Am training pretty seriously for first marathon next April / May time and have been looking at a few different training schedules and none of them seem to include any training runs of 26 miles, in fact they seem to recommend 22,23 as the longest.

I did a 1 hour 21 minute half marathon a few years back and hit the wall after about 11 and a half miles. My longest training run had been around 11 / 11 and a half miles. Therefore I have been planning to build up training to include a longest run of 26 miles, hopefully sometime mid March next year. I'm hoping to get as close to 3 hour marathon as I can so am doing the long runs at about 8 minute mile pace

Anyone advise on this ?

Thanks

Your long runs should be a minimum or one minute slower than your marathon pace. Your long runs do not need to cover the full 26 mile distance of the marathon. The time running / spent on your feet is what's important. This trains your body to use it's fuel over the time period of the marathon. Since you are running slower, you will reach this time before you reach 26 miles. In addition to leaving your best running on the training course and not the marathon, running 26 would increase you risk of injury.
Generally 20 - 22 miles is considered the limit, although this is somewhat mental with that 2 as the first number. Increased total mileage per week / during the traiing cycle / and lifetime mileage would assist you in the marathon more than a 26 mile run would.

Thanks deely617

That seems to make sense. I'm aiming for sub 3 hours 30 for the marathon and have run for 2 and a half hours so far so. I'll build that up to 3 and a half in the next 3/4 months, at current training pace that should be around 22 - 23 miles.
Probably just as important I need to step up my other runs. I'm running 3 days a week at the moment, I'll increase that to 5 in the new year.