Running a Sub 4 Hour Marathon

This is easily achievable if you are a regular runner or club runner. You’ll probably have already run a marathon or couple of half marathons. There are no real secrets – just a determination to put set a period of time aside to concentrate and follow a schedule.

A sub 4 hour training schedule will start to incorporate the following elements:

Efforts or Speed Training

You’ll see this schedule now incorporates regular “efforts or speed training”.
These sessions will help you maintain pace over the coming weeks and build you into a “runner” without falling into the trap of becoming a long slow mileage plodder.
Make sure that you recover from each speed/effort burst before you start the next one, especially if you do them within a group session. Far too many runners begin the next “effort or burst” simply because most of the “group” has set off on the next one. Always run your own session - and for that matter your own race.
Recovery is such an important part of reaching your PB. It’s no good running an effort session if the last burst is barley a crawl simply because you ran the first two flat out. Better to run them all at “tempo” rather than two flat out, two steady and two jogging.
Learn to pace yourself and build up the number of quality efforts within each of your sessions. The only change to this would be if your recovery has to be a “set time” in between each effort/burst.

Hill Training

Hill training is also a great way of building stamina and maintaining tempo for race day. Find a training route with a series of hills somewhere within it – a distance of around 5 miles in total would be perfect. That way you can in-corporate a warm-up run, then the hills at pace followed by a warm down run.
It’s much better if they’re gradual climbs rather than something that pokes through the clouds.
What you’re looking for here is to run them at a steady consistent pace and to continue over the top and on to the next one without slowing down.
Your usual running pace through to the end of the hills will raise your heart rate and improve your stamina. Over time you can build up your stamina and really attack the run.
If finding a series of hills is a challenge then one gradual climb will suffice. You simply run up the hill and jog down as a recovery.
Repeating this and maintaining the tempo on each up hill run. The same rules apply about keeping to a set pace throughout rather than an initial burst followed by a lack luster jog.
Try to build the session up to about 50 minutes including a warm up and down.

Other terms used in the sub 4 hour marathon schedule:

Strides: Strides are short, fast runs of between 50 and 200 metres. Run at a "comfortable sprint" pace.
Fartlek: Periods of intense effort alternate with periods of less strenuous effort in a continuous workout.

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