Hi, Is 13:30 min mile pace your natural running pace or your Race pace? If it is your Race pace, then your natural running pace would be a bit slower. Then if your going to be in 10:30 pace group, I would that think that group would be way too fast for you?????

Do me a favor, please explain with some more background When did you start Running, When was your first Marthon? What was your Finish time? When is your next Marathon?

From my own experiences I natually run a 10 minute pace range (meaning anywhere from 10 minutes to 10:50 minutes per mile) for me to train to run a 9 to 9:30 minute pace, I was in a pace Group for Speed training that was a 10 min pace range. So that we can push our selves to run at 15 to 30 seconds faster at various intervals doing speed work with a 3 to 5 minute rest walk inbetween. Same with doing Track work on 400, 800, 1200 meters...or 1 mile. You stay with in your own pace of 13 minutes what you do is slowly increase your speed with each so if you run 1 mile at 13:30 then do a 400 or 800 slow jog/walk then do the next 1 mile and try increasing the pace by 10 or 20 seconds. Repeat etc. That is the way I was taught. But there will be others who will have different variations or different training ideas or techniques. But it all boils down to that if your just starting out as a Basically a beginner, Speed/interval and Track work is too soon for you. The best possible thing for now is work on Distance and Endurance. You will need to get beyond your comfort zone of 4 miles.

Now, if your natural pace (or the pace you ran your first Marathon in was 13:30 min mile pace) you should be working first towards a 12 minute pace I would think? Because if I tried to increase my pace by 4 minutes I would kill myself trying to run with a 7 minute pace group? See what I'm saying.... I think your a bit confused.

I'm currently training for my first Marathon this summer, that will be in October. My natural normal Running pace is about a 10 minute mile. But during my Marathon race, I will start out in the beginning probably with a 12 or 13 minute pace in the first few miles with some extra walk breaks in the begining as Jeff Galloway will instruct me to do so...I will slowly increase it so that by the time I get past the 1/2 way mark 13.1 miles. I should be running each Run/walk segment at 10 min pace. And my Run/walk ratios Run segments should also increase by a few more mintues... By the time I get to the last 10k to 5k portions of my race I should be able to run that portion close to a 9 minute pace with very few or no walk breaks.

Forestina

If you can run 10 miles in 1:42 then you should be able to train for a marathon at around 10:30 race pace. Your training pace may therefore be too fast. Don't panic just yet though. Wait until the long runs begin to give you problems with your recovery afterwards. If you can't feel good after 2 or 3 days then you're probably running them too fast and should slow down a bit.

I'm curious...why are you only doing 4 mile long runs after already completing a marathon? You should be capable of a 2 hour run right now without problems.