Best Marathon Long Run Workouts

As your marathon training progresses, you may want to introduce blocks of marathon pace or marathon effort into your long runs, treating them as long run workouts.

Marathon pace long run workouts are a great way to help you prepare for a marathon, and get your body familiar with the pace you want to run in your race.

We’ve got some advice on long runs with marathon effort below or you can jump straight to long run ideas.

We’ve covered other related topics including:

NOT EVERYONE NEEDS TO DO A MARATHON LONG RUN WORKOUT

If your goal is to complete the marathon distance and your pace on race day is the same as your daily running pace, then you don’t need to worry about long run workouts. Your long runs should focus on time, distance and nailing your nutrition.

WHO SHOULD DO A MARATHON LONG RUN WORKOUT?

All runners who do a variety of speed workouts in their training and have a goal time for their race can plan to do a few marathon-effort long run workouts during their training.

WHAT IS A LONG RUN WORKOUT FOR MARATHON TRAINING?

A marathon long run workout means doing one or more longer intervals of marathon pace or effort within a long run. The benefits of doing a long run workout are:

They help your body to get familiar with running longer distances at your goal pace or effort, which is one of the best ways to condition your body to the challenges of running a marathon.
They will have you running at marathon pace or effort late into a run which is great practice for marathon day, and can help you work towards a negative split.
They allow your training to become specific for race day. You’ll have done easy long runs and short hard intervals, now you get to combine them into harder long runs.
They can help you to know if you’re in the right shape to go for your goal time.
If you find that you struggle in any way during these runs then it allows you to work on weaknesses, make changes to your kit or nutrition, or adjust goals.

WHEN TO DO LONG RUN WORKOUTS

If you’re doing a 16-week marathon block then you may want to introduce some marathon effort after around 7-8 weeks. Before that just focus on building up your endurance and distance.

Once you’re feeling stronger and are comfortable running 15 miles (25km) or more, then you can gradually introduce some faster sections. Do this incrementally, so start by adding 3-5 miles (5-8km) and increase from there.

You don’t need to do long run workouts or long runs with marathon pace in them every week, but aim to run at least three or four during your training.

RUN TO EFFORT, NOT PACE (AT LEAST TO BEGIN WITH)

Early in your marathon build you should focus more on effort instead of trying to hit a certain pace in long run workouts.

You’ll be running these long runs on relatively tired legs. If you’re 5-15 seconds off goal pace then don’t work too hard to get to those splits.

But in the final one or two long runs, you will want to take note of the marathon effort pace you’re running as this is the chance to see what goal time is realistic for you. If you want to run a 2:59 marathon then you need to run around 6:50 per mile or 4:15 per kilometre. If you can’t do that for 90 minutes in a long run, then you should adjust your goal.

CONSIDER SKIPPING A WEEKLY WORKOUT

Some of these long run workouts are very challenging. If you usually do two workouts a week then count one of these long runs as a weekly workout.

You can add in strides, hill sprints or some short tempo sections into easy runs to keep up your mid-week training intensity.

CARB LOAD AND WORK ON RUN NUTRITION

Carb loading isn’t just for race day. You should do a mini-carb load before all long runs of more than two hours. It’s especially important on your peak week long runs. This is going to really help during your long run, will be essential practise for race day, and will help towards your recovery after the race.

A big feature of this will also be hydration. Drink plenty of water the day before and consider adding electrolytes to it, then drink lots of water while you run. Don’t let nutrition and hydration be a limiting factor for you.

WHAT PACE TO RUN IN LONG RUN WORKOUTS?

Here’s a marathon pace chart to help you know what to aim for in your marathon pace segments. These paces shouldn’t feel like you’re working too hard – remember it needs to be something you can run for a few hours.

For the easy to steady sections you can run at your usual easy conversational effort, or push it so that it’s a little steadier. For example, if you’re trying to run a sub-three marathon these might be paces you run at (but don’t feel like you need to stick to these – they are for guidance only and running to feel is best here):

Easy pace: 8:00-8:30 per mile / 5:00-5:20 per km (3-5 RPE)
Steady pace: 7:30-7:45 per mile / 4:40-4:50 per km (5-6 RPE)
Marathon pace: 6:45-6:55 per mile / 4:10-4:18 per km (6-7 RPE)

FYI: MP is Marathon Pace (but always consider that the same as marathon effort). Here’s our marathon pace chart.

FAST FINISH LONG RUN

Early block: 12 miles (20km) steady into 4 miles (6km) MP
Mid block: 14 miles (22km) steady into 6 miles (10km) MP

It’s a great way to learn to run goal race pace on tired legs, while also learning what it feels like to run the second half of the race faster than the first half.

ALTERNATING PACES

Alternate between steady and marathon pace/effort throughout your run. It’s a good way to break up a long run into shorter sections, which helps to keep you engaged and focused during the run, plus you accumulate a lot of overall MP distance.

Two miles steady / two miles MP up to 18-22 miles
3km steady / 3km MP up to 30-36km

3 x 5km / 4 x 5km / 2 x 10km

These are more challenging long run workouts where you alternate between easy to steady pace and marathon effort. Some examples are:

5km easy / 5km MP / 3km steady / 5km MP / 3km steady / 5km MP / 5km easy
10km easy / 5km MP / 1-2km steady / 5km MP / 1-2km steady / 5km MP / 1-2km steady / 5km MP / 1km easy
10km easy to steady / 10km MP / 2km steady / 10km MP / 2km easy

PROGRESSIVE LONG RUN

These are great as you get faster as you go through the run, plus you can break the long run into different sections which some runners find easier to handle (psychologically, anyway).

6km easy / 6km steady / 6km MP / 6km steady / 6km MP / 2km steady
30 mins easy / 30 mins steady / 60 mins MP / 15 mins easy
5 miles easy / 5 miles steady / 10 miles MP / 2 miles easy
10km easy / 10km steady / 10km MP / 2km easy

LONG MARATHON PACE BLOCK

Perhaps the most challenging runs but arguably the best for race preparation. In your peak long run, aim for 8-15 miles (~13-24km) as a continuous block at marathon pace or marathon effort.

Runners with faster goal times will want to aim for the higher end of this range (more than 20km/12 miles). It’s a brilliant way to condition your body to the strains of the end of a marathon.

6 mile steady / 14 miles MP / 1 mile easy
10km steady / 23km MP / 1-2km easy
30 minutes steady / 90 minutes MP

GOAL PACE HALF MARATHON

One way to help practise for a marathon is to take part in a half marathon ahead of the race. Try to have a warm up of 15-20 minutes before the half marathon and then go out at marathon pace and try to hold it for the whole race. If you feel good at mile 10 (16km) then push for a slightly faster finish. Have a 10-15 minute cool down.

Doing this workout as part of a race build is a great way to run at goal pace/effort while surrounded by others. It also allows you to practise all your race preparation in terms of food, drink, kit and travel.

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Here’s Andy taking on his longest run ever for marathon training, with a couple of sections at marathon pace.