If you are training for a specific marathon time, then it’s absolutely imperative you practice that pace during the build up to your race.

Your training plan should become progressively more challenging so those key marathon sessions will be more demanding, the closer to race day you get, with the hardest session coming around 3-4 weeks out from your event.

4 x 5km at Marathon pace is probably one of the more challenging sessions you’ll do. Depending on your level and how you are progressing you might do one more tougher session before race day.

But doing blocks of 5km at goal pace is an excellent opportunity to get comfortable running at your desired speed and also a chance to practice your fuelling.

Other things to consider are wearing the same kit and shoes you’ll likely to race in for your marathon. If you are going to make mistakes, then doing that in training is the best time, giving that opportunity to make amends before race day.

If you do attempt this session and run solo, just factor in that running on race day, especially if you can find a group, will reduce that perceived effort. So if your pace is a little off, don’t assume that you cannot achieve your goal. Sometimes it’s much harder in training to push ourselves.

The beauty of this session is that your RPE (effort level) will slowly increase as you work through the reps. Marathon pace in the first 5km will probably feel easy. But then come the last rep (as I found in the video) maintaining that same speed is considerably harder once your glycogen stores are a little depleted and the muscles begin to tire.

Dig deep though, if you can complete a session like this at your target pace it should give you a lot of confidence for race day.

Good Luck and enjoy.