Unless you’re extremely sore or tired heading into a workout, it’s something that is easy to forget. The problem many runners face during marathon training is that it’s difficult to quantify accumulative fatigue. In fact, a solid marathon training plan will often specifically try to make you tired before your important workouts and long runs. Accumulative fatigue enables you to practice running with low glycogen levels and simulate running on tired legs. This accumulation of stress and tiredness is what coaches call accumulative fatigue.Īccumulative fatigue is a critical component of proper marathon training, so it’s not a bad thing.

The stress and tiredness from your previous workouts impacts your performance on a particular day. One of the most important concepts to remember about training is that an individual run or workout does not occur in a vacuum.

Hopefully, understanding some of the science and physiological principles behind this fact will give you confidence and help you train intelligently. In this article, we’ll delve into exactly why you shouldn’t feel like you could maintain goal pace for 26 miles in training. If you do, it’s likely your goal is far too easy. The secret is, you should almost never feel like you could run a full marathon at goal pace in training. Many beginners think this is a fear unique to their inexperience, but take it from someone who’s logged upwards of 140 miles per week, if your goal is to race hard and push your limits, marathon pace for 26.2 miles is hard to wrap your head around. It’s no surprise then that training for a marathon is as much a mental battle as it as a physical one.ĭuring each workout and long run, most runners can’t help but think to themselves : “there’s no way I could continue running this pace for 26.2 miles.” Simply running 26.2 miles is a daunting task, so the thought of trying to race a full marathon as fast as you can seems almost impossible – and probably a little crazy.

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