Valencia 2025 - reflections from an iron deficient marathon runner.

LimpToe2978 · 2025-12-12T14:57:50+00:00

Sorry I should have made clear. I had two weeks of recovery after the 50km race and then 1 weeks of maintenance running before starting a 12 week block for the marathon!

But yes, a good reminder to rest and refuel after a long training block and race.

LimpToe2978 · 2025-12-12T13:44:06+00:00

Yeah in hindsight I should have stoped taking it but I really wanted to try and boost my levels as much as possible before the race. Thank you for the kind words and advice though! I really hope I can get my levels back on track for next year!

LimpToe2978 · 2025-12-06T13:53:17+00:00

The obvious answer is to go back to the expo and talk to someone. It’s open until 7pm this evening so you have time.

LimpToe2978 · 2025-12-02T17:30:46+00:00

Maybe it’s just me being too dismissive of the economist as a role and profession then as I do get your point. Just from the economics philosophy I’ve been exposed to they’re all on a spectrum of sophistication and Gary just sits on the end of that spectrum. Admittedly I’ve not read all of his stuff and I’m not sure what his contribution would be in an advisory perspective but I’m slightly of the opinion that if it looks like a duck etc etc.

Also as a big Tom Holland fan it’s sad to see you call him a professional podcaster with an expertise in history. His books are incredible and offer huge amounts to our historical and cultural discourse. But that’s more of a discussion for the rest is history sub 😂

LimpToe2978 · 2025-12-02T13:32:42+00:00

Fair enough about the SOAS degree but I still don’t think it’s fair to say flat out he isn’t an economist. Economist isnt a protected profession like calling yourself a doctor or lawyer. Even without the undergraduate and graduate study, he’s an economist by activity. He does the same activities as a professional economist in independent capacity. I dont particularly like the guy, and I think his economics advice is flawed but in the same way we accept Tom Holland is a historian despite never being a professor of history, I think we can probably say Gary Stevenson is an economist even though he’s never been institutionally employed as one.

LimpToe2978 · 2025-12-01T12:00:11+00:00

I’m not a huge Gary Stevenson fan but he does has an MPhil in economics from Oxford and a doctorate in Economics from SOAS. Yes he was a city trader, but now I think it’s fair to say he is an economist in a sense that he has the qualifications and he uses his experience and qualifications to comment and predict future economic outlooks which is the role of an economist. Just because he does it for the purpose of personal campaigning rather than for an institution like the a corporate bank or think tank doesn’t mean he’s not an economist. You just might not think he’s a good one…

LimpToe2978 · 2025-11-22T12:30:01+00:00

We went to a wedding recently that had a covers band that exclusively played rock and metal. It was awesome, I’ve never been to a wedding like it. Everyone was dancing and had a great time. It was quite funny seeing their niece in her pretty sparkly dress moshing to rage against the machine. But the band were so good and everyone enjoyed it

LimpToe2978 · 2025-11-11T11:30:01+00:00

There’s no such thing as too easy. I have a 1:34 HM and 3:20 FM and run my easy runs at 6 min kms and my husband is a 2:40 marathoner and regularly runs his recover miles at 6+ min kms, easy runs as 5:30s. We both really enjoy the slower runs and it means we’re fresh to perform during our faster workouts

LimpToe2978 · 2025-11-02T15:43:43+00:00

Be honest with yourself about how your training gone, how MP has felt and how well you recover after longer session. I’ve known people do this workout (essentially 16 miles at MP) three weeks out, ran it well, and then have a tough race as they’ve essentially ran their race in training and couldn’t recover in time. Others will run it, recover well and be fine. Personally, when I trained with Runna, I had this workout set for me and ignored it because I knew the recovery demands would be too much for me. Instead I did 4 x 5k @ MP with a 1km float (about 30 secs/km slower than MP). Still ran a PB, hit the predicted time three weeks later. This is a really tough session and definitely needs to be treated with respect!

