14 miles at Marathon Pace

One of the most feared sessions in the P&D marathon training programs is the "18 miles with 14@MP" run that occurs towards the end of the schedule.

Although running just over half the marathon distance at race pace doesn't sound that hard in practise it can be a killer as it is done on tired legs and full fitness has not been achieved yet.

In my last marathon build up this session killed me. I did all the 14 miles on pace and ended up wasted on the sofa for a few hours, shivering under a blanket!

This time I was a bit more confident. I was using the same pace as last time but hopefully was fitter now. Also the recent "16 miles with 12@MP" session had been OK.

In the end the session went pretty well. I did most of it at my favourite hunting ground - a park with a flat mile loop that I can race around without fear of traffic or hills disrupting my flow. The four miles to the park served as the warm-up and then it was time to go at 7:30 minutes / mile pace for the next 14 miles.

The pace felt quite fast as I am used to doing my slow runs at 8:15 pace but it was fairly comfortable. I just had to focus on the pace because as soon as my mind wandered I would start to slip back into my normal long run pace. Aerobically the effort felt absolutely fine but I did feel a few twinges in my legs from time to time. I think the bottleneck in my fitness will be my legs cramping up or my muscles running out of fuel come marathon day. The aerobic engine seems to be totally there.

After 10 laps it was time to maintain the pace over the 4 miles home. This did involved meeting traffic but it was still early on a Sunday morning and it was fine. I felt good at the end and managed to speed up on the last mile.

At the end I pretty much felt how I normally feel after a long run - tired but not wrecked.

So another key session banked.

This week is a tune-up race week. I am currently enjoying two days of recovery runs and then on Saturday morning it is time for another parkrun PB. If I can do 19:53 at Woodbank Park what can I do at Bramhall Park? That 19:57 course record is toast!