A peak training month in a sub-3 marathon build

Posted on: 24 April 2025

Following the format of my Oxford Half Marathon training series of posts, this is a run-through of an intensive month in a training block for a sub-3 marathon attempt on 27th April 2025. March covered weeks 8 to 13 of a 16-week build.

End of week 8/16: 1st - 2nd March

The first day of March began towards the end of a down week in my training. I’d been to the physio earlier that week and he’d diagnosed me with Posterior Tibial Tendinopathy in my right leg. This was a bit of a blow, to say the least. But I was very fortunate that I could still run with minimal pain, despite my balance and weight-bearing ability on my right side being quite significantly affected.

Spring had finally started to show itself, and I celebrated on the Saturday by completing my 100th Parkrun at my local in Haywards Heath.

I did this as part of a longer workout for the week. 26km total, with 2 blocks of 5k at target goal pace. The first of which was the Parkrun itself, which I completed slightly quick in 20:36. The second was at the end of the run, completed in 21:12. It was a great run, starting in Clair Park and finishing at home. Average pace overall was 4:33/km, with some steadier easy splits in the middle of the run.

I finished the week off with an easy 8km in the afternoon, after spending the morning spectating Brighton Half, and doing a lot of walking. So I ended my deload/recovery week feeling pretty knackered; not quite the intention!

Week 9/16: 3rd - 9th March

The start of 3 big peak weeks, and also race week! I’d had Paddock Wood Half planned in the race diary for months, and this would be my first race since Lancing 10k in November 2024.

Doing my long run on the Saturday previous, rather than the Sunday, meant I had fresher legs than usual for a Monday run. I extended the distance a bit - 12.5km, with some decent elevation (112m). I’d managed to lose my headphones earlier that day so I did my first run in a while without any audio stimulus. It was nice!

I skipped football this week as I didn’t want to aggravate my tendinopathy.

Tuesday I got out for a rare evening run as the sun was setting. I had bags of energy and felt great.

Wednesday was the first session of the week - a 6 x 1600m “strength” workout, from the Hansons Marathon Method book. Hansons prescribe a pace 6s/km quicker than marathon pace for long blocks with minimal recovery. This builds the required strength in the legs needed for the marathon. I found this very manageable, hitting 10s/km quicker than my target pace, and running 18km of volume for the workout in total.

The next day I took in a hillier route and totalled just over 14km. I finished the run on 54km so far for the week, the highest volume I’ve ever hit 4 days into the week. I wasn’t planning to taper for the Half Marathon race on Sunday, but I did want to give the legs a bit of a chance to recover by front-loading my volume earlier in the week.

Friday I took a rest day.

Saturday I went to Wakehurst Parkrun, where I’d planned to get a leisurely few laps, totalling 9km. I ended up getting a bit carried away, and ran it faster that I should’ve (22:24). The hilly route, warm up and cool down meant I climbed 167m of elevation in total, at 4:38/km average pace. I was a little concerned I may end up paying for that the next day.

Race day! I had planned to run a total of 30km total. With hindsight, perhaps a bit ambitious with 21km of race pace in there at the end of a 90km+ week. I decided on 5km pre-race and 4km post-race. I had a specific pace strategy for the race - 8km at marathon pace, 8km at slightly faster, and 5km at the end at whatever I had left. I wasn’t going for a HM PB, but if I could execute well, I thought there might be an outside chance of getting close. It didn’t exactly go to plan.

The 5km warm up felt great. I felt fresh and energised to put in a good effort. However I’d never done such a significant warm up before a race. The race started and the excitement, and Andy racing off ahead, left me clicking off 4:08/km Ks, 7 seconds faster than planned. It’s difficult to make the decision mid-race to slow down, but again with hindsight, this is obviously what I should’ve done.

I felt good for the first half. At 8k I decided to just maintain pace rather than increase, and hopefully push on in the final 5k as planned. It was a warm day, and I began to feel my energy sapping away around the 15km mark. I was still holding a good pace but the effort was noticeably harder. The gel I’d taken was also not sitting well in my stomach and I was feeling pretty nauseous.

At 18km I was starting to feel like I was hanging on. There was no chance of increasing the pace and I could see it beginning to drop slightly. The 2 small hills felt mountainous and my legs were turning to lead. I strongly considered stopping but with the end not far away, I convinced myself to carry on.

