Another commonly prescribed marathon pacing workout is what professional coach Greg McMillan calls a "fast finish long run." As the name suggests, this is a long run that starts at a moderate pace, around one minute slower than your projected race pace and then for the final third of the run, you speed up to race pace, with the last 1 to 3 miles 30 seconds per mile faster than race pace. This is all about teaching your body to run hard, even when your legs feel tired. It also mimics the idea of speeding up the second half of a race, rather than crashing and burning.
You also must train your mind to run the desired pace. Repeatedly going over your race plan in your head can help keep that overly-ambitious voice in check when you toe the line.
"If you trust your training, pace properly during the first half of the race, and the stars align, you may even be able to run a negative split and run faster the second half," Forsman says. "You want to be the runner who is passing people in the second half of the race, not the one who is being passed. Running goal pace in the first half of the race is a big part of making this happen."
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