10 miles easy + 10 miles at goal marathon pace + 2 miles easy (22 miles total)
Splits: 5:51/mile average for 10 mile goal paced segment.
Recovery: Change into flats after 10 miles easy. Change back into trainers after 10 miles at goal marathon pace.
Kelsey Bruce, November 2017
As I start our mini-series ‘On Marathoning’ tomorrow I wanted to post a workout that a 2:34 marathoner and US Olympic Trials Qualifier completed just three weeks before their personal best run.
If you’ve been on this site before then you know who Kelsey Bruce is. She needs no JHPRunning introduction as she’s been featured here several times, but I keep coming back to post workouts from her because they are exactly what we look for when we plan training, assign a workout, and expect an athlete to complete it.
She’s the utmost professional in her training and that typically shows on race-day.
This session was done in some miserable conditions…the email I sent to her said, “The weather looks terrible for this session, so we can adjust if needed.” Well, looks like we didn’t have to and three weeks later she ran right near 5:51/mile pace for the full marathon.
As we get into the ‘On Marathoning’ series tomorrow you’ll see eventually a post dedicated to the specific workouts we’ll do in serious marathon training. This is one such specific session and one of the top predictor workouts for me with the marathon.
Phillips Running 