Marathon Training Block Break Down

It’s the start of the new year, and I’ve booked my marathon place, Boston Marathon Easter Monday April 18th. I was really looking forward to getting stuck into training block, I knew the volume was gonna increase and the long runs to, but I wanted to give this my best shot to see what I could do at the distance, so staying heathy and injury free was key.

Looking now at my training log and trying to remember my journey over the past 17 weeks, it’s incredible really, cause if you’d told me at the beginning of this block the long runs I had to do and the pace I had to do them at as well as doing the weeks volume, I wouldn’t have believed you 😆..

My training basically included a Monday long run ( the race was on a Monday so we decided to change long run day to get the body use to running longer on a Monday) these started at 15 miles all the way up to 23 miles, these where also split between easy pace and marathon pace, so half of the run could have been done at target pace ( which was 6:50 m/m) when I did target pace I always ran them a little quicker, so 6:40-6:35, just to give myself a little buffer. A mid week long run was included into training these where between 8-14 miles, and these where done at target marathon pace, then one session per week, the rest of my runs around those where done at easy comfortable pace….. Volume wise, now my body over the years has been use to running a lot of volume consistently throughout the year, so my marathon block started at 70 miles and built throughout, peaking at just over 100 miles for a week, I had two races in the build up, a 10k at Scunthorpe and a 20 miler at Bedford, i tapered slightly down for each of these races. 10k I managed a pb, 38:12 was so delighted with that and in Bedford I managed a 2:14 first time I raced a 20 miler! ….. The only issues I had throughout the block was , I had two illnesses which wiped me for 24-28 hours at a time, joys of having kids 😆 🤦🏻‍♂️and obviously training throughout the winter months ❄️ the winds where awful! I remember doing one long run and the last few miles was supposed to be marathon pace but I was being pushed backwards by a ridicules headwind !! It zaps your energy so much and you have just throughout any idea of a pace out the window and just work through it !!! I did however mix my training up, which really helped keep my body in one piece, my main runs where the 3 I mentioned, so what I meant by mixing them up was, surface, I have a good treadmill in my garage so this enabled me to do any runs on there if my body was feeling tired, or if the conditions outside where just bad, or if life just gets in the way and I have kids, they need attention first, so it could be a late evening run…..