Long Run with a middle or Finish at Marathon Pace

by Ruben
(Laredo,Texas,USA)

Opinion on Kenyan type running in the long runs :

"Marius, what is your opinion on lets say, running at marathon pace the final 1/3 or middle third on some of your long runs. I read that that is a training method for the Kenyans. This keeps them at tune and their body acustomed to the duration plus the pace.

Thanks, Ruben"

Answer: Hi Ruben, having spent over a year of my life running in Kenya (through almost 20 stays there), you are correct that this is done on a regular basis.

You can certainly test this out a bit (especially when you are not on a "strict" 100 day plan leading up to a marathon), but these runs HAVE to be on the hard training days. If you start doing this at the end of regular easy days, it is the sure road to overtraining, especially within a structured (hard) training approach such as the 100 day plan.

Some Kenyans do this every day and I've had parts of my career doing the same myself when training with them. But it is risky business and in my opinion it is much better with the more structured approach - the net effect is usually the same or better but the risk much less as you use the easy days for maximum muscular recovery and nothing else.

I wish you all the best with your training,

regards,
Marius

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