5 Key Changes I made to break 2:20 in the marathon

On my 7th attempt, I was finally able to crack my goal of sub 2:20. I had been working at it for the past 3 years and come within 9 seconds in the past. But in my last 3 attempts, I seemed to be going in the wrong direction. Changes needed to be made!

Below are some key changes that I made, which I’ll be taking forward with me.

I would then have breakfast after my morning run at 10:30am. So this meant that I was having all my meals within this 7 hour window. I would still consume the same as normal, just all 3 of my meals would be within this period. I found that my fasted morning runs, were now even more fasted then before, which helped me get a bit learner. I always live by the theory ‘fuel hard, train hard’. So I was still fuelling hard, just within a shorter window. On the mornings I had harder sessions (twice a week), I would fuel before the sessions, which would be a couple of toasted bagels with peanut butter and honey

I made a conscious effort to eat more cleanly than in the past. Cutting out more junk food like fried food and foods with a high sugar content. I would still have a ‘cheat meal’ at the end of the week, as a reward for the hard work that has gone in.

No alcohol. Alcohol adversely affects performance, so I cut this out completely and could most certainly feel a difference.

Having moved out of London, to Winchester recently. It was my first marathon build here. Winchester is a lot hillier than most places in London. Naturally, this meant that my workout loop was a lot tougher than before. So, I had to work harder than in the past to hit goal marathon pace within training.

On a Thursday, instead of the flatter faster tempo I had done in the past. I did 30 minutes at my lactate threshold 1 pace on a hilly loop. There is around 200m elevation gain on this loop, which is 3 times the amount of what my target race, Berlin marathon, is.

Train on the hills, fly on the flats.

I have been running for 11 years and in my previous 9, I placed a big focus on weighted strength work. Building sufficient muscles to remain as niggle free as possible. However, I changed things up this time and instead of loading the weighted work on, I focused a lot more on plyometric strength. Working on my weakness. Focusing on box jumps, doing 3 set of 8 daily.

Apart from this I did jump squats, jump lunges, explosive calf raises and skipping. This made my stride feel slightly more bouncy than in the past

I am a yes kind of person. But I also realised that if I don’t give more love and attention to training, then this goal of sub 2:20 is not going to happen. So instead of saying yes to everything, scarifies needed to be made, and I really placed more of a priority to training than in the past.

It was a reminder that getting in an extra 10-15 minutes a day to get in those little bits like core, stretching, foam rolling and strength work, goes such a long way at the end of the day

Prior to commencing marathon training, I embraced what I called ‘Operation Speed’. The point of this was to get the shorter distance speed up as much as possible.

I pretended I was a teenager again and ran around a track as fast as I could. Racing against guys that were literally half my age (I’m currently 34).

What this did, was completely snap me out of my comfort zone and work on that higher end leg turnover. By the time my 10 week marathon block kicked in, higher speeds felt more comfortable than in the past and kicking on to marathon pace felt a lot more achievable.

Hopefully, some of my changes and learnings can help you too. One of the most beautiful things about this sport is that we learn from each build-up and race.
If I am going to level up even more going forward, then I’ll most certainly be taking these with me.

Train smart. Keep things productive.

Onwards and upwards,

Boom Shakalaka!

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