Tempo blocks!

Hi there! Few more weeks in this journey towards the Spijkenisse Marathon! While I have been running marathons for years, it is fun to be aware of your own development.

Where 10 years ago, I just ran without a plan - only checking the pace after the marathon. I later learned how to train on heartbeat. In 2024 my focus was on running high volume weeks so that you could run efficiently - intervals were not something I usually did, instead I focussed on single blocks where I tried to run faster as my sole speed work.

The preparation for Spijkenisse is different as I now really aporeaciate interval workouts as an essential part of the training. My knees where I was a little afraight for in the past (which prevented me to do intervals) caused no issue - mostly because I did the intervals right this time (not every interval needs to be a sprint). The benefit of a controlled interval training is that you can do more speedwork without having a high impact on your body (allowing you to recover faster & do another training).

My training today had a focus on speedwork and followed this structure:

• warming up
• 10 min (4:15 - 4:25)
• 3 min walking
• 10 min (4:15 - 4:25)
• 3 min walking
• 10 min. (4:15 - 4:25)
• 2 min (4:00 - 4:10)
• cooling down

Basicly 3x 10 min at marathon pace with a 2 min extra impuls right after the last block.

Starting the cooling down I got well aware that we entered peak weeks. My legs were a little heavy and my heartrate was already elevated from the start. The drive to do a strong session and include the optional 2 min strong pace was still there despite some fatigue. Warming up , while essential (especially since I am turning 38 tomorrow) just doesn’t seem to be where I get my confidence from - as 2 min in the first interval I felt strong again and finished the training with relative ease.

Tomorrow I won’t do much more than a recovery run. On thursday however I got a first dress reheasal planned - which I am really looking forward to!

Happy running!