added to the field.

  I ran with Scott the night before the race on the course and I remember we passed Lee Troop, 13:14/ 2:09 Australian Olympian who currently coaches, among others, Laura Thweatt, going in the other direction.  Now Lee was 39 at the time and not having the best year but he looked so Goddamn perfect.  So smooth I just remember thinking 'what the hell am I doing out here that old guy is going to kick my ass tomorrow on the memory of the runner he once was.'

  Now quickly approaching 39 myself I feel bad about thinking of Lee as an old guy but then at my current age, 34, I often feel like the old guy at races in terms of the contenders for the win so I guess it is what it is.  Still the point or points remains.  I was not in the best place mentally and I am not one of those guys who looks the part at all.  I actually remember being a coach at a middle school while I was on injured reserve in college and a teammate who was working with me was doing some high knees drills to demonstrate them to the kids and the high school coach said something to the effect of how amazing he looked and what an athlete he was.  Then he stopped and said "I suppose you look the same though."  I just answered "no".

  The next morning Scott drove me down to the start area and I found my way to the invited athlete tent. There was a great field assembled for the race.  I did my easy jog warm up, actually running with NYRR head Mary Wittenburg who I have always really liked talking to for a stretch then I just tried to find a spot to do some strides. Gun was up and the mile split was real fast, 4:32, but Scott had warned me that the first mile seemed to be about 10s fast and the second 10s slow so I just held effort and let the groups start to form. I hit 2 miles in 9:22, Scott was right! By this point the lead pack was away and I was running with Ben True, yes he has gotten a lot better since then, we hit 3 miles at 13:58(4:36) and the 5k in 14:29.  Ben who had a stated goal of 29:00 really took off on the downhill 4th mile and I knew if he was going to run that time he was going to have to get some time because the last mile is very tough.  I ran the 4th mile in 4:49, not good, but my overall split was 18:48 which was good for me so I just needed to keep it together.  I calmed my mind, pulled myself together and realized I wasn't actually hurting that bad.  I dropped a 4:44 5th mile hitting 5 miles in 23:32 which was equal to or a bit better than my 8k PB of 23:26.  As I was coming up to the 5 mile mark Pat Tarpy caught me.  We went back and forth a bit but then we started to climb and I just tried to hang on to him. He got away a bit but there is a short steep downhill and I caught him there and we then turn and go up the last short steep climb.  I used all my reserves to hang with him up that. to the 6 mile mark. 28:35(5:02).  This split was much slower but given the hills this was actually a good mile.  Pat drilled me on the last .2 which is a perfect gradual downhill for a sprint finish. I ran 29:31 which was the fastest last .2 I had ever run by quite a bit.

  At the finish Pat stopped and doubled over.  I was going into the dark a bit and didn't notice him that is until I ran into him.  He was not happy.  I always got the feeling I annoyed Pat a bit.  Can't blame him.  He is a quiet guy and I don't shut up.  He is a much better runner than I but he never got the press he deserved and I'm more than a bit full of myself and have received far more attention than I ever deserved.  Crashing into him after a hard summer road 10k could not have helped things.

  I would end up never progressing the training of this cycle to a specific phase because I would start getting spinal injections and other minor procedures in the coming months leading up to a major low back surgery that would 'half' fix the coordination in January of 2011.

  I would guess based on how most people's times at Beach to Beacon compare with track times that this was about a 28:45 to 29:00 track effort.  I would guess that if I had been able to do the full cycle as Joe designed it I would have been in much better shape by the mid-fall.  If I ever do a 10k season again I will likely use Joe's book to go after it.  In addition to being one of the nicest and most inspiring people you will ever meet Joe Vigil is a genius who can flat out coach.

  Looking back at this schedule the only two adjustments I would make if I were to get a chance to redo this again are, one, include the 30k fundamental paced tempo runs that Joe puts in them.  At the time my coordination obviously wouldn't allow it at the time but they really add a huge aerobic boost to the training.  Second I would do strides on all the easy days.

