"London Marathon 2025: Getting in Shape Again for the Ultimate Running Challenge!"

It is very almost here. One day to go. The eve of the London Marathon. One more night’s sleep – although I use the word sleep in its loosest possible sense – and then it’s time. 120 days of preparation, 120 days of early alarms, sore legs, stubborn weather and occasional negotiations with muscles that would have preferred a quiet sit down instead, have brought me to this point. It has been a long, twisting road: early morning get-ups when the world was still dark and grumpy, runs that went on longer than sanity strictly allows, strange food choices that had me seriously questioning my life decisions and stretches of illness and injury where simply tying my shoelaces felt like a competitive sport. But through it all, the mission was simple: prepare . And despite everything, prepare I have. Tomorrow, 26.2 miles of London streets await me. It looks set to be a warm, sunny spring day, the sort that will lift the heart and melt the legs at roughly mile 20. But that’s tomorrow’s challen...

Weathering the Shift The countdown is getting serious now. With just under two weeks until race day, every run starts to carry a bit more weight, a few more questions and a lot more checking of the long-range forecast. Today, however, it wasn’t race day weather that caught me off guard—it was the sudden shift in the here and now. The morning arrived with a stubborn blanket of drizzle and the sort of damp that seeps into your enthusiasm as much as your socks. With the rain showing no signs of packing up its things and leaving, I waited it out. Eventually, at 12:30pm, I set out for a tempo run—my first proper one in quite some time. Tempo sessions aren’t just about pace; they’re about mindset. They ask questions like “Can you keep this up?” and “Whose bright idea was this?” over and over again until your legs answer with action or rebellion. Fortunately today, they leaned toward action. The Tempo Test The run started with a 10-minute warm-up, gently navigating my way towards the High...

With the first day of my Easter holiday finally upon me, you’d be forgiven for assuming I might gently ease into it—perhaps with a cup of coffee, a leisurely scroll through the news, or the kind of lie-in that makes you question whether clocks are even real. But alas, my day began not with rest, but with football. Specifically, Polly’s football, rolling across a cold, early-morning pitch. So, instead of duvet time, I was up, dressed and out of the house before the sun had fully committed to the sky. From the Sidelines to Sequins No sooner had Polly’s session ended and the mud been metaphorically (and quite literally) brushed off, I was back home, getting ready to go back out. Kelly had tickets to ABBA Voyage —a show she’s been eagerly looking forward to—and I had the honour of accompanying her into London. Cue quick shower, fresh clothes and the an on the road snack that makes your digestive system file a complaint. We drove to Stratford, not quite realising we were heading directl...

Back on the Road After yesterday’s rest day, I was absolutely raring to go this morning! There are few things more satisfying than feeling properly recovered and ready to get back to training. I got up in good time, brewed a much-needed coffee and set off for The Math School with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for people discovering an extra biscuit in the tin. On arrival, I checked my watch and was pleased to see a 46-minute base run on the schedule. With the daylight already staking its claim over the morning—a welcome shift from those cold, dark starts—I decided to extend my run by another ten minutes. My route took me through Borstal, across the Medway Bridge and into Strood, a journey made all the more pleasant by the fact that, for once, my legs and lungs were in quiet agreement about the pace. Running with Purpose It was wonderful to enjoy a morning run where every step felt purposeful, rather than a grand negotiation between body and willpower. These steady runs are wh...

After a better night's sleep, I was up at 5 am, feeling far more refreshed and motivated than yesterday. The knowledge that today's session wouldn't involve a threshold run certainly helped to put a bit more of a spring in my step. My ever-faithful Garmin, a device that occasionally feels more like a demanding personal trainer than a watch, treated me to a sprints session in Rochester. I set off with something resembling enthusiasm, though I was aware that by the end, it might more accurately be described as grim determination. The Sprint Plan and the Curious Case of Uphill Running The plan itself was straightforward enough: 9 x 15-second efforts spread over a 45-minute session. I tackled three sprints with three-minute recoveries between them, focusing on maintaining form and actually resembling a runner rather than a flailing scarecrow. After a longer five-minute recovery run, I repeated the cycle twice more. These sessions are invaluable for building speed and power, so ...

Well, here we are at Day 42 of the London Marathon 2025 training plan. The number itself feels significant—something about the answer to life, the universe, and, in my case, why on earth I thought running 26.2 miles would be a good idea. Friday mornings are always a battle, and today was no exception. After a long week at work, the siren call of the snooze button was almost irresistible, but somehow, I managed to drag myself out of bed at 5 am and make my way to Rochester for today's session. The Dreaded Threshold Run Today’s challenge was a threshold run, a session I have developed a particular aversion to. It’s not the distance or even the route, but the sustained effort that makes these runs feel like a prolonged negotiation between mind and body—one in which the body strongly objects but ultimately concedes. My Garmin Forerunner 955, ever the bearer of harsh truths, confirmed that these sessions are a relentless test of both physical ability and mental resilience. The goal: a 1...

