Training Tales

Category: London Marathon 2025

  • The Big 3-0. My Longest Ever Run!

    The Big 3-0. My Longest Ever Run!

    Sunday 9 February 2025

    Week 5, Day 7: 30km Long Run

    My longest ever run and the first time I’ve ever run into the thirties! Crazy!

    Today’s word-of-the-day was ‘easy‘. Given my right knee has been giving me some grief, and we had XC yesterday, Jo was very strict. “Keep it easy, Very easy.”

    This one scared me a bit. 30km. That’s like, 2 ½ hours of running. I’ve never ran that far or for that long. And I would be on my own with no one to chat to and only Steve Magness and Rich Roll to keep me company.

    I headed out.

    Almost immediately I stopped.

    Brainwave! I’ve never used the alerting system on my watch, but I quickly programmed in a ‘too fast’ alert so my watch would beep if I went faster than 4:50/km pace. I also added a ‘too slow’ alert for paces slower than 5:00/km. I quickly turned this one off to stop the almost continuous beeping. This proved to be a pretty successful strategy actually. It meant I didn’t need to endlessly fixate on my watch to check I wasn’t accidentally speeding up, which is what often tends to happen, but was getting a constant reminder if I did speed up. And the beeping noticeably stopped. At first it was really annoying, beeping every 100m or so, but after I settled into it, my watch beeped far less often.

    The route I’d planned pretty much went to pot in the first 10 minutes, when I decided I fancied running down Badgeworth Lane. One of the nice things about running so far is that you can make it up on the fly, and know you’ve got 20km to play with to get back home. Nearer the end you need to be a little more on it, of course. I didn’t think Rob would come and pick me up from Bishop’s Cleeve if I got my distances wrong. But it’s really quite freeing just having nowhere particular to go for the next 2 ½ hours. Except for running back past your house of course – I try to avoid that.

    30km Long Run

    The run went pretty well overall.

    Pacing, good.

    Route, good.

    Fuelling, good.

    Knee? Not so good. It started hurting a little from about 8km, but didn’t really get any worse until just towards the end. I’m trying to remain calm and not worry, but my worry level has probably increased from about 2 to 4. Tomorrow is a rest day so I will rest hard, perhaps even forgoing our morning walk. I stretched, rolled and massage-gunned my ass off when I got in and will try to do some more later. I’ve also booked in for a sports massage at Pentons tomorrow, to loosen anything up which might be causing a bit of tension or stress. Let’s wait and see.

    So all in all, knee excluded, another good run. I’m really chuffed with how ‘easy’ I found 30km. Yes it was long. But it was doable and I got it done.

    Fuelling Notes

    Pre Run

    As it’s important to practise practise practise, I’ve decided I should be having my pre-race breakfast before my long runs. I know my stomach behaves differently on race day when I get nervous, but the more I can create patterns to simply repeat on race day, the better. I had a bagel topped with peanut butter and banana about 75-90 minutes before I started running.

    During Run

    Gels gels gels. Today I had three:

    I should have had something more at 2h 20m, and I was carrying some Veloforte Lemon & Mint chews, but I just didn’t really want to open them. And as the pace was easy, I decided it was probably ok for the last 10 minutes.

    Interestingly, I was ‘hungry’ on the run. The gels were fuelling me but my stomach felt empty and like it needed some real food. I’d woken up hungry but didn’t want to overeat and feel sick on my run, so I probably needed a little more food yesterday post race / pre long run. A good learning for next time.

    Post Run

    When I got in, Rob had finished off the milk! So I headed to the co-op for more and made myself milky coffee. Jo’s advice of ‘cows, chickens and carbs’ was ringing in my head but what I really wanted was cheesy beans on toast. I don’t think this is a bad re-fuelling decision, given half a can of baked beans has 10g of protein vs. 2-eggs’ 12-15g, so went with what I fancied and really, really enjoyed it.

    For that little bit more protein, and given the beans over eggs previous decision, I finished with some yoghurt with stewed apple, raspberries and pecan nuts, another recent favourite.

    Despite a good re-fuel, I know I’ll feel like a bottomless pit the rest of the afternoon. I always do after a long run! We are going out for a Harriers’ ladies meal to celebrate the end of the Midlands XC league tonight, so I hope we have some crumpets in for a tasty mid-afternoon snack.

