About Valencia 2020!
The last few days I have been getting some sort of feeling of déjà vu… A real running motivation feeling. I definitely had a similar one when I started training for London in 2016 and ended up running the perfect race (even splits) and the most recent marathon training experience in Valencia 2018.
2019 I didn’t train at all and allowed the body and mind to heal. I don’t know if that had any positive effect on my running but I felt I had to stop for a few months, and, the way I see running, when the body and mind naturally gravitate towards something, I do think it’s for a reason, so I listen. It’s no surprise that when I started feeling like ramping up mileage and thinking about how I would structure my next marathon plan, I felt extremely excited.
Obviously at this point, and I seem to remember very similarly to what I wrote a couple of years ago around this same time when starting to train for Valencia, I don’t know what is going to happen.
I don’t know if my training is going to go well, I don’t know if my body will hold, I don’t what will happen the weeks before the race, and I definitely don’t know how race day will go, or if (at the time of writing this) the race will go at all. But that’s not the point.
I also seem to remember making this point before, one can’t start preparing a marathon (as I think they should be prepared) if they have doubts. One needs to feel convinced of what they’re doing and get into it believing they can do it. And by being convinced about one’s possibilities I don’t mean lying to yourself about what you can realistically achieve.
It’s really not about wishing it hard enough so it will happen type thing, it’s more about knowing what you’re capable of, and committing to it. I hope people reading this don’t interpret my words as “you can run sub 2 if you believe you can”. This is not the matrix (I think).
Back to what I was saying. I know what I want to do, I know what I can do, I am committed and I am motivated. I also think I know how to get there which is quite important. My only uncertainties will be my ability to recover well enough between runs and sessions for, what I believe, will be required to achieve my target.
Now, let’s get into the thick of it. My target is to go sub 2h30m. Ambitious? I don’t know. Let’s look at some technical figures first…
- Sub 2h30m is a minimum of 3:33/km or 5:43/mile. That pace (it pains me to be so obvious) has to be held for 2 hours and 29 long minutes.
- About 85% of a marathon is ran between 78%HRR and 90%HRR. That’s roughly 130 minutes. 2 hours and 10 minutes. Once I’m the last 20 minutes I know I will finish and it’s ok for the heart rate to spiral out of control since I’m then using up everything I’ve got left to finish.
- The first 10–15 minutes of the race the heart rate is low and working it’s way up. That leaves me with the need to run for 2 hours between 80%-90%HRR.
So from a CARDIOVASCULAR point of view I need to work on:
- Improving the pace I can maintain at that intensity. So, better speed at same effort.
- Extending the periods of time I can run at that intensity before spiking up the heart rate and running into oxygen deficit (Anaerobic Threshold). Run at the pace for longer.
Unfortunately there’s some more areas of work required. At a SKELETOMUSCULAR level I need to be able to withstand the physical demands of both time and pace. That means stronger and more resistant muscles, tendons and joints. From previous experience my main weakness in this area is my quads. They tend to turn into blocks of concrete in the final kms. Even in Valencia, when I was able to maintain pace and get a quick final km, my quads took a real battering and could’ve given me something extra.
My shoulders and neck have also suffered in the past when getting tired and forcing the form. Being strong enough to hold a good running technique is paramount. A good running form will help manage waste and inefficiencies elsewhere in the body. Good posture = less stress on glutes, hamstrings, etc.
The work required here is strength. A lot of it. Mainly quads and hamstrings from hills and specific work (squats, wall sits, etc.) but inevitably some upper body strength work will also be required.
Another area of work to consider is the ENERGY AND HYDRATION MANAGEMENT. This is one of my strong points actually. It doesn’t mean I don’t need to work on it but it’s the one I’m least concerned about. I have a tendency to push the body in training in that area and I train it (within safety levels) to become more efficient when running on low glycogen reserves.
And the final aspect will be the MENTAL STRENGTH. Also one of my strongest areas but not to be undermined or neglected. I will still need to work on it and put myself in mentally tough situations.
All of the above points can be worked on but there are some limiters too. When working on all of these points the body and mind are under a lot of stress. The body, however, needs to recover well in order to assimilate the work, so the rate at which I can assimilate the work will be very important.
Fast times require volume and there’s no break from volume. You have to run a lot. So I need to be very smart in the way I introduce some of the key sessions and still manage to hold high volume.
Sensible training would dictate the runner should to get used to the mileage first, then introduce workouts. It would also dictate the runner should work on predominantly distinct areas of training at different times so to use the benefits of one to work on the others, etc.
A clear example would be to work on strength and get good mileage before trying to put in fast, long workout sessions. Use that strength to push the length of the workout.
Even with that in mind, this will continue to be my biggest challenge, finding the right balance between not breaking down and doing enough to get to that level of fitness by December.
At the moment I’m still running 90% on treadmill and will continue to do so for another 10–14 days. I’m in the process of getting the mileage up to 120–130km per week, but I know that before I even start proper targeted training I will need another 2 weeks of outdoor running to adapt to the muscular stress from treadmill to roads. Those couple of weeks I will lower mileage slightly.
After that it’s 18 weeks of about 126km per week average (ranging from 111km up to 160km).
I’ll finish with this… I really don’t know if I’ll get my sub2.30 but I do have the capability, desire, motivation and support around me so I’ll give it a bloody good go!
