16 Mile Marathon Pace Trial

I was reading recently about the Brooks - Hanson running group and their approach to Marathon training. One thing that interested me was finding out that many of the runners on the team run a simulated marathon about 5 weeks out from their race. In this simulation they run 26.2 Kilometers as opposed to 26.2 miles and they run the distance at anticipated race pace. The thought behind this is that the distance is an excellent test of your marathon fitness, however, the distance is not too long to run a high risk of injury.

I gave the workout a try today out of curiosity and found it to be quite good. I ran the distance in the pace I hope to run (7:15 min / mile) and do not feel any worse for wear this evening. The great thing about it is that I didn't feel on edge at any point in the run so I find that having run this has increased my confidence about running the real race in about a month. I had found myself questioning my fitness recently and the pace I would strive to run. It is nice to now have the confidence that my plan is achievable.