16th March 2025
My next big race is the Barcelona Marathon on March 16th, 2025, marking my 7th attempt at breaking sub-3 hours. I chose Barcelona for a fresh challenge after three consecutive Manchester Marathons, which no longer excited me. The course is new as of 2024, and while the weather starts cool and warms up later, it shouldn’t be as extreme as Valencia’s 23-25°C midday heat. A big challenge will be traveling solo and ensuring my carb-loading and nutrition stay consistent with what I’ve practiced at home in Sheffield. This time, I’m following a new training plan with guidance from talented runner Frazer Carr, who clocked an impressive 2:40 in Valencia last year. My fuelling has improved, but it comes with the trade-off of carrying a little extra weight—whether that helps or hinders my race, only time will tell.
Barcelona Marathon 2025
Barcelona Marathon 2025
This marathon cycle has been quite different from my past training blocks. With fewer total weeks and less high-mileage training, I’m hoping that a quality-over-quantity approach will make the difference this time around. Most of my sessions were guided by fellow marathoner Frazer Carr, but I still kept elements of my own structure, including rest days and hard-effort parkruns to add intensity, since I didn’t race any official events in the lead-up.
The key training sessions consisted of two primary workouts per week. The early phase focused on speed-based sessions, while the middle-to-late stages shifted towards tempo and threshold work. My long runs had a much more structured pacing strategy—I never consistently hit sub-3 pace, but I aimed to stay close without overreaching. My biggest question now is whether I’ve trained to race at sub-3 pace or just below it. Would an extra few weeks, had I chosen Manchester instead, have given me a better shot?
One major change this cycle was the lack of a half marathon tune-up race—something I’ve always relied on to gauge fitness. Instead, I used parkrun as a progress marker, dropping from 20:01 to 18:43 over the training cycle. Despite sticking to the plan for the most part, life stresses disrupted my peak week, which adds another layer of uncertainty. Now, all that’s left is to toe the line in Barcelona and find out if this approach has worked!
Weeks 1-4 Speed
Focus on building mileage and endurance while gradually introducing speed work.
Weeks 5-7 Threshold
Combines speed work and threshold pace focusing on marathon specific training.
Weeks 8-11 Treshold Extension / Taper
Extending the threshold pace training leading to taper.
Training Plan
Weekly Sessions
This is the general format of the weekly sessions. Sessions change depending on the specific block.