  If you are looking at this training for guidance the three things I would keep in mind.  First this is high level training and there is a lot of work in a given week so beginning runners or low mileage runners would have to adjust the volume, not only in terms of mileage but in terms of the workouts as well. Second the EFFORT is important don't get caught up in the pace.  None of these workouts were very hard, they shouldn't be, they were controlled base phase aerobic efforts.  You need to adjust the paces based on your fitness not on what you want to run down the line.  If you hammer these sessions as fast as you can you won't be training the right, aerobic, systems and you will break down and not see much improvement anyway.  Third the real thing that makes this training exceptional is the variety of systems being challenged and improved in balance.  Far to often we run but we don't train.  This is training.  You are sprinting, running race pace, a bit faster, a bit slower, running tempo work doing muscular work all in balance and all very regularly.

Fartlek Friday Hammer the Hills

  It was a bit of a right of passage to do a hammer the hills fartlek when I ran for George Davis at UML.  He had a loop that was less than 5 miles long and had seven or eight hills.  There was a great variety from short to long and shallow to steep.  The toughest hill was the last one and in true George fashion there was a two way stop you had to run through, the unsafe way, half way up.  George used this as a staple in athletes returning from injury before letting us back in with the wolves and as a great workout for someone who wouldn't be able to workout with the rest of the team on a given day.  Simply it was a workout without any way to measure it objectively it was strictly a workout based on effort.  Beyond that it was a workout that was sure to get a great effort and really start toughing you up.

  So what is it?  Super simple.  You just hammer every time you go uphill.  I really like to be a stickler about this.  I mean a two stride bump in the road and I drop two hard strides.  You run at your regular pace between runs.  On a loop that is largely flat this is a nice moderate run with a few nice hard efforts to open up the system.  On a very hilly loop this can be one of your hardest sessions.  I would do this on a 1.5 mile loop in the Phillips Academy Sanctuary that is basically a loop around a valley so it has two killer long climbs each loop.  Six or seven loops in there and I would be DONE!

  When to do it?  First I'm a huge fan of fartlek and hills most anytime as a workout on a day when the main plan may have fallen through or as the second workout for the week.  Second this is a great bread and butter session if you are preparing for a cross country or hilly road racing.  You can adjust the distance of the fartlek depending on the the distance of the race you are preparing for.

  Goal Race   Fartlek distance

5k                    3 to 5 miles

8k/10k               5 to 10 miles

half marathon    8 to 15 miles

Marathon            10 to 25 miles

  What are you trying to accomplish with this workout?  First anytime you do hills you are building your muscular strength.  With this workout specifically you tend to get long breaks so you are working on flushing out latic acid completely which makes it a great transition workout between base work and heavy anaerobic work for 800 to 10k runners or early in cross country season.  This is also an awesome session for building mental fortitude.  It is real easy to get motivated for and not intimidating but you really have to dig down to get a good effort on tough hills later in the session.

  Variations

  You can run faster, as fast as fundamental tempo run pace, on the stretches between the hills to make this a specific prep for a race strategy where you plan to hammer the hills.  This makes it a great aerobic session and really forces your body to flush out a lot of acid at a quick pace on the recoveries.

  Another option is to do this on your long runs.  This can be a great first step towards some of the hard long workouts I and others advise for the marathon.  

  A variation on the long run is to find a place with real long climbs.  One summer I lived near Northfield Mountain in western Massachusetts and it has a ton of trails.  I would do my Sunday long runs up there.  I often would push the long uphills, 1 to 3 miles, and just recover and fly on the long downhills.  It was ok if I found myself completely hammering quads burning and gasping for air at 7 miles into a 22 mile long run because I was going to recover on the next downhill but it really can build the mental fortitude as well as the aerobic and muscular endurance.  This session was almost like doing a series of uphill tempos with 10 to 20 minute easy running breaks between them.  I'll tell you I never ran better on hills than I did the fall after I spent the summer doing those runs!

