10:00/mi ONLY runs or 5:00/mi ONLY runs: which is better for the marathon? We intend to find out.

Will be very hard for him to get to the race healthy, IF he can even get to the point of consistent 6 mile runs.

interesting but with such a small sample size and the odds that you guys have different talent levels/starting points so it won't mean much

Wonder if vinny can build a base with long brisk walks, or incline walks. Or does walking also count as cross training?

Damnit you piqued my interest.

Throwing my oar in here I'm thinking if you both show up healthy, Vinny is going to take this one. 10:00 per mile is astronomically slow; your only saving grace is maybe getting in a lot of solid weight training. Without real resistance prior to racing at 5:xx pace for 26 I'd be really concerned.

Interested in whether walking counts as cross training, or if Vinny will be sitting around most of the day when not running.

Weight training could also be his saving grace. Lots of reps can act as cardio for sure.

Please post updates of training progress, and best of luck!

ya but you're bold to assume either one of them will be racing at sub 6:00 pace for the marathon

10 min guy wins easy... 5 min guy prob won't make it to the line

Another interesting part is that neither of you will be able to assess your ability in the marathon prior to it in any meaningful way. So the race day pacing strategy will become super important.

My first marathon I focused on Vo2Max intervals and threshold more than anything else, figured i’d nail my strong points and just check off the boxes for everything else, and to be fair I was at no point ever breathing hard or straining, but the wall still hit me like an absolute truck around mile 18-20.

I think the most important factor in the marathon is building your glycogen stores and strengthening your joints and muscles in a way that they can handle running for 2-4 hours without failing. You should only add focus on speed and even threshold once you’re in a good place there.

The 5:00 pace method is like training for a 5k by doing 50m hill sprints and 400m repeats for training.

I know lots of people that just run 9-10 minute miles every day very consistently that show up and boston qualify in the marathon. I have a friend who just does hard tempo runs every other day with his “easy runs” at 6:30ish pace and doesn’t get his mileage over 40-50 miles per week who consistently blows up with something like a 1:15-1:20 half marathon split and a 3:10+ finish time.

I think we’ll see the 10:00/mile runner win by a landslide.

It would be much more interesting to see the results with the allowance of multiple runs per day, as well as breaking the distances down into reps.

Walking other than for the purpose of transportation is considered cross training and is not allowed. Vinny also has a 9-5 office job, so yes, he will be sitting around most of the day.

Towards the end of July, Vinny is going on a week-long backpacking trip/bachelor party, but since he won't be able to run/train and will likely be drinking copiously, this is considered a net-zero impact and will be allowed.

Not sure I understand. This is a highly scientific experiment and will in fact be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.

Doing everything at 5:00 pace he'd get injured, or be very under trained only doing probably 20ish miles per week or less. Doing 10 minute miles you could do some decent volume, like 60+ mile weeks running 90 minutes per day. If that person is doing weight training and plyometric exercises I think that can make up for some of the speed work and allow them to move quick-ish on race day

Assuming unlimited time to devote to training, I'd probably give the edge to the 10 minute/mile pace runner. You can jog for 2 hours several days per week, and the combination of drills, hills, and weights can make up for a lot of speed you miss in the actual running portion.

Of course the 5 minute/mile runner could do the inverse - running 15-30 minutes, and spending a lot of time weight training, but I think he'd burn out trying to do much volume at all.

However, if each of you only trained for one hour per day, I think the fast paced runner could potentially overcome the limited running volume as long as he stayed healthy.

Vinny's big limiting factor is that he can only run so far at 5:00 pace. What will he average?... Like 2-4 miles per day? Especially since he isn't in 14:00 5k shape right now. Meanwhile, you can run 1-3 hours per day. You should take this easily.

In my opinion, this is the real limiting factor for me. Sure, you can essentially run forever at 10:00/mi and rack up 100+ mile weeks - but 10:00/mi is just sooooo slow. Just 12 miles takes a full 2 hours at that pace. So from a practical standpoint, I think it will be difficult to run much more than 60 miles per week. I start my first full time job next week, so I don't have unlimited time to hit big mileage either.

So that might level the playing field more than I'd like. But, maybe what's important is the time itself and not the mileage anyway...

This was my thought process when I chose 10:00/mi from the very beginning. Even if training goes well for Vinny I don't see him cracking 25mpw, but I'd love for him to prove me wrong.

Assuming you win, it might be fun to see what distance you two intersect.

Go Vinny Go

I'm having a hard time seeing how Vinny wins. Unless he's like a 2:19-ish or better marathon guy, he's not going to get enough volume.

Let's assume max duration is 60 minutes (5:00 is threshold). He's going to be topping out at: 12 miles per day, 84 per week. It would certainly be tough to run tempo for 60 minutes, 7 days a week. And I think a 2:19 marathoner would have higher aspirations.

I'll also assume that you can run way faster than 10:00, so you could do regular training mileage and even go beyond 26 miles for a long run.