Achieving Your Marathon Goal Pace: Setting Realistic Yet Ambitious Targets - Lee Grantham

Aug 13, 2025

This is a quick summary of “Achieving Your Marathon Goal Pace: Setting Realistic Yet Ambitious Targets” from Lee Grantham. It’s a great watch — we’re breaking it down so you can try the workout today. Be sure to check out the full video for all the details.

Key Points

Set a SMART marathon‑pace goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time‑bound). Your target should be a pace you can eventually hold for 10‑minute chunks without blowing past lactate threshold.
Use your current 5K speed as the foundation: improve 5K → 10K → half‑marathon → marathon.
Start with short minute‑intervals at goal pace if you can only hold the effort for 1 min, then gradually build to longer blocks.
Aim for three 10‑minute segments at marathon pace with 60‑second recovery before trying a continuous 15 km block in a long run.
Monitor heart‑rate; stay below lactate threshold during pace work to ensure safe adaptation.

Workout Example

Baseline interval – If you can only sustain the goal pace for ~1 min, do 12 × 1‑minute repeats at marathon goal pace with 30‑second easy jog between.
Progression – Once 1‑minute repeats feel easy, move to 3 × 10‑minute repeats at marathon goal pace with 60 seconds easy jog between.
Long‑run integration – After mastering the 3 × 10‑minute set, insert a 15 km continuous block at marathon pace into a 25‑km long run (e.g., 5 km easy, 15 km goal pace, 5 km easy).
Further build – As fitness improves, increase the number of 10‑minute blocks (4‑5 × 10 min) or extend the continuous marathon‑pace segment up to 20 km.

Practical Tips

Track heart‑rate; keep it under your lactate threshold throughout the goal‑pace work.
Keep the effort “smart”: if you’re hitting the pace but HR spikes, shorten the interval length and rebuild.
Treat each progression as a test of durability – once you can hold 10 min comfortably, add another set before lengthening the block.
Stay consistent week‑to‑week; the cumulative adaptation is what enables you to hold marathon pace for 30‑35 km on race day.

Closing Note Give these step‑wise intervals a try this week, adjust the lengths to match your current fitness, and log the paces in the Pacing app. By gradually expanding the marathon‑pace blocks, you’ll turn an ambitious target into a realistic, race‑day reality. Happy training – you’ve got this!