   So the next time you are about to skip a workout because life got in the way or whatever and you are about to just head out for your regular old training loop MAN UP and Hammer the Hills!!  You will sneak a workout in where you would other wise have just a regular training run, you will be tougher for having done it and chances are you'll have a lot of fun in the process.

Don't Want To Be Someone Who Can't Live Up To What I've Already Done

"I don't ever want to become someone who can't live up to what he already done." - Brent Dennen.

 I hate that line.  I hate it because I have become someone who can't live up to what he has already done.  It is more then that though.  I made a gamble.  That's a lie.  I made a decision a long time ago.  I made the choice that I would make myself into something.  I would do by myself through a force of will that I was born with and by using my self honesty and intelligence to find the direction to direct that will.  It sounds simple.  I guess it is but it was also brutal.  For it to work it had to all come down to me.  There could be no blaming anyone but myself.  In some ways it was a masterpiece from the pile I did what couldn't be done, but only moments after finding the sunlight I slide back to darkness and failure.  

  That failure could only belong to one person.  It was mine and mine alone.  Each day I was unable to find my way back to fix what I had broke was another failure.

  I am a man who can't live up to what he already done.

  The above is something I wrote a while back.  It sums up in a way how I have felt since my failure to return to the marathon in the last 7 years.  It isn't that I have spent every day of the last 7 years feeling like a failure.  I am aware that there is more to life than just running.  Still there many times when I couldn't help but feel like a failure.  I had work so hard for so long to overcome so much failure to reach the point where I was knocking on the door of being the runner I had dreamed of being for my whole life and then one strange little injury that wouldn't go away and I was suddenly done.  I could see things I should have done to avoid the problem before it started but for my life I couldn't fix it.

  Now nearly as suddenly as I find myself with a small crack in the door and a chance that I may yet be a comeback kid.  Heck even if I don't successfully get through racing a marathon I have been able to train for one and that has been an act of joy.  I love these long enduring workouts.  My whole life in some ways was a build up to the type of training I did for the Olympic Trials and it was an act of joy. Now over the last couple months I have been able to return to those runs and workouts and that joy.

Progression Runs for the Beginning Runner

 This is an extension on my blog about tempo runs for the beginning runner.  In that blog I suggest that the beginning runner should be doing a 15 to 20 minute tempo pretty much once a week throughout all their training seasons.  I also mention that a progression run of similar length can be added in once a week as well to vary the stimulus a bit and to increase the aerobic training stimuli in the micro cycle.

  In the tempo blog, http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/02/tempo-tuesday-tempo-runs-for-young-or.html , I go off topic a bit and talk about the overall focus of a training plan for the beginning runner so I won't rehash that here.

  The progression run will take a bit of work to teach to new athletes who have a natural predilection to going out too fast and fading.  However the work you put into teaching this workout will pay off two fold.  First the fitness gains can be huge.  Second it teaches the athlete not to go out too fast in races and other sessions and how fast and strong they can be if they run with control in the early stages.

  I suggest using a flat loop less than a mile in length.  It can be a bit longer.  You can have the kids run in groups or entirely by their own effort.  Set up RULES.  This seems odd but if you don't some kids just will not go out slow enough.  The rules are simply.  You have a goal distance.  IE the goal is 4 laps.  Rule 2 if an athlete does not run faster on a lap their workout is over. This will cause an athlete to not complete a workout or two but the lesson is well worth it.

  I suggest the athletes run the first loop at about their normal training pace.  Just knowing it is a workout will suck them into going a bit quicker than that which is actually ideal.  The next lap only needs to be faster.  A second or two is fine.  This is not a workout that needs to be overly structured.  Each lap needs to be a bit faster than the last and the final lap should be run as fast as the athlete can manage.

  Some athletes will increase in fairly even increments and only go a bit faster on the last lap.  Some athletes will increase only a bit each lap and then finish with an incredibly fast last lap.  Both of these are fine.  In fact if you have a group of similar level athletes training together you will likely get a mix of these type of efforts depending on who is 'leading' the pack and that mix is awesome.

