Going from eight-minute miling to 10-minute miling but then your legs just would not go faster. But once you'd adapted to the extra miles it got easier, until one day you went out expecting the normal struggle and found that you just flew along. Take heart! It gets better as you adapt.

Adaptation is the key, and training with a partner helps a lot and gives fun to the run. If the pace creeps up when you run with your partner, you could arrange to run with him/her when you do tempo runs / speed work but do your easy runs without him/her. It sounds as though your easy runs will be too hard if you run them with your partner whereas company always makes a hard session feel easier. Don't try to push hard through it though, just relax and run as easy/slowly as your legs want for the moment. Rest assured your legs are adapting.

When you're upping things you can go for pace or mileage. Generally, it is better to got for distance first, slowing down if necessary, then bring back pace. Marathon training is extremely hard on the body & mind and if you want to do yourself justice, you have to get out there and do the training.

If during your training you feel tired and had that day when you don't want to train because you ?feel? tired, ponder upon this: Some of the problems with tiredness during marathon training is how we perceive this tiredness. You will get tired during marathon training, it is inevitable. There will be days when you don't want to carry on, but you have to. It's part of the process and everyone feels it! So just muster that needed motivation and be inspired by your training partner! Train and monitor your progress. You'll never know when this training will be pivotal (performance-changing) in your upcoming marathon events.