MARATHON TRAINING TRACK SESSION - this REALLY hurt after TWO months away!! - Ben Parkes

This is a quick summary of “MARATHON TRAINING TRACK SESSION - this REALLY hurt after TWO months away!!” from Ben Parkes. It’s a great watch—we’re breaking down the workout so you can try it for yourself. Be sure to check out the full video for all the details.

Key Points

• After a two-month break, Ben uses a classic K-repeat session to gauge fitness and sharpen speed. This is a powerful form of interval training, and if you want to dive deeper into the science behind such workouts, check out our guide on Mastering Interval Training: Science-Backed Workouts and How a Smart App Can Personalize Them.
• The session mixes 1-kilometre repeats at roughly 3:10–3:15 per km. For Ben, this is around his current 5K race pace—a crucial intensity for building speed endurance. For more strategies on honing that specific speed, explore our article on Mastering 5K Speed: Proven Interval Strategies to Cut Minutes off Your Time.
• A relaxed, conversational-pace warm-up of about 1 mile keeps the heart rate low and prepares the muscles for the effort to come.
• Rest intervals are short (≈2 min) to keep the workout challenging but manageable after a break.

While Ben is using this session to sharpen up for a marathon, its benefits aren’t limited to the 42.2k distance. The speed and endurance built here are fundamental for shorter races, too. In fact, K-repeats are a staple workout in many plans for Mastering the 10K: Proven Training Plans, Pace Strategies, and How a Smart App Can Elevate Your Performance.

Workout Example

1. Warm-up: ~1 mile (≈4 laps) easy jog, HR in zone 1–2.
2. Main set: 6 × 1 km @ 3:10–3:15 / km with 2 min easy jog recovery between each repeat.
3. Cool-down / turnover: 6 × 200 m strides (fast-leg-turnover) with a brief jog back to the start; use these to bring the legs back up after the hard repeats.

Tip: If 1 km feels too long, swap for 800m repeats at the same pace; if you’re faster, aim for 3:00–3:05 / km.

Closing Note

Give this track session a go and tweak the distances or paces to fit your current fitness—just plug your own target paces into the Pacing app and own the workout. Have fun, stay strong, and keep building toward that marathon PB! 🚀

References

• MARATHON TRAINING TRACK SESSION - this REALLY hurt after TWO months away!! - YouTube (YouTube Video)

Workout - Ben Parkes' Speed Rebuilder

• 12min @ 8'00''/km
• 6 lots of:
  • 1.0km @ 5'00''/km
  • 2min rest
• 6 lots of:
  • 200m @ 3'30''/km
  • 1min 10s rest
• 7min 30s @ 8'00''/km

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