> 2. More longish runs at marathon pace. Monkey see, Monkey do. Japanese seem > to have success with it, as do the Kenyans. Have we forgotten how to play > follow the leader? 10-15 miles at marathon pace. I've heard that a staple of > some of the Ehiopian marathoners (or maybe used to be) is a 20 mile run with > the last 10 miles at marathon pace. Who said 10 miles at marathon pace is > not a workout? It's better than 10 miles at a jogging pace.
No it's not if you should be doing 10 miles of fartlek or 10 miles of hills or 15-20 miles at marathon pace. Doing 10 miles at marathon pace is just hard enough to risk injury and breaking down, while not hard enough to really give you much benefit. Running the last 10 miles of a 20 miler at MP is a good early season workout, but as the cycle progresses, the length of the MP run needs to increase. Meanwhile, other types of workouts can give a better training effect than 10 mile MP runs without the risks of doing the same thing 3 or 4 times a week. Maybe the bar has been raised. But it appears you've got to train long AND hard or you've got no shot. - Ed Parrot
