‘But why sub-4? Why not 4:00.02 or 4:03.41?’ Lewis Moses, British middle distance runner and founder of NYC Marathon: Everything you need to know asked me this question when we sat down to talk about my Berlin Marathon plan. ‘I’m not sure’ I replied, knowing that the way runners set time goals is arbitrary, but also aware, deep down, that my heart was still set on going sub-4. I’d missed out on it by 10 minutes at the London Marathon What is the average marathon finish time.
‘I don’t believe in training for a specific time,’ Lewis explained. ‘This is about running your best marathon.’ ‘Sure,’ I agreed, knowing that I’d struggle to forget about this goal over the next 16 weeks, but also determined to ‘trust in the process’ and follow his advice.
You can’t PB without a positive mindset
In this initial chat, Lewis and I looked back at my performance in past races. He explained that although I had been fit enough, my mind had struggled with the distance. In London, once I realised I wouldn’t go sub-4, I more or less gave up: I walked; I phoned my boyfriend, panicking I was dehydrated; and I spent the final six miles focusing on the negatives (‘This is the barrier of whole numbers,’ Lewis explained.)
So I had to train my mind as well as my body. Part of that journey with Lewis was working on my lack of self-belief and setting positive goals. At first, I felt slightly insane writing, ‘This will be my best marathon yet’ again and again in my training notebook, but repeating the mantra and forgetting the time pressures I’d put on myself did help me control the nerves and focus on my training plan. I also learnt to accept that if, as in London, I didn’t run sub-4, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. ‘Nobody said Kipchoge had failed when he ran 2:00:25’, Lewis reminded me.
Not all plans are created equal
Lewis and his team at NYC Marathon: Everything you need to know believe coaching is more than a training plan, and it shows. While my controlling personality initially struggled to see ten days of the plan at a time (that’s how they do it), the weeks felt manageable, with clearly explained runs, as well as strength-training videos to follow in the gym. Lewis explained that he’d plan week by week, progressing the plan according to how I felt and how I was performing. He’d check in after every heavy session or long run and ask how it felt to me, as well as, no doubt, looking into the stats and splits behind the scenes, before writing the next few days of my plan.
As with all plans, I’d have a few heavier weeks followed by an easier week to let my body recover and adapt. But unlike any other plan I’d followed, it was flexible; it moved around me. If I got a cold, Lewis would swap sessions (and send me a link to the best cold remedies to buy); if I found a tempo run particularly tough, an extra rest day would appear on the training platform. It was fluid and manageable and for the first few weeks, things felt too good to be true.
When you’re injured, having a team helps
Lewis’ adaptable approach to coaching became crucial six weeks from race day, when I started to suffer with sciatic nerve pain in my calf, which was initially diagnosed as a calf tear. After taking two weeks off and feeling no better, I had decided that Berlin was not going to happen. But Lewis’ unwavering belief that things would be fine helped ease my concerns, while the help of a good physio taught me to ‘flush’ the nerve and keep my legs moving to minimise pain.
Marathon runners strictly following a training plan often become anxious when they are forced to skip sessions owing to injury, so not being able to see that plan was reassuring: in a sense, I didn’t know what I was missing. Lewis swapped my speedwork on the track to sessions on the bike and in the pool. He also checked in most days to see how I was feeling, and to reassure me that doing the extra sessions on the bike would build my cardiovascular fitness and pay off in the…long run.
Despite the calf issues, I still managed to tick two 20 mile runs off. I began to believe that I’d make it round, but couldn’t help feeling a little downhearterned that things hadn’t gone precisely to plan.
In the run up to the race, worry about the things you can control
A week before the race, I joined a Skype conversation with the rest of the NYC Marathon: Everything you need to know runners, to go through the logistics of race day. Lewis warned us that the distance markers would all be in km not miles (something I wasn’t used to), that the Expo would be busiest on Saturday, that the water stations can get chaotic and that there’s still about 0.4K to go once you run through the Brandenburg Gate, so to hold off on a sprint finish. From writing a list of things to pack, to planning my exact route to the start line, controlling everything I could in the days before the race helped focus the mind and make the uncontrollable variables of race day, like the weather or the crowds, seem more manageable.
Trusting in the process pays off
Two days before the race, Lewis and I sat down to chat about the race plan. As with my long runs, I’d start off slower and pick up the pace in the second half. ‘Will I definitely go sub-4 if I start that slow?’ I asked. ‘It’s not about that,’ Lewis reminds me, ‘it’s about getting the pacing right’. I was still going to run with a watch, I told him, ‘that’s fine, but don’t focus on it’.
On the morning of the marathon. I tried my best to calm my nerves. My gut was telling me that I’d never be able to catch the four-hour pacers starting at a 9.15 minute/mile pace, and I considered forgetting the plan and sticking with them instead. But with Lewis’ reminder to ‘trust in the process’ ringing in my ears, I watched the pacers head away with the pack and started to run my own race.
As it had a few months earlier at the London Marathon, a few miles into Berlin, my Garmin went mad, flicking between 8 min/miles to 10:30 min/miles. After 16 weeks of working on my self-belief, I managed to take this technical error in my stride, phoning Lewis as I ran to explain my watch had gone. At the 10K mark, Lewis handed me a piece of paper with my 5K splits and I used my phone as a stopwatch to record how long each 5K was taking me, running to feel instead of relying on my watch. Although this sounds chaotic, without looking at my watch every mile, I relaxed a bit. I listened to my body; I felt that my legs were OK and noticed that I wasn’t out of breath. At 32km, I ran past the four-hour pacers and laughed – the process was paying off.
By following Lewis’ plan, running to feel and forgetting about a time goal, I ran a negative split and finished in 3:58:39, taking 12 minutes off my PB. Writing this a month later, I’m still proud of that time, but I’m prouder of the fact I ran my strongest marathon yet. Over the 16-week training plan, I learnt to believe in myself and my abilities as a runner – something you can’t see on my Strava.
I dont believe in training for a specific time, Lewis explained. This is about running? Sign up to our newsletter in April and was determined things would be different this time.