An Early Start As I mentioned yesterday, my plan for this morning was to embark upon the longest pre-work run that I have ever done—whether in marathon training or otherwise. To make it work, I had to be at school by 5:45 am, giving myself enough time to get ready and have breakfast before the school day began. Arriving before even the site team was there felt strange. The school, usually bustling, was eerily quiet and locked up. Luckily, I only needed to park my car before setting off. There’s something slightly unsettling about arriving somewhere before the people who are supposed to unlock the doors. It’s like arriving at a ghost town that hasn’t quite got the memo about being abandoned—quiet, unsettling and making you question your life choices. Finding My Way I started my run towards the M2 Medway Bridge footpath, crossing over into Strood. This is a route I’ve tackled a few times before, and I reached the familiarity of Rochester Bridge in good time. But then came the tricky part...

A Fine Line Between Pushing and Listening Day 34 of London Marathon 2025 training, and after yesterday’s tough session, today’s run always had the potential to be more of a battle than a breeze. I set out once again from The Math School, this time crossing the M2 Medway Bridge and venturing into Strood. On paper, it was meant to be a base run—steady, controlled, nothing too strenuous. In reality, my legs were voicing a rather strong opinion about the previous day’s exertions. The trouble with training is that improvement often masquerades as exhaustion, and knowing whether to push on or ease up requires the wisdom of a seasoned athlete or at least the common sense not to ignore your own knees when they start issuing threats. Twenty minutes in, I was already feeling the strain, making today’s run less about speed and more about persistence. No Turning Back Now Thankfully, my route choice was inspired—or at least, effectively limiting. Once I’d started, there was no real option but to co...

The Morning Rush Sunday races always mean an early start, and today was no exception. Arriving in Canterbury at 8 am, I was immediately thrust into the trifecta of pre-race rituals: parking, collecting my race number, and navigating the inevitable toilet queue—an experience that can feel like an endurance event of its own. It was a bitterly cold morning, hovering around 2 degrees. Dressing appropriately for a race in such conditions is always a gamble: the first few minutes will chill you to your core, but once you’re moving, layers can become an unnecessary burden. After a quick, if not particularly effective, warm-up, I bumped into a friend, Ben Holliday, whose detailed analysis of local cricket diverted my attention from my frozen fingertips. Perhaps distraction really is the greatest warmth. The Race With over 1,200 participants, the start line was a jostling crowd, all shuffling for position like biscuits in a tin. The initial bunching, while slightly frustrating, provided some re...

It’s Day 24 of my London Marathon 2025 training, and after a lovely weekend, reality has come knocking. Work is back, the training plan is unforgiving, and today’s run was a gentle 30-minute recovery session to shake off the cobwebs. The Route: A Tale of Two Gradients Today’s run started downhill along Maidstone Road – a route so kind to weary legs that it almost feels like it’s apologising. But, as all good things must come to an end, the gentle incline back up towards Borstal reminded me that gravity is not just a suggestion. I finished with a stretch along The Math School, my legs sending a pointed memo about the perils of being complacent. The Time Thief Strikes Again With the increased mileage and the demands of work, time seems to be disappearing faster than a plate of snacks at a party. It’s a strange thing, really: the more you try to cram into a day, the more elusive those hours become, as if they’ve learned the fine art of dodging responsibility. To combat this temporal trick...

Starting the Year with Determination Happy New Year everyone! Day 5 of my London Marathon 2025 training, and I kicked off the year with the New Year's Day Sittingbourne Parkrun. Despite a late night celebrating New Year's Eve, I managed to drag myself out of bed, even convincing Emilia to join me. She wasn’t overly enthusiastic about leaving the warmth of her blanket cocoon, but she rallied and came along. Battling the Elements The weather wasn’t exactly ideal—wet and windy—but we braved the elements and completed the 5k. There was a particularly challenging section where we had to run directly into the wind. It felt less like running and more like negotiating terms with a particularly stubborn donkey: exhausting and occasionally futile. Combined with my post New Year's Eve celebration fatigue, it made for a tough run, but a good reminder that even short runs can challenge you in unexpected ways. Consistency, as they say, is the key to unlocking progress… or at least the ke...

An Early Start for a Big Challenge Day 4 of my London Marathon 2025 training, and here I am, braving the unholy hour of 6:30 am on New Year's Eve for a session of anaerobic intervals. It’s a bit like starting a diet at a buffet—ambitious and faintly ridiculous, but you press on anyway. The Workout: Intervals That Test Your Limits After a 15-minute warm-up that mostly involved trying to convince my legs they weren’t still in bed, I launched into the main workout: 5 intervals of 40 seconds running hard at a 4:10 min/km pace. Between these sprints, I took 3-minute recovery periods, walking until my heart rate settled down to something vaguely human before easing into a gentle jog. The Science of Anaerobic Training For those unfamiliar, anaerobic exercise is essentially the art of asking your body to produce energy without enough oxygen, relying on the lactic acid system instead. This works by burning carbohydrates in a way that, while efficient, leaves your muscles with that delightfu...