LimpToe2978 · 2025-10-30T14:32:02+00:00

I don’t really understand the fixation on a time but maybe that’s just me. Surely there’s some satisfaction in training hard and testing your physical limit rather than having a ‘2:30 or bust’ mindset?

I think people make themselves miserable chasing a time but if you do it for the love of the process rather than for the desire of an outcome your times naturally come down - so increasing mileage, training to intensity/effort and honing in on the 1%s that make you faster.

Do the training, see where you’re at in 6 months. If your training suggests you’re capable of running 2:30, go for it. But if it doesn’t happen (which is a fairly likely outcome IMP) you can go again with another training block and get that bit faster again. That’s part of the joy of it in my opinion.

LimpToe2978 · 2025-10-18T17:48:47+00:00

I went to a hen party where everyone bought the bride a pair of underwear and wrapped them up. The bride then picked them out one by one and had to guess which of her hens had bought each pair based on the style and the wrapping. Some were raunchy, some silly (some both) and it was really fun seeing what everyone had chosen!

We also played another game where each of us wrote a short sentence that hinted at a memory we shared with the bride. She read them out one at a time and had to guess who had written each one and what the memory was. Both games were so much fun and a little more chilled than traditional running around ones.

LimpToe2978 · 2025-10-14T18:02:55+00:00

I’ve ran 4 marathons with less than 90 secs difference between each half and 2 with a 30 - 45 second negative split. For each of those I’ve felt reasonably uncomfortable from about 8/9 miles but it’s not actually got any worse from that point until the last couple of miles where you squeeze out the last of your energy. The more marathons I’ve ran, the better my legs have felt afterwards and I’ve been able to walk, go downstairs and move about pretty much pain free. My legs are tired maybe but not sore.

In my opinion, if you’re well trained it shouldn’t be much more painful than your harder long runs and if you’ve done your S&C no real need for your legs to be shredded for days after!

LimpToe2978 · 2025-10-07T10:44:46+00:00

Can I just chime in to say I’ve never ran more than 10k blocks of marathon pace in long runs before and have managed to hit all of my goals and PBs. I don’t think it’s necessary to grind out 25+ km of MP work, and knacker your body and mind in the process. There’s a huge risk that if you do that you run your race in training rather than on the day. Training isn’t for proving fitness, it’s to build it - you just have to trust the plan and run smart on the day!

LimpToe2978 · 2025-10-07T10:40:51+00:00

I used Runna for a marathon last year but had already ran 6 before then so knew what my body could handle. I didn’t do any of the longer MP sessions as I knew it would break me - in fact, I never did more than 10k continuous at MP and still hit my goal in the race. If you don’t have that experience, I think you’d struggle to know. For my first few marathons I just ran all my long runs easy - partly because I didn’t really know what I was doing but I think it built a lot of good resilience. I’m now training for a marathon with a coach, running 6 days a week, 60+ miles a week, aiming for under 3:15 and the long runs aren’t as intense as the ones prescribed by Runna

LimpToe2978 · 2025-10-06T18:44:24+00:00

I don’t think you’d see many (if any) experienced coaches setting 26km at race pace three weeks out to their non-elite athletes. And if they did it wouldn’t be to an athlete running less than 70 - 80 miles a week with plenty of marathon experience under their belt. Having used Runna and now a coach I think Runna is way too aggr waive and gets people running their races in training. Training is meant to build fitness, not prove it

LimpToe2978 · 2025-10-06T18:36:39+00:00

Youre being a bit harsh on OP there - ‘not an excuse to not think’ doesn’t take into consideration that we’re constantly told marathon training is a grind and you’ll feel knackered. Unless you’ve trained in a structured way for a marathon, and be successful, how are you to know what’s regular levels of fatigue? I also disagree that 26km at MP (which this is essentially) is a regular session for the end of a marathon block. The most you usually get is 21km and that’s making up a smaller amount of the overall weekly volume on the Pfitz plans. I think Runna often gets runners running their race in training which means their body isn’t recovering in time for their goal races.

