Advice on how to get a realistic marathon training plan
So I’ve just finished using Runna for a recent half marathon and I’m running a marathon mid April next year.
I’m not planning to start my training block until mid December, giving me an 18 week block. This may be slightly on the longer side but as it’ll be my first marathon I figured a few extra weeks would be beneficial.
The Runna plan I’ve just completed for my HM estimated I’d finish at 1:42:20 but I ended up with 1:47:16 (Strava) and 1:48:00 (chip). This was a 2.5 minute PB so I was happy with this time regardless and I did find the plan tough towards the final weeks and didn’t want to push too hard and get injured.
Now I’m setting up my plan for the marathon and am adding a few minutes to my actual HM time so that it doesn’t come up with an ambitious marathon pace of 4:50/km.
Instead, I’ve set it as 1:53 which comes out as a marathon race pace of 5:05/km which I don’t think I can do 42 times but should I stick with it to begin with and to get the benefit from the speed sessions? Most of the speed sessions on the HM were enjoyable and the paces were fine, other than a couple of long runs where it would throw in a 4km block with a 4:45/km pace after my legs had done 12km.