What’s crazy is a remember a video you not long ago where you said you were no longer a pro runner after no longer being with New Balance. Now top 10 in UK history. Very inspirational and thank you for sharing both triumphs and set backs with us. Very motivating.
Great tips! One of them reminded me of a phrase I heard recently from a performance coach, which was 'Focus on lifting the floor, not the ceiling.' Basically focusing on increasing your average daily performance so that even a 'bad' day is better than in the past, rather than constantly trying to beat your 'best.'
Ran my first marathon last week, learned some valuable things. More than anything , your mind is stronger than your body. I hit the wall hard at 23km and had to walk bits after 30km, but after 39km a fellow runner cheered me on and said to run along and I did, until the finish! So next time, I'll make sure to have the right support and mindset and training to help me prepare me past the mental wall! These tips help as well! Love the videos and love the grind!
I had a similar experience. I was running a half and one of the hills was so long, I “ran” it for as long as I could and then started walking. Just after that a guy who was coming up behind me said that I could do it, so I started running again with him and he was right, I got to the top of the hill at a (very slow) run. Sometimes you need to be told you can do it to remember that you can 😊
Thanks for the tips! I always feel weird for taking on a gel every 5k and with 25 grams each and with running 3.30-3.40 marathons I feel like I need even more. People around me only take 3-5 gels during a marathon and I started doubting myself. Last week I took 10 gels and I felt awesome. Never hit the wall and even the last kms were a big party. This really showed me: find your own fuelling strategy and what works for you!
You are such an amazing inspiration. 66 year old and just did my first Marathon in Amsterdam. Battled injury and watching this video only fuelled half as much as you. Took 5 hours but took all you videos to get me to the start line ❤
I'm 70 and training for my first TRAIL 10K I think I might finally (after 6 years) be to a point where I'm not getting injured every time I push my training. Ive had almost every minor overuse injury there is that can be a setback of from weeks to 6 months.
The bonus tip really speaks to me. Having had a whole bunch of races not go to plan through injury or uncontrollable race-day events Manchster Half this year was the perfect race day where everything fell in to place. A 15 min PB was better than I hoped for plus the huge gain of taking all the pressuse off and just enjoying the day made it a memorable day. Thanks for the awesome advice and coaching!
This is probably one of the *very best* advice videos I've seen on RU-vid that was not posted by coach Scott Johnston. There's a LOT of sound advice all packed into just one video. There are too many channels with videos 4x longer that say half as much. Just thinking . . . How often do athletes get "sick" after a longish race whether it's dizzy or shaky or tingly or whatever? I went to my doctor for a checkup and cardio stress test and got a clear bill of heath. I sometimes feel like I might faint after an 8 mile max effort "race" (racing against my own previous best) but I never actually do but even driving home I feel strange but feel fine by the time I get home (30 mile drive). I'm trail running (run/walk) with lots of big hills so not sure if you can relate. I can confirm how important sleep is because I always get plenty and the one time (a few days ago) I only got 4 hrs, I felt like crap. It felt like I have gained 20 pounds. Diet . . . what about the fact that glycogen depletion stimulates hypertrophy? Some pro coaches say it's good for *distance* runners to train fasted occasionally (not all the time). I sometimes actually TRY to hit the wall for that reason but it's becoming almost impossible to hit the wall any more because I'm fat adapted. But I use carbs a day or two leading up to and during a race (time trial) and then cut back afterwards but I cannot say my method is the best as I carry a lot of extra weight most of the time. But assuming everyone has Phily's body mass (% body fat) it's almost certainly not the best idea other than as a test to see how long it takes to crash :o)
Great tips - I wish I could sleep more though. My extra tip (what’s worked well for me this year) - doing some focussed training at other distances (5K, 10k, HM). The speed carried into the marathon block and vice versa the marathon block has helped me hit new pbs at the shorter distances.
Fasted training, I’ve running for 10 years and always ran fasted but I don’t run fasted for long runs and workouts. If you’re running before 6am like me, there ain’t no way I’ll be getting up at 4am to eat. I think having the extra sleep is more important. I feel absolutely fine fasted, I’ll just eat a bit more the night before
Keeping it simple. So much comparison to teammates social media that it will rob us of our own progress. But learning to be grateful to have the ability is so special. That’s what i learned on this marathon prep
I think the 10% increase per week rule of thumb may be enough to protect younger runners from building mileage too quickly, but as a runner in my late 60s I've found it too much, and I'm holding mileage steady for 3-4 weeks before the increase, still limited to 10%. PS Love your advice and your videos!
