On Monday September 4th I started officially my training for the marathon in Amsterdam.
The marathon will take place on Sunday October 15th.
As the title already gives away, my target time is 3 hours and 20 minutes…
For the moment my official marathon PR stands at 3:40:10 which I ran at the Ghent marathon on March 26th 2023.
So I’m trying to improve my PR with about 20 minutes…
My training will be 6 weeks in total, let’s hope it will be enough time to prepare myself!
Every week I will share a blog post about my run, strength&conditioning and bike sessions.
Monday
The first day of the week is almost always an easy/recovery day to recover from my long run on Sunday.
The Sunday before I did a trail marathon.
My run felt good, but the body was still a bit fatigued but that was normal.
Tuesday
The run was split into 2 parts because running 20K is very time consuming.
In the morning I did a run workout session:
2K warm-up
6K @ marathon pace
2k cool-down
In the early afternoon I did my first Strength&Conditioning session, I’m still building up, keeping the time low for the moment to avoid any issues with my running activities!
5 x 8 push-ups (30sec rest)
3 x 8 BB squat – bar only (30sec rest)
2 x 8 BB squat – bar + 10kg (30sec rest)
3 x 8 isolation DB overhead press 6kg (30sec rest)
In the late afternoon still needed to complete a 10K in very warm temperatures.
As you can see in the image, I was cooked…
The run was at a bit of a recovery pace instead of my normal easy pace.
Wednesday
On the schedule today in total 15K.
As you can see, early in the morning did already 11K at my easy pace.
The heart rate also stayed pretty low, due to the temperatures being a bit more enjoyable!
In the late afternoon had a first Zwift bike session in ages!
decided to start with a (short) FTP test to see where my current fitness is.
The result was 215w, but I don’t know if that is good or bad since I never did an FTP test before.
In the early evening went for a run with my girlfriend Cindy!
She would like to start running again and asked my help.
The paces are really slow, but everybody got to start from the beginning, so I’m supporting her!
Thursday
Total volume of the day 20,5Km.
As you can see I’ve splitted up the run again to not loose too much time in the morning.
Downside is that I needed to do my remaining 8Km under a warm sunshine.
As you can see the difference between both runs, the morning run I can get a better pace than in the evenings, this is all related to the difference in temperatures and my heart rate!
I always try to keep my easy runs in zone 2 (max 153 bpm).
Friday
On Friday I usually have a little bit less volume to let my body recover a bit to be ready for the higher volume during the weekend.
This run was done in the early morning at a bit of a higher pace, but the HR was very good!
During lunch I had my second Strength&Conditioning session with the following exercises:
3 x 10 DB side raise – iso 6kg (30sec rest)
3 x 10 DB curl – iso 6kg (30sec rest)
5 x 15 BB chest press – bar + 10kg (30sec rest)
5 x 5 push-ups (30sec rest)
Saturday
On the schedule was a 20K, but I noticed previously in Strava that I was a little bit above target, so I could do a little Km less!
This run was also very difficult as my lower body was pretty tired and it was very warm.
Sunday
The final run to finish off the week!
had a 25K run to complete and decided to do it a bit earlier than Saturday and since I had a good nights rest I picked up the pace to get as close as possible to my marathon target pace for Amsterdam, which is 4:45min/km!
As you can see, I got close.
The run felt pretty good, I could have gone a bit faster if I would have a carbon plated shoe on instead of the Asics Novablast 3’s but still I’m not complaining.
Will be glad when the temperatures will be a bit lower again.
Lately it has been 30 degrees, on one side that’s good to increase your endurance, but on the other side it’s way more difficult to go for a run!
Summary
In total I completed 120K for the week, which is my target distance.
I spent in total 10h54min on my feet!
Elevation was in total 913 meters, which is way too much if you ask me, since I’m training for a road marathon, not a trail!
The main problem that I got is that in the area where I live, there are a lot of hills and especially “false flat” roads, oh that’s a pain in the ass!
That’s all the information I have to share about my first week of training for project 3:20!
If you have any questions or remarks, drop a comment down below or send me a DM on instagram!
