Marathon Training Pace - Heart Rate Zone

In general, marathon pace will be zone 3.

To find out roughly some paces, what are a couple of recent standalone run race PB's?

Shane

to the OP, I apologize, as I have nothing to add. I just wanted to say it is nice (and fortunate for all of us) to see Shane posting here
I hope all is well with you, Shane.

Shane,

Thanks for chiming in. I don't have any recent PB's but previous bests for HM are 1:31 and 1:33. Being that was a couple of years ago I'm being a bit conservative and estimating I can run a 1:36 at the moment.

Going with a 1:38:00, Daniels's VDot gives a marathon pace of 7:47/mile.

This should give you an idea of what marathon pace should feel like (on a flatter course) and see what RPE and HR those correspond to in order to be able to guide your training.

When it comes to racing, Daniels's M Pace is often a bit too fast as it assumes equivalent training to the race used to set the paces. Since very few people actually are as well trained for a marathon as a shorter race, they often find the suggested pace to be a little too aggressive.

Shane

PS - to the others, thanks for the kind words

Thanks Shane - is there a ceiling that you would prescribe in terms of HR at your marathon pace? I.e. I know that over the course of a long run you're going to experience some cardiac drift, so is the expectation that M pace should be in zone 2 moving into zone 3 later in the run, or it's acceptable to actually drift a bit above zone 3 towards the end of a longer run?

It will depend on fitness and course; if a fairly flat course, I'd try to use pace as the primary marker of effort and use RPE or HR as secondary.

If it is a hilly route, then I'd try to stay low zone 3 on the flats, mid to high on the climbs and not worry too much on the downs to start. This may creep a bit as the run progresses but I'd try to limit time in zone 4 to the climbing sections and keep it toward the bottom.

A marathon pace run should feel moderate and the goal is to build fitness so that pace feels moderate for a long period of time.

Shane

Thanks for all the feedback