PROJEKT LONDON & STOCKHOLM

TRAINING UPDATE

I am currently still waiting to start my marathon specific program for London and Stockholm. I will start on Monday 4th February, the day after the Dewsbury 10k. The program will start with an 8km recovery run, with the first week totalling 100km. My goal for London Marathon is to PB, to go sub 2:52:22. It is way too far away to predict times, but I am really looking forward to giving this a solid effort. I was very lucky and fortunate to win a raffle prize on Facebook through my running club, The Lonely Goat RC. I am super excited to be representing them and hope I can do them proud! Joining this club has given me an extra boost of motivation I never thought I had. I am just as excited to see some of them there at the race too!

I currently feel my body is at an okay level to sustain and handle a high amount of volume, as I’ve just come off racing a half marathon, where my weekly training was between the 70-100km range. I managed to PB in the Brass Monkey Half Marathon with a time of 1:17:02 whilst racing in 22mph winds. Something I was delighted with as I hadn’t had a PB in over a year! And not had a half marathon PB in 2 years.

The two major differences between my current training plan and training for the marathon will be a total drop of all top end speed work, to increase my volume of longer runs. This is good logic, as the marathon is 99% aerobic. There will still be intervals within my plan, but nothing quicker than 10k pace. All my S&C work will be geared towards recovery, flexibility, core strength and muscle activation. The subject of S&C for marathon training seems like a post for another day…

My London specific program is 11 weeks long. The 11 weeks are broken down into the following phases:

Week 1-4 – Endurance and Lactate Threshold Work

Weeks 5-9 – Race Preparation

Weeks 10 and 11 – Taper weeks

Stockholm Marathon will then take place 5 weeks after. I will run through the program for that after the completion of London. But most of it is recovery and endurance work, simply trying to stay aerobically fit and well to race again!

Keep your eyes peeled for weekly updates of training and feel free to fire away any questions you may have or if you wish me to cover anything specific.