2:30 Marathon Schedule

by Reto, Answer by Marius

Is it possible to use the 100 day marathon plans as a 2:30 marathon schedule or even faster ?

"Hi Marius I run the 10k in 31 Minutes. Is it possible to use the 2:45 Training Shedule for a 2:30 or 2:25 Marathon without more training but only faster speed? Or do I need more Training sessions? Gruss Reto"

Answer: Reto, you can certainly do this. It would work all the way down to faster times. But you do need to add some more runs in there in order to make it work 100 %.

What I suggest is to take the 2:45 schedule and add on average2 runs weekly. These should only be easy runs of 45 minutes. The ideal is to use a periodization where you alternate this into "A" and "B" weeks. So that in the 2:45 schedule, in the Week 1 you add in these 3 easy runs of 45 minutes, but in Week 2 you only add in 1 easy run (and Week 3, 3 easy runs etc.) This adds up to 2 extra runs weekly on average.

What this does is to add natural variation to the total workload which is more and more important the faster marathon you train for. If this is hard, in practical terms with the A + B weeks, just adding two easy runs weekly every week + run the sessions slightly faster (or by heart rate - ideal) then you'll be set for your 2:30 quest and probably faster, based on your 10k time.

Kind regards,
Marius

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