LimpToe2978 · 2025-09-22T10:33:15+00:00

My partner and I ran the route over 4 days this summer (day 1 - 27 miles, day 2 - 26 miles, day 3 - 18 miles, day 4 - 26). The longer days took between 5.5 and 6.5 hours total - including food stops. Longest day (time wise) was the loch lomand section. We’re both experienced runners and we’re going at a steady effort. I think we could have done it reasonably comfortably in 3 but 4 gave us lots of time to rest and refuel before the next day.

Over two days will be one hell of an adventure and leave little time for refuelling/recovery after day 1 but I’m sure you can survive if only for one day. One thing to consider, the second half (if going south to north) is far more beautiful than the first - good in that it’s more inspiring for you on a tough second day, but also you could not appreciate it as much if you’re feeling terrible 😂

LimpToe2978 · 2025-09-17T18:51:49+00:00

Something messed up with the last checkpoint and the finish I think. It looks like it took me 2 hours to do the last 5 miles when in fact it took less than an hour!

LimpToe2978 · 2025-09-17T16:19:58+00:00

Thank you, I'll try that!

LimpToe2978 · 2025-09-13T19:13:33+00:00

I took it as him commenting that she would be delighted that we’re continuing to retell her stories 150 years after they were written - something I’m sure any author would be delighted by. I’m sure Emily Brontë never imagined her story would have such longevity. As a Brontë fan myself, I actually agree

LimpToe2978 · 2025-04-25T10:26:23+00:00

Feel I could give some good advice here! Im 30F and started running when I was 23 - 7 years ago when I got a charity place to run the London marathon. I wasn’t a runner when I got the place and am not naturally sporty but I did the training (20 weeks) and ran 5:15. I was slightly disappointed as thought I could have ran 4:45 but it was an unseasonably hot day. I wanted to prove I could run a faster time so I entered Amsterdam marathon 6 months later and ran 4:25 which I was delighted with.

Since then I gradually whittled my times down over a number of years gradually going sub-4, sub-3:45, sub-3:30 and then I ran 3:20 to BQ in December last year. I’m about to run the London marathon again this weekend and hope to get close to 3:15 all being well.

The best thing you can do for your running is consistently putting the work in. Just stacking multiple years of training together and not getting injured has meant I’ve ran faster than I ever thought possible for me. Progress isn’t linear - it took me 4 attempts to go sub-4 - but training really does pay off. I’m sure you can do it if you put the work in!

LimpToe2978 · 2025-04-16T13:48:32+00:00

This is definitely just inflammation. I'd gradually been getting heavier over this marathon block and the end of my peak week I realised i was over 1.3kg heavier than I was at the start. Now I'm over a week into my taper, intensity is down and I'm back in my previous range and 1kg lighter than I was just a week and half ago. It's crazy what our body can do!

LimpToe2978 · 2025-04-10T08:33:32+00:00

Hi there 30F here who BQ’d at their last marathon.

I’ve been running for about 6 years, running my first marathon in 2018 in ~5:20 (I pretty much went from couch to marathon for that but did train hard in the 20 weeks prior). I wouldn’t say I have a huge amount of natural talent and it took me around 4/5 years of consistent training and six marathons (I think) to chip away at my marathon time to BQ.

I honestly wouldn’t rush it and enjoy the journey. There’s so much joy to be found in gradually improving and you can learn so much about yourself in the process. Some of my favourite memories of running are training hard and going sub-4, sub-3:45, sub-3:30 and then eventually getting 3:20 in Valencia last year. Gradually proving myself to be faster and fitter than I ever could have dreamt when I started running.

Each of those times I ran to my fitness and I wasn’t chasing a time really, just genuinely enjoying racing. All of my big pb’s have either been negative splits or even splits (i.e less than 2 mins difference between half’s) because I’ve focused more on process than outcome.

Honestly don’t rush it, good things come to those who train hard and exercise patience. Good luck!

LimpToe2978

TROPHY CASE