Kilometres 19 and 20 were very hard, but I managed to rally in the 21st with all I had left. I crossed the finish line and immediately threw up to the side of the course. I felt exhausted and pretty weak for a few minutes, but I perked up and found Andy. We exchanged accounts and I took on a load of fluids. A combination of heat exhaustion, mild dehydration and a poorly executed race plan. Nevertheless, I ran a respectable 1:27:17, my second fastest Half Marathon. We finished the day with a sedate 2km cooldown, bringing my total volume for the day to 28km.

My ankle was pretty sore at the end of the race and during the cooldown, which left me a little worried heading into another big week.

Week 10/16: 10th - 16th March

Illness and the subsequent recovery in January has meant progress in my build has been delayed, and going into this week I was yet to do a long run over 30km. That was in my head a bit, as I’d planned to hit this milestone weeks earlier. But with 7 weeks of training still to go, time was still on my side.

I took the Monday completely off as the race before had been a big effort in the end, and it had taken a lot out of me. On Tuesday I attempted a double day to get my volume back on track. It was 8k in the morning and 9k in the afternoon. The second run felt better than the first. 17km for the day, and it certainly felt easier breaking it into 2 runs.

Wednesday, my typical workout day, was a daunting session. A 5k progressive tempo followed by 4 x 800m. I hadn’t really done much speed work at all since my recovery from Covid, so the 800s had my feeling a little nervous going into this. The 5k tempo felt smooth though, starting the first K at 4:08/km, and progressing to 3:46/km on the 5th.

The 800s were also progressive, hitting a 3:40/km pace for the first, and 3:30/km pace for the final one. Way faster than my 5k pace! I was really pleased with how the workout felt. I hit 18.3km of total volume for the day.

Thursday was an easy 12.4km. The day before’s effort was still in my legs so I took it steady at 5:00/km pace.

On Friday I was feeling recovered and wanted to get another moderately hard session in for the week, ahead of Sunday’s long run workout. I ran 10k, with 6k at a steady pace. I averaged around 4:25/km for the steady section, 10s/km slower than my marathon pace. It felt really smooth.

Ahead of my first 30km+ long run, I took it very easy on my Saturday run, with 8km round town, at a 5:05/km pace. I wanted to be as fresh as possible for Sunday, whilst still getting the volume in for the week.

Sunday. The big one. 30km planned, with 3 x 4km at marathon pace. I’d never run 30km in training before, only in the only marathon I’ve ever run, 13 years ago. I carb-loaded on the Saturday and set out nice and early at 8am on the Sunday, feeling positive. The plan was 10k easy, 3 x 4km @ marathon pace, with 1k floats. Then a 6km easy cool down.

I didn’t feel great to begin with, but by the time the 10k easy block had finished I was ready to up the pace. The first set was a strong one, averaging 4:15/km pace, right on the money. I could feel during this set the wind was going to make this hard. It was coming from the north, but most of the first set I was travelling south.

The second set came round quick after a brief 1k float, and this time the majority of it was into the wind. I still averaged 4:15/km but it felt like a big effort, much harder than marathon effort. A quick float km with a tailwind preceded the final 4km set. Again, the majority was into the wind. I somehow managed to average 4:13/km for this set, but was absolutely fried by the end.

I started to feel better again after some cool down KMs and some fluids. I ended up doing 31km total, and it felt great to finally hit the 30km milestone, and with 12km at marathon pace under my belt. The total duration of the run was 2h22.

A record volume week, 97km. Next week: the illusive 100km (hopefully).

Week 11/16: 17th - 23rd March

I attempted a recovery run this week on the Monday. 8km very easy. I felt ok to begin with, but halfway through my hamstring got really tight. I slowed the pace down and finished the run. I hadn’t planned to play my regular Monday night football game today but we were short on numbers so I felt obliged to join in. I coupled it with a 1km warm up run to loosen the legs up.

It was a positive test of the ankle, the first time I’d played since my injury. I got away unscathed although felt far from my best. The next day was an unscheduled complete rest day due to fatigue catching up with me. I swore off playing a football session the day after a hard long run for the rest of the training block.

Wednesday I attempted a pyramid workout I’d made up the day before. Another daunting one. 3k at marathon pace, 2k at half marathon pace, 1k between 5k-10k pace, 2k at half marathon pace, 3k at marathon pace. That’s 11km continuous running at marathon pace or harder. It was extremely mentally tough, but I hit pace and felt stronger for it.

Thursday was a medium long run - 14.3km at an easy pace. Sun was out, no pace targets, just active recovery on the country lanes. It felt really nice.