Love this, I put way too much pressure on myself to sub-3 in my last marathon, it wasn't good. I got to race day so stressed physically and mentally, it definitely affected my performance (which wasn't good, spoiler!). I'll be back in the Spring, I know what I need to do! 💪🏃♂️
The thing that made a massive difference for me, and something that I've found other runners can miss, is preparing properly for your long runs. I found once I was getting over 2 hours/15 miles I was starting to find it harder than I expected, and then one morning it realised that if I'd been racing a half-marathon that day I would have been eating properly for 2 days in preparation for the race. Yet here I was trying to run 15 miles having just rolled out of bed, eaten some porridge, had a mug of tea and out the door. I started to treat any run over 2 hours like I would a race in terms of preparation, and the long runs were absolutely transformed.
I slept for many hours last night and my body battery went from 5% to 9%, maybe that's because I did a 58k trail run with 1400 meters of elevation yesterday, all my fitness metrics are on the bottom. Sleep did 'cure' an upcoming cold last week, so a big fan of sleep! By the way the audio is great on this video! Which is not always the case on YT channels with millions of subscribers.
I get that 10% is a recommended maximum, but I still think it’s worth being extra cautious. From my own experience, if you’re relatively new to running, even a 10% increase can be too much if you haven’t put in time on strength and conditioning. There’s a big difference between adding 10% when you’re just starting out and adding 10% at higher weekly mileage. Without a solid base, it can easily lead to injury. Increasing your distance with 33% over a three week period is a lot. It’s all about building up gradually and making sure your body is prepared for the mileage.
Sensible is the word. Lol I've ended up overtrainined at anearobic level at the moment so feeling rather sorry for myself. Its amazing how destructive overtraining is. Running shouldnt become an identityi guess. With me it has....oooops mistake. I love all your content, Phily. We make massive mistakes we know where to come for the best tips. 👌 love ❤️ the grind.
If I can add to tip 6, if you're using something like Runna or a specific plan, don't just look at distance and general idea of the workout but read and take in what the run is actually for. I didn't do this and almost burnt myself out and I think that's in large part from doing things likegoing hard on a long run when what the run actually wanted was for me to keep it comfortable in the first half and then step it up slightly in the 2nd half.
Thanks for the tips. You’ve made such an amazing progress since I started watching your channel. I feel that in order for you to get to the next level you should go to one of the training camps in Kenya. Have you thought about it?
Love the content! I think you could perform better with more than 80g/hour. I know you’ve tried to do it and it didn’t work out. But the gels you consume (OTE) don’t give a breakdown the glucose/malto: fructose ratio. I think getting a solid 2:1 ratio gel might help.
Ok, the story that nobody asked for: I started running consistently 3.5 years ago, at first it was quite casual, in 8 months I ran my first marathon a little under 90 minutes. Impressive, huh? No, not really, because ever since this was my maximum, I couldn't progress further that 4:15 pace. A year ago I bought garmin watch and started using suggested trainings. I wanted to focus on shorter distances: 5k, 10k. I worked my ass of and got to 38:48 at 10k in September and 18:08 at 5k in October. But that self-training made me realize that I cannot go any further on my own without a professional overseing my progress and planning my training accodring to how I feel. I found a coach and ever since I'm doing things a lot more consistently: now I do a lot less "hard" runs, but a lot more abs, conditioning, jumping and I feel stronger. Next May I am running my first marathon and I will work my ass of to get under 3 hours, maybe even under 2:50, but I wont be able to do it without a coach.
What seems to help me a lot is mobility work and always, I mean ALWAYS do a pre run routine. Since doing this I haven’t gotten injured anymore for the past eight months. Where before I would be after three to four months maximum.
it's possible to go from 80 to 100g cho/hr while running. Testing volume in which consumed, type of cho, frequency with which it's consumed, while accounting for core temp (even if by proxy w/ given pace and external temp/wind/humidity/precip) makes it easier. But knowing how many variables there can be it should be unsurprising that the process can take many runs to help determine best strategy to intake those extra carbs for any given individual.
Depends on you, but for a long tempo run I would. For an easy long run I'd do slightly less. I'd also fuel the same as in a race for workouts, at least in the lead up and during racing season
Increasing mileage is such an obvious answer but at a certain point it's just not possible for us mere mortals and I believe even counterproductive if we're too tired to recover properly. Everyday life being one reason.. not having elite genetics being the other. 😢😂 *sad* lol
