Is torture good marathon training? Does spending the last 40 minutes of a run desperate for it be over constitute good mental and physical preparation for a marathon or is it just unnecessary suffering?
I wish I knew the answer. I do know that the last 5 miles of my 22 mile run this afternoon were a bit of a sufferfest.
The first 9 miles were nice, mainly sub 8 minute miles at a comfortable effort. But maybe I could have taken them easier.
Miles 10 and 11 were uphill to my favourite trail so by halfway my legs weren't exactly fresh.
According to my training book (Advanced Marathoning) you are supposed to push on in the second half of the long runs so that the pace is about marathon pace + 10%. This is 7:20 miling for me. Two days ago this felt ridiculously easy. Today not so much.
The 3.5 miles to the turnaround point were just about on pace and felt OK. After the U-turn there were 7.5 miles to go on a route I know very well. Normally this would be no problem but with 14.5 miles of fatigue in the legs it wasn't much fun. Miles 16 to 20 were on pace but my legs gradually felt more and more fatigued until running at that pace could only be described as tortuous.
The last 2 miles were downhill but equally tortuous and the pace did fade a bit here. However 22 miles in 2 hours 51 minutes is decent (average pace 7:45.)
So... that was tough. I have only one more 20 mile + run to do by myself and I may take it slightly easier. I also have a training marathon which should be fun and I am using a half marathon to do the 20 miles with 14 @ MP session.
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