  • Midlands XC Race 4 – 11th and no DQ this time!

    Midlands XC Race 4 – 11th and no DQ this time!

    Saturday 8 February 2025

    Week 5, Day 6: Midlands XC

    It’s race day! Bring it on!

    This one was a little touch and go, given my knee has been giving me some issues the past day or two. But it was the final match of the series and the first one where we have been racing at the same venue at the Harriers’ Men. I wanted to go and support the team and see Rob race, so I decided I should pack my kit, see how my knee was and decide when I got there.

    It was fun racing as a team. Kaighan had sorted a mini bus (“executive coach”) so there was a good team atmosphere right from the start.

    My knee felt ok on my warm up, so I decided to race, with the aim of keeping it a little ‘within myself’ meaning  “don’t run so hard, Nicole!”

    Start Fast

    The race started uphill then the course narrowed so a good, fast start was key. Given ‘good starts’ are not a strength of mine, maybe today it would go to plan? Erm.. no. Al recorded the start and with a bit of manual counting and some guesswork as to whether there were two legs or four, my guess is that I was in about 26-30th position when the course narrowed.

    Work Through The Field

    My plan to ‘run within myself’ didn’t really go to plan. It turns out that’s really hard to do on an undulating XC course. In typical Nicole style, I worked through the girls from my slow start. On the first bend I probably jumped up about 5 places, taking it wide. There was then a nice out-and-back-dog-leg where I gained a few more places. The course had changed a bit from the last time I raced here so I was a little surprised when we did a lap of a field I wasn’t expecting. But I didn’t get lost or go wrong this time! Yay!

    I overtook the odd person here and there, and was pleasantly surprised when someone shouted “you’re in 14th” to someone not that far behind me. I didn’t know how many people were between us but I guessed this put me somewhere in 10th-12th ish.

    Finish Strong

    As with the start, this part of my race didn’t really go to plan. I don’t have the best finish-line-kick at the best of times, but this one was uphill up the same field we started in. I had overtaken the girl ahead of me twice in the final kilometre or so, but she outkicked me on the final run in. Just before the line another girl steamed past me and I couldn’t cling on. So sadly, I lost two places in the final sprint to finish, happily, in a very good 11th.

    After I finished racing, I headed back to the final straight to cheer in the rest of the girls. They had some great runs too, and this was our biggest team at a Midlands XC match, which I consider a big success for the team.

    A Great Team Day Out

    We came 16th team on the day, finishing 13th overall in the league. Luckily, my DQ at the last match had no bearing at all on our overall position, as the team in 12th were more than 100 points ahead and me counting would not have made up that difference.

    Next up were the boys. Some thought they were up for potential relegation, but I had faith that though we might not have anyone in the top 10, we have real strength in the depth of the men’s team. Rob, Harrison, Al, Matt, Cameron and Andy put in some brilliant performances and especially some insane sprint finishes to fight for every point. We’re still waiting on the results, but think they won’t be relegated.

    After all that racing fun, it was back on the party bus to head home for a shower, PJs and a relaxing evening in front of the TV.

  • Go Slower, Keep It Easy

    Wednesday 5 January

    Week 5, Day 3: 60′ Easy

    Keep it easy.

    Slow it down.

    Even more.

    Seriously Nicole, stop running so fast!

    Easy runs are really important to let your body clock up the miles and build aerobic capacity and volume, whilst avoiding training overload by always running too hard to too fast.

    One of the biggest ‘challenges’ of marathon training so far, has been keeping my easy runs ‘easy enough’. Last Wednesday my legs felt pretty good after Tuesday’s session, and I averaged ~ 4:40/km for my ‘easy’ run. Too fast!

    The theme of last week’s feedback on Training Peaks was ‘slow it down’ and today, I really tried.

    Luckily, my legs were spent. I decided to get up and run first thing, therefore not having much rest, in real terms, between finishing the session and starting my run. This helped me to keep it easy.

    I think I almost passed, though Jo probably would have liked it to be slower still. Unfortunately, my decision to run first thing, and Jo’s WhatsApp messages to make sure I kept it ‘REALLY REALLY EASY’ (which was in capitals) crossed paths and so I didn’t pick her messaged up until I got back home. Luckily I was too busy keeping it easy* to see them.

