You need to be prepared to dedicate a good chunk of time each week to training. Within this training will be long runs, speedwork, hill repeats and other exercises that’ll help increase the 4 hour marathon pace.

Training for a sub 4:00 marathon will require minimum five days of week of training. Lastly, most running gurus suggest that you have a minimum six months of solid training under your belt before setting this type of goal. Third, it is helpful if you are fairly comfortable and experienced at running double-digit mileage for long run days. Second, you should be able to run a 10K in under fifty-two minutes in order to plan to run a marathon under four hours. When you hit the wall at mile twenty, it helps to have prior knowledge of what to expect on the remaining 10k. The marathon is not an easy beast to tackle and in this, experience certainly matters.

Most sub-4 hour marathon training plan schedules state that in order to consider this as a goal, you should first have run a marathon. Can Anyone Break Four?Įxperts agree that a runner needs to be in good fitness before setting out to break four hours in the marathon. Breaking the four-hour barrier while running 26.2 miles is not easy but it is certainly doable with proper training. Once the marathon bug bites, a common goal for runners is to break four hours. Traveling that same distance for the average woman takes about four hours forty-five minutes for most women. The average median finish time for men running a marathon in the United States is around four hours twenty minutes.

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