It was November 2021, one of my Abu Dhabi friends registered for the Paris marathon due to take place on 3 April 2022. With that incentive, me and a few friends also registered. We would have a reunion in Paris. After running London in 2006, I vowed never to run another marathon. It took 16 years but finally I persuaded myself to go again.
What did my training consist of?
I had been back in London for about 2 months. Despite having lived in Whitechapel for 9 years before moving to the UAE, much of my surroundings felt quite new. The weekend in Paris was fantastic, the marathon itself, not so much. That’s another story. However, I loved the training. I was, at the time, in training for a half ironman, to take place in July 2022. For this reason, my marathon training consisted of 3 runs plus swims and bike rides.
If you’re contemplating a first marathon or even half marathon you may dread the idea of running for 2 to 3 hours. I was supposed to run for 4 hours 15 for my longest (I’m a slow runner). However, I came to enjoy my Saturday long run. I explored the canals and rivers of East London, finding places I didn’t know existed. And for the first time since 2014, I saw the seasons change through those runs up the Regent’s canal and the River Lea.
I won’t pretend the runs were easy. I can’t pretend I didn’t procrastinate on a Saturday morning not wanting to get out there in the cold, or worse, rain. However, by this time, I was consistent enough with general endurance training to know that once I started running, I would be fine. I also have a ‘rule’ that if I’m not feeling it, I will run for ten minutes in one direction. If I’m still not feeling it, I will run back towards home. I have only once turned back for home within those first ten minutes and on that occasion, it was the right thing to do.
Back to the training, as I was training for a triathlon my training did not consist of running only. This is, in my view and for me, a good thing. Running has the highest impact on your body of the three sports. Cross training meant I could still train 6 days a week without getting injured.
My typical week consisted of 3 runs, an interval/track session, an endurance run and a long run. I also swam twice a week, cycled to work 3 to 4 times a week with a longer bike ride scheduled for weekends and some type of strength session once a week. My long runs increased in time rather than distance. My longest run was scheduled for 19 February with a duration of 4 hours 15 minutes. Closer to the race, when tapering my runs decreased in time but not intensity.
There’s nothing easy about training to run 26.2 miles but with consistency I believe most people can complete one. For me it was the adventure and discovery that got me through January and February.
Training schedule
When I began to train for Paris, I was already pretty fit. The main goal was to increase my endurance through the long runs. I had an online coach through Training Peaks and she would put an interval session in my schedule weekly plus a shorter endurance run. Occasionally I had a short run off the bike but I mostly ran only 3 times a week.
A typical week went something along the lines of:
Monday: Swim
Tuesday: track session
Wednesday: Swim with group
Thursday: Bike and run
Friday: rest
Saturday: Long run
Sunday: Long bike
I also rode to work 3 times a week most weeks and tried to fit in a short strength session and yoga session in weekly. Looking back at my compliance in Training Peaks I can see I missed more than I remember, often the Sunday longer bike ride but I didn’t miss a long run.
Nutrition and run clothing
There is no doubt you need to be on top of your nutrition for marathon training. This includes food before before and during a long run. However you need to be getting healthy enough calories in your general diet too.
I have no training or qualifications in nutrition so can only write what worked for me and what still works. I have a trail pack, which I bought from Decathlon. It holds a 1 litre water bladder and can also hold two 250ml bottles at the front. There’s plenty of room for gels and I can carry a fold up puffer jacket, hat and gloves. Clothing I now carry if there is any chance I will stop running more than a few minutes’ walk from home.
My longest run of 4 hours 15 minutes was schedules for 19 February 2022. I set off quite excited at the prospect of running further up the river Lea than I had done previously. For the first hour, all went to plan. It then started to rain. For another hour or so I was still enjoying the plod up the river and into territory unknown. At the halfway point I turned around and started making my way home.
After 3 hours of running my body temperature was dropping and despite moving, I was getting pretty cold, not to mention wet. At Hackney Wick, 3 hours 30 mins into my run I had to decide between getting the bus home or running another 40 minutes to get home.
I decided to call it quits. Wet shivering and with my body temperature dropping even though I was running, I had to do something. I went into the nearest café, bought a coffee and peanuts and then went to the bus stop. The coffee worked wonders for a few minutes. The 339 was due a few minutes later.
I stood at the bus stop starting to shake with cold, wet through. My showerproof jacket, pretty useless by this point. Google maps kept saying the bus was further and further away. In the end I waited almost half hour for that bus. I barely stopped shaking until I arrived home and had a hot shower. I would have been better off running home. Since then, I carry warm clothes, just in case.
That was my only especially cold and wet run. The rain didn’t shorten any of my other runs. In retrospect, I assume I had just not consumed enough carbs to keep my body temperature and energy up.
Typically I mix water with training mix (carb and electrolyte powder) for longer runs which gives me a litre of liquid and 77g of carbs. I also try to consume gels every half hour after the first hour. I mostly rely on Maurten (www.maurten.com) and/or Secret training (www.secret-training.com) juice bars, the latter being slightly more solid than a gel. However, I find it quite easy to forget to eat gels. I assume I was carb depleted and in need of energy.
Exploring and cake runs
I loved running through autumn, winter and spring. I enjoyed the feeling of having run places I would otherwise not go. A great thing about running around London, is that places that seem a long way when travelling by tube or bus are in fact not as far as you would think.
This means there is great scope to get out to places I don’t normally visit. Although many of my runs were to Victoria Park and then onwards to Hackney Wick and beyond, I also explored other locations.
On one occasion, I left the canal at Haggerston and stumbled upon a café which sold the most delicious cakes I had tasted in ages. This meant I would stop shorter runs there so I could buy beautiful canelé at the end. Small moist domes stuffed with multiple filings, including peanut butter and jam, caramel and pecan, fruits, nuts and many others.
Two years later and I’m still on the lookout for new coffee places for the end of the run.