    *Keeping it easy and finishing my bi-annual re-listen of Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter. Oh how a good audio book can keep you going for miles upon miles upon miles. Until next time!

  • Bondarenko, Bondarenka

    Bondarenko, Bondarenka

    Tuesday 4 February

    Week 5, Day 2: 3 / 2 / 1 Bondarenkos

    Let’s get the most important things out of the way first.

    Every time you read the word ‘Bondarenko’, please sing it to the tune of the chorus ‘Bamboléo’. It will cheer you right up.

    This is a hard session. It’s definitely a session where you really feel like it’s doing you good and ‘adding to the bank of mental toughness’, which can be withdrawn during future difficult sessions, long runs or most importantly, on race day.

    What is a Bondarenko?

    The basic set goes like this:

    400m @ 5k pace
    400m @ 5k pace + 20-25s / lap

    300m @ 5k pace
    300m @ 5k pace + 20-25s / lap

    200m @ 5k pace
    200m @ 5k pace + 20-25s / lap

    100m @ 5k pace
    100m @ 5k pace + 20-25s / lap

    So, for example, if you run an 80 second lap, your times would looks something like this:

    400m in 1m 20s
    400m in 1m 40-45s

    300m in 60s
    300m in 75s

    200m in 40s
    200m in 50s

    100m in 20s
    100m in 25s

    Then you repeat the whole thing 3 times, 2 times, 1 time with [3-4 minutes] rest between sets.

    In ‘real money’, it means you run continuously for long periods of time with no real break between them. The rests are ‘floats’, so they are slower but are not a recovery jog.

    The objective of a Bondarenko session is to break you practise changes of pace, develop your lactate shuttle and build speed endurance. The theory goes that by running just above and below your lactate threshold, you become more efficient at processing the lactate and maintaining steady state.

    A secondary benefit of the Bondarenko is mental toughness. Going from the 100m fast, straight into 100m float then back up to a 400m effort is really hard. It’s a tough session and is not for the feint hearted*.

    *If you want to make the session easier, as no one should start with the full set, other shorter options of 2/2/1, 3/2 or 2/1 sets are available.

    Track Tuesdays

    But what a great session!

    The last time Bondarenkos were on the menu, I named my Strava, and I quote, “Bondarenkos aka hardest session I think I’ve ever done”.

    Well today, they were not the hardest session I’ve ever done. The 3 x (3 x1 km) session a couple of weeks ago takes top spot.

    Don’t get me wrong, it was not easy. I was very grateful to be running with Stew, Rob and especially Gio who helped with the changes of pace. But the paces were strong, the floats were strong – possibly a fraction quick – and we finished the final set not much slower than we started.

    Another great session – in the bank.

    Fuelling Tips

    Pre Training

    This is a big session. Up to 12 km of hard running. Add in a warm up and cool down and I clocked nearly 18 km.

    Eat a carb-heavy breakfast, lunch and mid afternoon snack.

    Breakfast: I am obsessed with chia and flaxseed porridge at the moment, topped with partly-defrosted frozen raspberries or blackberries and peanut butter. It is insane.

    Lunch: Cheesy beans on toast – also a recent obsession.

    Mid Afternoon Snack (about 2 hours before training): I made a batch of these oaty-banana bars which I keep in the freezer. Defrost in the microwave, drizzle with peanut butter and you are good to go.

    Post Training

    It was late when I got back, but re-fuelling is critical.

    Dinner: Quorn spaghetti bolognaise and a chocolate protein hot chocolate with oat milk.

  • Pre-XC Easy Miles

    Pre-XC Easy Miles

    Friday 10 January 2025

    Week 1, Day 5: 30′ Easy

    Just an easy 30 minutes on the plan today before the XC tomorrow.

    I was also off work today, so headed to the gym first to do some light weights with more of a core / arm focus. Unfortunately, it ended up being surprisingly tiring and so the easy run did feel harder than I would have liked. I told myself to just step back off the pace a little and focus on enjoying the surroundings. As I started at the gym, 30 minutes gave me enough time to do a lap around Pittville Park, which was just stunning in the frosty wintery landscape.

  • Running Jo Fartlek

    Thursday 9 January 2025

    Week 1, Day 4: Running Jo Fartlek

    Tonight’s session was a ‘Running Jo Fartlek’ which is 6 x (2m 30s on, 2m 30s float).

