5 Hour Marathon | Tips to Destroy 5HRS

How do you run a 5 hour marathon? What you need to do I tell runners who run under 2:20:00 or athletes that are training to the 4 hour marathon.

You have to train in a specific way. You are training to hold a specific pace. In this case, 11:27 per mile or 7:06 per kilometer. Finishing a marathon is tough enough. We are always seeking to push the boundaries of what we can do.

I don't just cater to the fastest runners. There is a need I have to help as many athletes as I can to achieve their dreams via this website. I've been writing content here for over 7 years.

I do have some products here that you will have to invest in in order to learn more. That being said, people that are wiling to pay the price are going to do big things, period.

A 5 hour marathon is no easier to do than a sub-2:30 marathon is. The paces are different but the training strategies are the same. They are universal regardless what your time goal is.

How Do I Make Marathon Pace Feel Easy?

5 hour marathon pace will only become easy when you get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Easier said than done right?

Your goal marathon race pace is 11:27 per mile or 7:06 per kilometer. What that means is you need to being doing a LOT of training below 10 minute mile pace and under 5:45 kilometer pace.

It isn't that runners are not capable of running a 5 hour marathon. I want to know how many miles are you currently running each week faster than sub 5 hour marathon pace? 

This tells me a lot of your chances of breaking the 5 hour marathon barrier.

How to Run Under 5 HRS

Study as much as you can about glutathione. It is an antioxidant hardly any runner I have ever come across that knows anything about. Find out how elevating it within the body will increase your cellular health and oxygen carrying capacity.

Look, we are in a sport that demands a heavy amount of oxygen to be transported effectively throughout the body at high exertion rates. The more you learn about this the better equipped you are going to be in breaking the 5hr marathon barrier.

Find a quality treadmill you can rely on to get you through the winter months (if you live in the northeast) or for when you just don't feel like running outside. Mix up your training from just running on the roads, spend some time on the track, on trails.

Be patient. Optimal performance comes with time and adaptation.

Is 5 Hours Good for a Marathon?

Yes, a sub 5 hour marathon is a highly competitive time that runners around the world are searching how to achieve. Remember, the key is training at, near and far below goal 5 hour marathon pace.

No, it will not be easy. That being said can certainly be done. You just need to follow a plan that will help you to work smarter rather than harder.

You need to also gradually extend the distance of your long run. Additionally, you need to spend a higher percentage of that long run at and even below your 5 hour marathon goal race pace. This is the biggest reason I dropped my marathon time from 2:43:36 to 2:19:35.

It was a small, minute change in the way I was conducting my long run. I was a 2:43:36 marathoner (6:14 mile pace) who was dreaming about running under 2:22:00 for the distance (5:25 mile pace).

Obviously, you can clearly see the significant differences between the two. The changes in mindset also needed adjusted. I could not believe that it wasn't possible for me. I dealt with the failures along the way, wrote down my goals, noted what went wrong in the training and racing and kept going.

Which brings me to another point. You need to be fanatical and tenacious about breaking the 5 hour marathon. If this is truly what you want to do then commit to it. There is a massive difference between interest versus commitment.

What Differentiates A Sub-2:20 Marathoner and A Sub 5 Hour Marathoner?

There is no difference. What you are trying to do in breaking the 5 hour marathon is just as difficult if not more than when I broke the 2:20 barrier.

Both require an enormous amount of hard work and diligence. You don't have to run 7 days a week to break the 5 hour marathon barrier. It is likely you can do it on 4 or 5 days of running per week. What you are going to have a lot of is patience and tenacity.

If this is a goal you are truly inspired to achieve I am certain you will do it. The same training philosophies I have used the past 26 years are the same ones I pass on to runners of all capabilities.

It doesn't matter if you are a complete beginner, are overweight or are a sub 3 hour marathoner every day is a new day to go after this. The best runners in the world make it look easy for a reason. It isn't that they are so much more gifted it is that they spend so much of their weekly mileage at fast paces.

Speeds that far exceed their goal marathon race pace. Are they talented? Of course but talent that doesn't work will usually get beat by someone with enormous amounts of heart and desire that does.

You cannot rest on your talent and expect to get ahead in the long run. If you let up for even a second someone else will achieve what you trying to achieve right in front of your eyes. A sub 5 hour marathon time can be achieved provided you follow the basic fundamentals.

Sub 5 Hour Marathon Strategy

Be more patient than the masses. You don't necessarily have to run the entire marathon to break 5 hours but you will have to run at least 80 to 85% of the distance.

