I got the London place in the ballot, at some point in early summar last year. At that point life was busy and I was doing next to no running.
I had a place in the Big Half 2024 through my club, in September, and that race proved to be my slowest ever half marathon (1:38 I think). This shocked me into action, and I began establishing a proper routine right away. As I touched upon in my training reflections, I believe that structure needs to come before plan. I focused on establishing a suitable routine of running through the week, without so much concern on mileage or anything else.
This went well for about a month, before I had 3 weeks away on holiday, through to mid-December. I couldn’t bring myself to run in the cold, having just returned from weeks of warm weather, and my training did not begin until January.
After that I focused on building easy mileage, not missing days, avoiding injury, and getting comfortable with fuelling.
I didn’t miss a single run, except for when I got food poisoning. During this 10 day period where I was affected, I still managed to run, but I missed 2 long runs. This was frustrating, at weeks 9 & 10, when I had some of the most critical stuff planned.
When I started this training block I shared the following goals:
In descending order of importance i.e. most important first:
The key to my consistency in this block was establishing the weekly routine first, and sticking to it. Layering on specific runs and mileage was simple.
Schedule: Mon easy plus gym, Tue easy, Wed med-long, Fri easy, Sat long
2 rest days is a great ratio. I’d prefer to double over taking those away.
I didn’t stretch or foam roll once this block. This is a complete change for me, who believed in stretching and rolling. This was based off of research I read that suggested that neither had any impact, and may in fact do damage.
The usual tightness through blocks never once came. I didn’t suffer with soreness at all. Maybe it worked. I also believe that the gym routine counteracted many of the usual symptoms that stretching is supposed to tackle.
I’ve been relatively serious about gym-ing since I got injured 2 years ago, preventing me from running London 2023.
In this block I did a leg session every single Monday, comprised of:
Focused on slow, stretched, eccentric movements. This also gives a good, weighted stretch.
I’ve historically been exhausted in evenings when I’ve run in the morning. I thought this was a fact of life.
I always take an electrolyte after a run, but I started taking them at lunch and in the evening too, and it changed my energy game for the rest of the day.
Simple. Quicker out the door, stomach feels better, and I’m much less dehydrated. Also, delaying coffee a couple of hours after waking is much better for sleep quality, apparently.
Usually I’d wake up and wonder which route to take. I’d have psychological ties or concerns about routes for stupid reasons.
This block I just ran the same routes, one for the easy run, one for the med-long. I mixed up the long run only.
One less decision, one less reason to skip.
By sticking to the plan, I was able to progress gently through mileage, and reach into the 50s with no issues or soreness. I never felt significant fatigue.
This was also helped by 95% of my running done at easy paces.
I really like long runs on Saturday. This might be heresy, but getting it done means the weekend can begin with it out of the way.
I was insanely organised for this block. In particular race day. I did as much off-road prep as on feet.
I ordered a disposable seat cushion in case I had to sit on the floor before the start! Every minute was planned and it worked so well.
One of the most helpful bits of prep I did was trialing the commute to the start line, which I did for one of my long runs. This really helped with the nerves.
I did two 20 mile races in the build up. These were great for marathon simulation, forcing some race pace, nutrition testing, getting used to travelling before a run, etc.
Much more helpful than a half in the build up, I’ll look for these wherever I can.
I’ve always struggled with gels. I find them unpleasant and especially hard to digest. This block started out more encouragingly. I trialled Maurten before switching to my old favourites, SiS isotonics, which I used last marathon. The Maurtens were heavy, while the SiS seemed to work well.
But over time they started to irritate my stomach, until eventually I lost confidence in them, in the last few weeks before the race. I undertook a series of tests with different brands before going back to Maurten for the race, trying to space them out.
Clearly I need to do more testing here, including other brands, but I’ll also be looking to try out drink mixes, which I hope my stomach will find more bearable.
This cost me a PB and will be my highest priority now.
I got great ROI on relatively modest mileage this block. I’d like to see if I can up that.
I averaged mid 40s, with a few weeks over 50 this block.
Firstly, I need to remain consistent in training between blocks. If I can keep this base in place, then next time I’d like to bring my average into the 50s, and touch 60 a couple of times.
To achieve this I’ll probably need to add another run. As mentioned, I’d prefer to keep my 2 rest days, meaning I might need to double for the first time. That could be interesting.
I believe that my body responds best to long slow mileage for the most part. Indeed, my fastest miles of the whole block were in the race. My race pace (not counting the wall) was more than a minute faster than my easy pace and I never got down to that pace even in workouts.
There’s obviously merit in this approach.
I was also fearful of injury jeopardising London, given that the priority was to run it, not to race it.
Next marathon, I’ll be a little less risk averse, and introduce more and bigger race-pace sessions earlier in the cycle. I don’t believe in running much faster than marathon pace, but in and around it.
Running should be fun first, and long runs are the best opportunity to enjoy and explore. I’d like to run in locations further afield, especially in nature, and escape the city.
I really enjoyed this block. It stayed fun, and I was never tempted to miss a run. The process & routine worked well, and it got me fit!
I ran a very quick 20 miler (followed by 6 slow miles) and clearly there’s a quick marathon in me which is exciting.
On to the next one.