On Friday, to make up for lost volume earlier in the week, I did a double day. A pre-work morning 8km, followed by an early evening 9.5km. Both runs felt heavy, but this is what peak marathon training feels like. I sandwiched a sports massage in between the 2 runs. Probably not the best idea, but it felt worthwhile.

Saturday I had plans for an easy Parkrun. But there’s no such thing really is there? Especially when your fellow-sub-3 hopeful (spoiler: he ran sub-3; well done Andy) runs it with you. We went out easy at least, both felt good, and decided to progress, finishing just faster than marathon pace in the final K. A warm up and cool down jog brought the volume up to 9km for the day at a 4:39/km pace. The effort felt manageable, but I was still crossing my fingers I hadn’t burned too many of tomorrow’s matches early.

Sunday: THE LONG RUN. Again. Sunday has become my customary long run day most weeks. On the docket today was a 32-33km run, with a challenging 1 hour section of over/unders in the middle. 10 x 4 minutes at faster than marathon pace with 2 minute floats at a steady pace.

I drove out to a local run spot - the Downslink Path. Free of traffic and some nice, compacted, flat paths for running. I did this long run in super shoes for the first time. I wanted the extra performance boost of them and also wanted to test them on a sizeable run to see if they’d hold up to the marathon distance.

The first 45 minutes was a speedy one. What was meant to be an easy pace ended up pushing 4:35/km. But I felt strong. I entered into the quality section with some confidence, however the first 2 reps felt harder than expected. Getting up to and holding pace for 4 minutes was tricky. After the first 2 though, I started to get in the groove. I later realised the first 2 reps were uphill, which added to the effort. The remaining 8 were all flat.

I could feel the fatigue building in my legs in the last couple of reps, and in all honesty, the cool down 9km ended up being just as challenging as the speed section. I ended up cutting the run at 32.8km so I could have a very slow final walk to the car.

My whole body was very tight towards the end of the run, but after stopping and stretching, I felt much better again. I took on some fluids, protein & carbs before driving home. All in all, a very successful long run workout, averaging 4:30/km pace - 15s slower than marathon pace - for 77% of the marathon distance.

Week 12/16: 24th - 30th March

I was feeling OK post-long on the Monday this week, so I decided on an easy double to kick the recovery week off well. A good sign the body is adapting to the increased load. I was also going away for work for the next two days and wouldn’t have a chance to run. I got 15k in over 2 runs, and felt pretty good.

On my return, I launched back in with a big Hansons strength session on Thursday - 3 x 3.2km. I was pleased with how this felt. I threw in some 100m strides at the end of the workout too. I averaged 4:05, 4:04 and 4:02/km pace for the 3 blocks. It felt pretty cruisy, despite being 10s quicker than marathon pace.

Friday was a decent length easy run - 14km in the sunshine. A good amount of elevation - 130m with an average heart rate of 138. I wanted to keep my body fairly fresh for a decent 5k time trial at Parkrun on the Saturday.

Andy was in the penultimate week of his taper so had some fresh legs to give a 5k effort a good go. And I was feeling reasonably good being in a recovery week and having only run on 3 of 5 days this week. I’d run my current PB - 18:04 right at the start of this training block and didn’t really know how close I was to that fitness-wise. I was aiming to get near to my PB.

We ended up both running PBs on a glorious Spring morning on Hove prom. We also both broke 18 minutes for the first time, finishing in 17:58 (Andy) and 17:59 (me). It was a really strong effort and I was very pleased to realise some fitness gains from this training block. One dampener was a tight calf immediately after the run.

The calf discomfort fortunately calmed down enough for me to attempt a long slow run on the Sunday - 30km with no pace targets. I added in some elevation for variety and ended up running for 2h 33m - my longest time-on-feet run of the block. It was a really nice run, and although I got some fatigue from yesterday’s effort in the final third, I felt strong. I did however get some calf discomfort towards the end of the run so ended the week a little concerned for the following peak week.

Start of week 13/16 - 31st March

I decided not to run on Monday but was roped into 5-a-side in the evening. This ended up being a good calf tester and I passed - no pain. Phew. I snuck in a 2k around the local recreation ground with my son in the afternoon. It was Easter holidays and I was feeling guilty for not taking him to Junior Parkrun for a while.

And that brought to an end the month of March. My highest volume month ever - 416km. 3 peak volume weeks and a recovery week. I hit my first 100km week and secured a new 5k PB! Let's see what I'm able to do with a decent marathon block under my belt. Manchester Marathon is on Sunday 27th April.