    I’ve done this before and (no offence Jo, as I know it’s a favourite of yours), find it tough. I’m trying to establish a new, athlete-led (ie. not coached) session for the Cheltenham Harriers on a Thursday evening.

    I think a lot of the runners would benefit from a second session, but also selfishly, to give me more people to train with as solo reps are just not the one. So far (we’re only two weeks in…) this has been going well and there has been a small group of us turn up each week. Unfortunately, it does take far more time as I would previously warm up from the front door whereas now we meet at the track, which is too far for me to run.

    The weather has been so cold, so I just couldn’t face getting all my cycling gear on to freeze to death on the way over, lock my bike up, sort kit etc etc… As the session was a little nearer home, I decided to jog over, so did a longer warm up than I would usually do.

    The session itself went ok. Ok, but not great. I don’t know if it was GPS error, or the cold, or the longer warm up, or general fatigue, or me just not trying hard enough, but I couldn’t hit the target times Jo had set for me (~3:35/km for the efforts, 4:15/km for the floats). I felt like I was running hard enough (RPE 6-7 for the efforts, RPE 5 for the floats) but I’d look down at my watch and it would say 3:55-4:00/km. Maybe today just was not my day.

    Regardless, it’s another session ticked off and some more hard running banked.

    It’s very easy to think ‘oh, that wasn’t a perfect session so it’s worthless’ when you’ve got out, banked some miles and ‘ran hard for a bit’. And I do believe that no one session makes a difference. It’s getting out there, day after day, session after session, which is what makes the difference.

  • Hello Mid-Week Long(er) Runs

    Wednesday 8 January 2025

    Week 1, Day 3: 60′ Easy

    Since I told my Coach that I had entered London, the main thing that seems to have changed in my training is my Wednesday run. This has increased from 45 minutes to 60 minutes, and I’m sure will increase further as we head towards the sharp end of things.

    Unlike some people, I cannot ‘see’ what’s coming. I use Training Peaks for my training, but Jo only makes the next 3-4 weeks visible for me. Whether she does this for everyone, I don’t know. But for me, it works.

    I don’t really like knowing training sessions in advance. It freaks me out. I’m used to it now I’ve run with the Harriers for three years, but at Southampton AC, we would never know what was in store. We’d turn up on a Tuesday evening and find out. It suited me and so does this.

    On the plan today was a 60 minute easy run. Usually, I’d want to do this before work. It gets it done. And by this, I don’t mean it gets it out of the way. I mean I have prioritised it before the daily stresses or worries of work take over and any lunchtime runs I might be planning fall by the wayside. However, it’s really dark and freezing cold at the moment, so I did do this at lunchtime to get some sunlight and fresh air.

    I got out 20 minutes later than planned as I was putting off going out into the cold, but I did really enjoyed it once I got out the door. My legs felt tired at home after last night’s session. I wasn’t doing so well on Rob and my self-defined ‘fatigue test’. This measures your fatigue based on how ‘spritely’ you can get up the stairs. As we have a loft conversion and so have two steep-ish stair cases to tackle, it’s not unknown to be crawling by the time you get to the top.

    My legs felt tired on the fatigue test (to be expected), but fine on the run. In fact, pretty fresh. I am really struggling to slow down my easy runs though. They feel easy, but I think they are too fast, averaging around 4:30-4:40/km. I think they need to be more like 4:45-5:00/km. Maybe I’ll slow down naturally as the miles build. Maybe I’ll have to constantly consiously slow myself down.

    I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

    Given Monday’s are now strictly for rest, I headed to the gym this evening.

    Hmm. Not my best.

    To be honest, I flapped around a bit. I didn’t really know what to do, and I’m not great at the gym at the best of times, though I know it’s important. I’d seen a video from Eilish McColgan earlier in the week with some good exercises for runners, so I worked through them and did some leg press as prescribed by the Physio. The exercises consisted mostly of cable work, which actually was really good and it felt quite hard. But it wasn’t my best, or most focused session, and all things considered, probably wasn’t a particularly effective use of my time.

  • Track Tuesdays are Back

    Track Tuesdays are Back

    Tuesday 7 January 2025

    Week 1, Day 2: Cheltenham Harriers’ Session

    Right, to work. None of this rest-business.

