A little more than a month before running her PR in Rotterdam, Magdalena Lewy Boulet did the track workout described here: 3 miles worth of 200m and 400m intervals run at roughly 4:30 mile pace. In the marathon, her goal was to break 2:30, which required her to run only about 5:45 per mile for the 26.2-mile race. Such an emphasis on speed might be surprising to beginning marathoners, or even elites who focus exclusively on the more traditional elements of marathon preparation such as longer intervals at threshold pace, tempo runs, and long runs. But speed development is a staple for Lewy Boulet and her coach, Jack Daniels.
"It's clear that any longer distance event can maximally be run at some fraction of the speed of a shorter race," Daniels says. "The extreme of that would be that a guy can't run a 2:11 marathon if he can't run a 5-minute mile."
Daniels believes in incorporating short, fast repetitions early in the marathon buildup, ideally focusing most intensely on speed development about 12 weeks prior to race day. From there, he begins shifting his athletes to longer workouts while doing just enough fast running to maintain the speed gained early on. This is opposite the more common template, which calls for longer, slower work at the beginning of marathon training and shorter, faster running as race day approaches.
"I would normally do reps early in the season and then maintain some of the reps throughout the rest of the season in conjunction with threshold runs," Daniels says. "The speed stuff is not the most important thing for a marathon, but economy is extremely important." Being able to run fast comfortably, Daniels believes, translates to running economy, or the ability to minimize effort at a given pace.
Daniels is quick to stress that each athlete is different and requires different emphases on strength and speed. Lewy Boulet, for example, has ample strength but can improve upon her top-end speed, which is why he has her work so intently on improving her leg turnover. An athlete with better natural speed might not need to do as much fast running in marathon training.
"If you look at her different race performances," Daniels says of Lewy Boulet by way of evidence, "she's probably a little lacking in the shorter races."
Daniels also coaches 2:12 marathoner Peter Gilmore, another athlete who considers working on high-end speed critical to his marathon training. Gilmore incorporates repetitions as short as 150m into his training, also using hill sprints to build power and speed.
"It's like your car, making sure your tires are full," Gilmore says of running those very short, intense workouts. "It's just a little thing, but if you don't do it, it becomes a big problem."
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