My Marathon Long Run Strategy for a Sub-2:50 Marathon (9-Week Breakdown)
The long run is the staple of a marathon training block. Anyone who has ever run a marathon knows that their Saturday or Sunday has 2–3 hours booked for 8+ weeks because you’ve got to get the miles in. You have to plan around family events, ask to move plans to the afternoon or another day. If you’re going to take it seriously, running a marathon takes commitment—and saying no to a lot of things.
A lot of people do long runs when training for a marathon. They get the miles in, but they leave a lot of progress on the table because they always run them easy. Then, when race day comes, they go out faster than easy pace and blow up, hit the wall, and their muscles tighten up. They slow down and end up missing their goal.
I’m sure they had a lot of tempo workouts throughout their training. Likely, most of them were in the 6–8 mile range after a recovery day or a few easy days. Tempo days are great, but running 6 miles at tempo is still not the same as running 26.2 miles at marathon pace. This is where your long runs can really help your training.
I love to incorporate tempo and marathon pace into my long runs, and there are a lot of options and things you can do. You can add marathon pace throughout the run, or finish with a few miles at the end. You can do a progression where you start easy and build to tempo pace by the end.
I’m currently training for a sub-2:50:00 marathon, so I figured I’d share my long runs for the 9 weeks leading up to my race.
My first long run was 12 miles, and I’m building up to 23 miles. I don’t recommend this type of progression for new runners. You definitely need to build to at least 16 miles, but I’d recommend 20 miles if you can. So give yourself time—I suggest 20–24 weeks if you’re a beginner.
Here are my long runs for the build:
Week 1:
12 miles with a progression in the last 3 miles.
9 Miles @ easy effort (8:00-10:0min mile pace)
1 Mile @ easy-moderate effort (7:04-7:30min mile pace)
1 Mile @ marathon pace (6:19-6:40min mile pace)
1 Mile @ tempo (5:43-6:00min mile pace)
250M @ Mile pace (5:13-5:27min mile pace)
Week 2:
14 miles with a progression in the last 4 miles
10 Miles @ easy effort (8:00-10:0min mile pace)
1 Mile @ easy-moderate effort (7:04-7:30min mile pace)
1 Mile @ marathon pace (6:19-6:40min mile pace)
2 Miles @ tempo (5:43-6:00min mile pace)
250M @ Mile pace (5:13-5:27min mile pace)
Week 3:
16 miles with 6 total miles at marathon or faster pace.
5 Miles @ easy effort (7:30-8:30min mile pace)
3 Miles @ marathon pace (6:15-6:30min mile)
2 Miles @ easy effort (7:30-8:30min mile pace)
3 Miles @ marathon pace (6:15-6:30min mile)
3 Miles @ easy effort (7:30-8:30min mile pace)
Week 4:
18 miles.
18 Miles @ easy effort (7:15-8:0in mile pace)
Week 5:
20 miles with 5 miles at the end at slightly faster than marathon pace.
14 Miles @ easy effort (7:30-8:30min mile pace)
5 miles @ slightly faster than marathon pace (6:10-6:20min mile pace)
1 mile @ easy effort (8:00-8:30min mile pace)
Week 6:
21 miles at an easy-to-moderate effort
20 Miles @ easy-to-moderate effort (7:00-8:30min mile pace)
1 mile @ easy effort (8-9:00min mile pace(
Week 7:
22 miles with 8 total miles at marathon or faster pace
6 Miles @ easy-to-moderate effort (7:00-8:30min mile pace)
4 Miles @ marathon pace (6:15-6:30min mile pace)
6 Miles @ easy-to-moderate effort (7:00-8:30min mile pace)
4 Miles @ marathon pace (6:15-6:30min mile pace)
2 Miles @ easy effort (8:00-8:30min mile pace)
Week 8:
23 miles with 4 miles at marathon or faster pace.
(Repeats 4X)
4 Miles @ easy effort (7:30-8:00min mile pace)
1 Mile @ Tempo (6:00-6:15min mile pace)
(After the 20 miles)
3 miles @ easy effort (7:30-8:00min mile pace)
Week 9:
14 miles with 4 miles at marathon or faster pace (taper week)
4 Miles @ easy effort (7:00-8:00min mile pace)
2 Miles @ Marathon pace (6:15-6:30min mile)
4 Miles @ easy effort (7:00-8:00min mile pace)
2 Miles @ Marathon pace (6:15-6:30min mile)
2 Miles @ Easy effort (7:30-8:30min mile)
And there you have it—that’s every long run from my training block. This is on top of tempo and interval work done during the week. The weeks where my long run is all easy are weeks where I had higher-intensity workouts during the week, so to manage load, I didn’t incorporate tempo or marathon pace into those runs.
You don’t have to—and shouldn’t—follow these workouts exactly, but you should be adding some tempo and marathon pace miles into your long run. After all, you have to run your marathon at marathon pace, so you need to train for that.
If you’re looking for guidance and a structured plan that actually makes sense, I offer 1:1 coaching. Check the link below if you’re interested.
https://www.camiamendurancecoaching.com/
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