What does marathon speedwork look like and can it help you get fast?  The short answer is yes, but the long answer is that it depends.  Speedwork in the correct doses at the correct time of the season and at the correct intensity and duration can make you a faster marathon runner.  However, for runners doing the marathon for the first time and particularly those with little running background in their lives, it’s imperative that the goal for the first marathon is to reach the starting line on race day 100% healthy and injury free, NOT getting faster.

For the first time marathoner that has a strong running background such as 5-7 years of 5k or 10k races along with several half marathon races under their belt, speedwork would be reasonable to prescribe.  The type of speedwork that is useful typically looks like a pyramid where at the very beginning or even before marathon training begins, the athlete is doing short intervals of fast running at approximately 5k speeds and gradually moves to longer speedwork intervals that get closer and closer to marathon pace.

A good pre-season or early season speedwork for a marathon goal race could be something like:

• 4×400 or 4×800 at 5k pace once per week slowly increasing over several weeks to 8×400 or 8×800.
• Then the athlete could begin to move towards 2x1mi or 3x1mi at 10k pace and increase this to 5x1mi over several weeks.
• Then in the meat of marathon training season the athlete could begin to incorporate speedwork in their runs by running several miles of their 7-8mi mid-week runs at half marathon pace.
• Finally, as their marathon training reaches the final crescendo, the athlete could add intensity to their weekend long runs by running the last couple miles to 1/3 of their long runs at marathon race pace.

The main idea to incorporating speedwork into your marathon training is to be very careful and conservative in the dosage and frequency, particularly for those runners new to marathon training, endurance sports training or new to speedwork in general.  The secondary idea is to gradually move your speedwork to longer in duration and at marathon race pace as your goal race draws near.

It must be noted that you should NEVER train/do speed work at a pace that is faster than you can handle.  You should never train at a marathon race pace you WISH to run the marathon at but rather train at a marathon race pace that you CAN run the marathon at.  What I mean by this is if you go to the marathon race pace prediction website I shared with you (http://runbayou.com/jackd.htm), your intervals (400m, 800m, 5k, 10k, half marathon, etc.) should all be based on this calculator and your CURRENT abilities.  If your current abilities have you projecting to run a 4 hour marathon but your goal is to run a 3:40 marathon…do NOT do your speedwork based on a 3:40 marathon.  You will unnecessarily expose yourself to injury risk.  Test your speed every four weeks or so by using the 3 mile track test described in our free marathon training plan.  This is how and when you will know that your body can handle faster interval or marathon race pace training.

If you train faster than your body can handle, it can actually make you slower on marathon race day.  The most common way this occurs is by getting injured and having to miss several key runs during your training.