One Tough London Marathon Training Week
There are weeks in marathon training when everything clicks. And then there are weeks like this one — when everything clicks, you hit your targets, and your body very politely tells you it has had quite enough, thank you.
This was one of those weeks. The road to London has been a hard one this week. Six days of hard training, culminating in a 2-hour 50-minute long run. Goal achieved. Box ticked. And according to the plan, I am now sitting three weeks ahead of where I was at this equivalent point in my New York Marathon build. By any measure, that is a good place to be with six weeks to go to London.
But I am feeling the fatigue. Properly. And I have learned enough over the past couple of years to know that this is not the moment to push through it regardless.
Listening To The Experts
I have been working with the team at Coach Parry, and after an honest conversation about how I’m feeling — the tiredness, the disrupted sleep, the general heaviness in the legs — their advice was unambiguous: take an easy week. Let the body consolidate. Do not add more stress to a system that is already doing significant work. The key indicator for them was sleep quality, and mine has not been where it needs to be. Until it improves, the smart play is to back off the load.
This is not the easy decision when you have a countdown clock running in your head and a startline you can almost see in your mind’s eye. But it is the right one. Adaptation happens during recovery, not during the session itself. The hard week only becomes useful if I absorb it properly. The road to London is a long, tough one and I need to be sensible.
I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to all the team at Coach Parry. They get what a 50-plus runner has to do to finish a marathon; they’ve seen the movie before and know what to tweak and when. I’m simply a happy customer; I get no incentive from them. I would say that without their advice and expertise, I wouldn’t have completed New York, and I wouldn’t be where I am now in my London prep.
Runners Knee: Addressing It Head On
The other significant story of this week has been my left knee. Runners knee — patellofemoral pain, in clinical terms — has been nagging, and I have been working with Guy Gold, my osteopath, to get on top of it properly rather than just managing it session to session.
Guy has given me a rolling regime to address the tissue quality around the knee and, crucially, specific work to strengthen the VMO — the vastus medialis oblique, the teardrop-shaped muscle on the inner quad that plays a critical role in stabilising the kneecap. Weakness here is one of the most common drivers of runners knee, and strengthening it is a more sustainable fix than any amount of foam rolling alone.
The combination of soft tissue work and targeted VMO strengthening is already making a difference. This is the kind of marginal gain that matters enormously over a six-week build — keeping the structure sound so the engine can keep running. At 68 years old, the road to London is long and it’s by no means just about fitness: it’s about getting the body to the line in the best possible condition.
Fuelling: Getting The Numbers Right
Nutrition has been a real focus this cycle, and I feel like I am in a good place with it. On the long runs I am aiming for 85 grams of carbohydrate per hour, which for endurance performance at this intensity is well-supported by the science. I alternate between SiS Beta Fuel chews and gels to keep things interesting and avoid any gut fatigue from a single format — variety helps palatability over a long effort, and palatability matters when you are two hours in and your enthusiasm for eating anything is waning.
Hydration is going well, and I have been using Puresport Ultra Electrolytes throughout the week. Getting sodium, potassium and magnesium right during heavy training blocks is non-negotiable for performance and recovery, and I have noticed a real difference in how I feel through the latter stages of longer efforts.
On the recovery nutrition side, I am targeting 150 grams of protein per day. That is a deliberate, evidence-based target to support muscle repair and adaptation at the training volumes I am running. To hit it consistently, I supplement with a high-quality whey isolate, to which I add 5 grams of creatine and 10 grams of collagen. The creatine supports power and recovery; the collagen, taken with Vitamin C, is specifically aimed at connective tissue health — tendons, ligaments, cartilage — which becomes increasingly relevant the deeper you get into a marathon build. Fuelling the road to London is key: energy, hydration, recovery, sensible supplementation.
The Small Things That Matter: Injinji Toe Socks
Not everything in marathon preparation is dramatic. Some of the most useful changes are small, quiet and slightly unglamorous. This week I switched to Injinji five toe socks, and they have been a genuine revelation for my feet.
The simple act of having each toe individually sleeved makes you acutely conscious of your foot placement. I find I am much more aware of driving through all five toes on every stride, which appears to be reducing my tendency to pronate and is definitely reducing the hotspots and foot pain that have been accumulating over higher mileage weeks. My feet have taken a battering this build. Anything that gives them a better shot at arriving at the start line in reasonable condition is worth taking seriously.
The Road To London – What Comes Next
The plan from here on the road to London is clear. One more significant long run, then a proper deload week to let everything consolidate. After that comes the big one — the 3-hour 45-minute long run, the peak of the entire build, before the taper begins.
Six weeks to London. The start line is starting to feel real.
I am running for Cardiomyopathy UK, a cause that matters deeply to me. If you would like to support the fundraising, the QR code and donation link are at the top of my home page — any contribution, large or small, is genuinely appreciated and goes to important work.
Now: sleep, easy miles, and patience.