Up the tempo!

Tempo running is important for marathon training, unless you are just "training to finish." It can make you more efficient when running your marathon pace and can increase your ability to run at your target marathon pace when you tire. You can find various marathon tempo runs listed on the various running sites.

Here's a little blurb on tempo running from the Boston Marathon site:

"Marathon Tempo Running - Often overlooked and increasingly important for faster marathoners. If your projected marathon pace is faster than the pace at which you typically train, then marathon tempo running is an extremely important component. Marathon Tempo is defined as the pace that is within 10 seconds of your projected marathon pace. If your projected marathon pace is 7:00 per mile, then you should do your tempo running at 6:50 to 7:10 per mile. Do not run these training sessions any faster than the prescribed pace."

Folks debate the merits of faster speedwork for marathon running. I personally like it because it raises my fitness even more and helps me understand what paces I am capable of and can get "comfortable" with. The downside is that speedwork is more likely to result in injury because of the stress it places on the body.

More generally, my running coach Jim Spivey, who works with runners from milers to marathoners and was a three-time Olympian at 1500 and 5000 meters, typically writes a weekly tempo run for his runners. Jim has said it's "the most important workout of the week."