Keep in mind every time you stop you are losing time. 11:27 pace is a fairly reasonable jogging pace for many people around the world. A few miles at this pace may be manageable but try it for 26.2 miles. If you are new to the sport of marathoning this is the key. Focus on building strength and stamina over a long period of time.

16 weeks is optimal. A 20 week marathon training schedule may be even better. Peak performance only comes about via a planned and well-executed training block. I have built 5k to marathon training schedules for beginner level athletes.

Feel free to visit our training schedule page to choose from a wife variety of marathon training schedules that will be perfect for you. Leave a comment below and let me know what the biggest issue has been for you in your training. I look forward to hearing from you and also when you break the 5 hour marathon barrier.

Sub 5 Hour Marathon Training Program

My goal in creating the sub 5 hour marathon bootcamp was to make the most extensive training course on the internet. In fact, I'd like to find any course online that has gone as in-depth on breaking this particular barrier than I did.

No, running a marathon under 5 hours doesn't necessarily take talent in order to achieve. You can run well below the standard based on your work ethic alone. There are far too many runners who quit too early when they were just one workout or race away from meeting their objective.

The only way to get sub 5 hr marathon pace to feel more in control is to train at your Vo2max. In addition, extend the amount of time you are training at your anaerobic threshold. Remember, we race right around our AT effort.

So, to break the 5 hour marathon barrier you need to extend the duration of these particular workouts. Furthermore, the Vo2 max workouts I discuss in the course will make goal marathon race pace much easier. No, it isn't an easy process. Yes, it can be achieved with time, effort and patience.

Is Sub 5 Hours a Good Marathon Time?

Yes, a sub 5 hour marathon time is a very competitive effort. There are many runners around the world seeking to run 4:59:59 or faster. The key way to do it is focusing on quality vs quantity. The problem I see too many runners making is they are running too many of their weekly mileage too slow.

Remember, there are no breaks in the marathon. So, you want to get comfortable being uncomfortable during your workouts. Furthermore, training should be the most difficult part of your preparation and not the race itself.

Someone may beat me but they are going to have to bleed to do it – Steve Profontaine

So, let your competition be worried and uptight the morning of your race, not you. I always made training the most difficult part of my preparation. Also, I know there was nothing in a race that I had no already experienced in training. So, I was always confident and prepared when I went into my marathons.

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What Pace Do I Need to Run a Marathon in 5 Hours?

The pace you need to hold in order to run a marathon under 5 hours is 11:26 per mile or 7:06 per kilometer. The key thing you need to do is train in such a way that you teach the body to burn fat at race pace.

Also, to conserve carbohydrates so that you will have that storage to call upon when you need them the most. We burn anywhere from 100 to 120 calories per mile. That being said, we only have anywhere from 1700 to 1800 calories of carbohydrates stored up in our body at any given time.

Is it no wonder why runners usually hit the wall around mile 17 or 18? There is a way to not have to experience that feeling. I have been there and it most certainly doesn't feel good. That being said, I didn't experience “the wall” when I ran 2:19:35 or when I ran my second fastest marathon time of 2:26:42.

Again, the key is teaching the body to burn what it has far more of, fat. So, you can have that carbohydrate storage to call upon when you need to pick up the pace at the end of your marathons.

How Do I Train for a 5 Hour Marathon?

I build the sub 5 hour marathon bootcamp course to teach you how to do exactly that. We don't focus so much on high mileage as we do on quality training. The best marathoners are often times the ones that use leverage and are not as highly focused on higher training volume.

You can be running 120 miles a week far too slow and get beat by someone running 50 miles a week who is training smarter. Remember, that is the main tactic we use in this course. Smarter training, not harder training.

Yes, you will have to train hard but it will be in a more tactical, leveraged way. So, you start getting better results by working less. This tactic is not often times well understood because we all have been taught that working harder is the way to better results.

I have known many hard working marathoners who never broke 5 hours. That being said, I have known untold amounts of runners who trained smart and became a 4:59:59 or faster marathoner.

Closing Thoughts

So, the goal with the sub 5 hour marathon bootcamp course is leverage. Leverage simply means doing more with less. The course covers specific topics that are needed to be studied and followed in order to run well under the 5 hour marathon barrier. We go in depth over race pace training, mental training, nutrition, strength training and much more.

Click the button below to find out more information on this course. I can promise you that if you follow the strategies taught in this course you will be well on your way to becoming a 4 hour+ marathon specialist. A 5hr marathon is not a walk in the park and you need to be strong mentally as well as physically to achieve it.