    It’s the first Tuesday of the New Year which means, drum roll please, Cheltenham Harriers’ Track Tuesday is back!

    It was freezing!*

    *Though not quite cold enough to freeze my car shut with my bike in it, which happened last week as we headed out to training, and which was the reason for yesterday’s bike-shed-measuring-exercise.

    So it was pretty tough to leave the relative warmth of the house and cycle off into the dark.

    But it was lovely to see everyone again. Jo was there, in her four coats and Michelin-man puffy trousers, telling us shivering runners how she was ‘too hot’. Lucky her.

    The session was a good one, a sort of k-reps / 200m-reps sandwich.

    3 x 1 km [90 seconds] @ 5-10k pace
    2 x (5 x 200 m [60 seconds] @ 3-5k pace
    3 x 1 km [90 seconds] @ 5-10k pace
    With [3 minutes] between sets

    The track, especially on the 200m bend, was icy-as-hell, though.

    I got myself in a great group for the first kilometre reps, working with Harrison, Stew and a new guy, Dom, who had just moved to Cheltenham a few weeks ago.

    We knocked them out, clocking 3:33, 3:30, 3:30. The 200s were faster (37-38s) and then we finished with another consistent set of kms in 3:29, 3:30, 3:31.

    Unfortunately, Stew and Harrison mis-read the session, and only did one set of 200s, but Dom kindly stuck with me and did the second set. We worked well together, me leading, him pushing me on, with him giving me a stop-start background to his move to Cheltenham during the recoveries.

    I really, really enjoyed this session, despite the cold. So Day 2 of marathon training was a good one too, it turns out.

  • The Marathon Journey Begins

    The Marathon Journey Begins

    Monday 6 January 2025

    Week 1, Day 1: Rest Day

    The first ‘official’ day of marathon training.

    It’s here.

    Another big, scary gulp.

    Fortunately for me, Monday is my rest day so actually, Day 1 also turned out to be pretty straightforward. I don’t know what everyone is complaining about, this marathon ‘thing’ is easy!

    Usually on a Monday, mainly because I have some extra time (which I now realise is because it’s a rest day), I go to the gym. However, yesterday’s non-official-marathon-training-but-feels-quite-like-marathon-training-long-run had been a 26 km Mixed Pace Long Run:

    1 km Warm Up

    4 x
    (3 km Steady (4:40-5:00/km)
    2 km @ Marathon Pace (4:00-4:10/km)
    1 km @ Threshold Pace (3:45/km))

    1 km Cool Down

     So my legs were pretty battered and needed a proper rest. I have also decided that, as rest is really important, during marathon training a rest day is a rest day is a rest day.

    I’m actually pretty bad at rest days. Rather than revelling in a night lying on the sofa, catching up on the Traitors, I get fidgety and go to the gym (which includes 20-30 mins of cycling there and back), or go for a long walk or something equally ‘unrestful’.

    Rob often says that rather than having a daily step goal, we should have a daily step maximum, we do so much.

    But today, rest I did.

    Instead of running, Rob and I had a ‘fun’-filled evening consisting of ‘renewing the mortgage’. Tell me more, I hear you shout. If that doesn’t sound fun enough, we then froze our butts off measuring our drive in the dark so we could order an Asguard Bike Shed before their 10% off New Year Sale offer ended tomorrow. Cue a lot of associated panic about whether our bikes would fit (me) and which side the hinges should be on (also me). I know, we really know how to party on a rest day.

  • New Year’s Day parkrun, Tetbury Good Shed

    New Year’s Day parkrun, Tetbury Good Shed

    Wednesday 1 January 2025

    In my head, Marathon Training officially begins today.

    Why? Maybe because we’re now in the right year, 2025. Maybe because there’s lots of ‘Training for a Spring Marathon?’ content popping up all over my Instagram.

    I shared this with Jo on Training Peaks and was promptly informed marathon training officially starts on Monday (6 January), 16 weeks out.

    In which case, I’ll put my feet up for a few days…*


    *My partner, Rob has just read this for the first time, laughed and shouted , “Put your feet up? That’s not true!” I wrote this in a sarcastic tone, but apparently that didn’t come across on the page. So in case you weren’t sure, this was completely sarcastic. I have a double pyramid session tomorrow and a 26km Mixed Pace Long Run to do on Sunday, despite ‘not’ yet Marathon Training…