  For the beginning athlete these runs should not be very long 15 to 25 minutes.  You need not adjust them to progress them.  They will adjust themselves by finishing faster and faster and with time and regular tempos and strides in their training programs as well you will see their starting "baseline" pace increasing significantly as well.

  You will see big gains in general fitness with sessions like this but the most noticeable effect you will see is that as your athletes tire in races their bodies will respond by actually increasing the pace.  They will mentally and physically learn how to make a long killing drive to the finish that particularly in high school racing can be absolutely devastating to their competition.

Tempo Tuesday Marathon Pace Tempo Run

  This week we look at the marathon paced tempo.  This is one of the staples of so many programs and it is a great workout to increase your aerobic fitness not just for marathon racing but also for events all the way down to the mile.  Though this is for many runners the focal point of their marathon specific work I don't like it as much for that purpose because though it is a great session for the aerobic demands of the marathon it falls short for most runners in terms of teaching the body to burn fat over glycogen and specific muscular endurance.  Still it is a great workout that should be part of the marathoners program for sure and can be a secret weapon for athletes who focus on the shorter distances.

  The marathon paced tempo run is exactly what it sounds like a tempo run at your goal marathon pace. Depending on what point in your program you are at this run can be 8 to 16 miles long.  Some runners who are very good at getting big efforts out in workouts might even push it out to 18 or 20 miles.

  As I mentioned in the build up this type of run is a staple of many marathoners.  Particularly american marathoners.  The Hansons group very famously does a 26.2, right around 16miles, kilometer marathon paced tempo run as part of their marathon prep.  I would say the most zealous and successful practitioner of this workout is Meb who does one pretty much every week during his marathon prep.  He starts them at about 8 miles long and builds the distance over the cycle and has run them as long as 18 miles.  It should be noted though that he has had very successful marathons off build ups that only reached shorter distances.  Most notably his longest marathon paced tempo before the 2012 Olympics where he finished 4th was only 12 miles.

  Why this workout works.  It is a great aerobic session that teaches the athlete to stay smooth for a long time. It builds great muscular as well as aerobic strength.  By going slower than threshold pace it allows you to run at what is still a very quick pace for upwards of an hour, maybe even approaching two hours.  This type of work also does great things for building mental endurance and strength.  For any runner regardless of goal race this session is a great way to massively increase aerobic endurance, mental fortitude and practice staying relaxed at a quick pace.

  How to progress this workout.  Like all tempo runs I encourage you to increase the distance before dropping the pace.  So set your goal marathon pace, be realistic.  It is not your current 5k or 10k race pace! Remember if your training goes well you can always adjust the pace later.  At the start you should try to run about 8 miles.  Focus on being as even paced as you can, the exception to that being if you are preparing for a hilly marathon in which case you should do your tempos on a comparably hilly course and your effort should be even but your pace will obviously fluctuate.  Also remember it is always better to start a bit slow and finish strong than to go out to fast and slow down.

  The drawbacks on this session.  To often this is the only marathon specific workout in a schedule and for most runners it simply will not fully prepare them for the demands of the marathon. Don't get me wrong there are athletes for whom this is exactly enough. Meb is probably the greatest marathon in American history.  Athletes like Brian Sell and Desiree Linden are no slouches.  BUT there are as many stories of athletes who have done a great marathon paced tempo in training or multiple marathon paced tempos in training and have not come close to that performance on race day.  Ask the Hanson guys for every guy that ran 5:10 pace at their 26.2 dress rehearsal and ran that pace on race day as well there was another one who ran with them on the training run and crashed on race day.  Prior to the 2008 Olympic Trials Josh Rohatinsky reportedly ran 5:02 pace for 20 miles on the trials course itself.  I was limping next to him at 22 miles in the Olympic trials when he ran out of glycogen.  There is no question in my mind he was in better aerobic fitness than I was.  But he ended up behind me in the results because he had not trained his body to burn less glycogen and more fat at race pace.

  So for sure get out there and start getting after these runs but I would advise that you do need to do some other types of more extensive workouts as part of your marathon specific prep.