So I was particularly chuffed to be one of the SNG’s three bursary award winners this year, covering the study day itself and any associated costs, and I’m very grateful for SNG for this kind gesture. I work almost exclusively with endurance athletes at the recreational (but highly motivated) level, and although this year’s event, titled ‘PRIME: Performance Ready In Major Events’, was focused primarily on athletes and practitioners at the elite level, my bursary application outlined how I was looking forward to learning the elite principles and thinking about how I could apply them to my own clients (and indeed myself).

I don’t always write up reflective blogs like this after CPD, but:

1. I thought it was a nice way to show thanks to the SNG for the bursary
2. I do tend to write lots of notes during study days to help me stay engaged (especially as this was the fourth of four study days that week), and putting them in some order like this helps make sense of random scribbles
3. It was a particularly useful study day, so why not acknowledge that here

With that in mind, here is a brief summary of the day, focusing mainly on some snippets and quotes that I took home with me and in some cases, how these apply to my work at the recreational level:

1. Chris Rosimus & Mike Naylor

Men’s Head of Nutrition at the Football Association and Head of Performance Nutrition at the UK Sports Institute, respectively:

‘Finding the tactical fuel advantage’

‘Outfuelling the opposition’

These quotes speak for themselves, but essentially describe the importance of all aspects of nutrition planning being goal-focussed in the England men’s football setup.  

They also consider the prioritization and ‘impact factor’ of different nutrition strategies at the individual level, and this is absolutely something I will continue to focus on. In other words, where will I get the most bang for my buck with each client.

‘Match day -1’ was a phrase used a lot in their talk, and I will probably be using ‘race day -1’ from now on!

2. Wendy Martinson

Technical Lead Performance Nutritionist at the UK Sports Institute

Wendy has a formidable history working with GB rowing and has now covered 6 different Olympic games for Team GB. She was also kind enough to lend me her ear and advice back in 2011 when I was first thinking about a career in sports nutrition (long before it came to fruition)!

In her talk, she outlined the differences between being an HQ nutritionist and a sport-specific one, and quite how long and thorough the build up to feeding our Olympians is. This attention to detail became one of GB’s ‘secret weapons’, especially when faced with the challenges of the generic on-site nutrition options in the Olympic village, and I pride myself on leaving no stone unturned when it comes to event-specific nutrition prep with my athletes.

Wendy also commented on the ever-increasing preference for plant-based options among Team GB, and this is of course something that rings true for much of my client base.

3. Abbie Robinson

GB Athlete – Climbing and Trainee Sport Psychologist

Abbie is a decorated GB para-climber, and gave an amazing insight into the potential impact that a good dietitian can have. She shared details of her history of RED-S (something I screen for in all new clients), but her excellent dietitian helped her work through this, as well as questioning ‘where is food becoming a stressor in her life’ and ‘where are the inconsistencies in her nutrition’.

Through asking and answering these questions, they were able to focus on and improve the 10% of Abby’s diet that was poor or inconsistent (often relating to stressful convenience purchases on the go, which were exacerbated by her impaired vision), rather than trying to optimize the other 90% which was already good.

Abby was one of several speakers on the day who emphasised the importance of a dietitian in reducing the number of decisions that she has to make, so that she can concentrate on ‘just’ executing’ her performance. Similarly, she described how a happy athlete is often a more successful one in terms of both fuelling and performance.

4. Chris, Mike, Wendy, and Abbie were then joined by Jessica Mayho (GB athlete – Hammer) and James Moran (who I will come to later), for a panel discussion

This threw up some interesting topics about the navigation of difficult discussions around phenotype stereotypes in different sports and how an individualised and sensitive approach is really important here. The importance of understanding the person and dealing with the athlete as a human being when having these conversations was really underlined. I was interested to hear that in many sports, there appears to have been a shift away from regular body composition testing, partly for this reason.

This panel discussion (as well as previous speakers) also reminded me that, even at the elite level, practitioners and athletes do need to work around competing demands of jobs and family lives, although of course this applies even more with my clients (and something I am only too aware of with my own training!). I reflected that this is actually an element of the role that I really enjoy, as it allows me to truly get to know my clients and put plans in place that can actually be followed.

There was also a good question and discussion about choosing when and how to educate athletes rather than simply telling them what to do. This is something I have often wrestled with, and in my experience, it is a very individual decision.

5. Aimee Ellen O’Keeffe

Performance Nutritionist at England Red Roses and Williams Racing

Aimee gave us some really practical examples of how she has overcome team anxieties (e.g. regarding overeating), and sub-optimal fuelling practices within the Red Roses. Two good quotes and examples I liked were ‘how to win the low day’, in other words how to periodise properly on rest days (which is something I am often reiterating with clients), and ‘the other 21 hours’, i.e. putting the onus back on the players to take responsibility for ‘improving their asset (body)’ when not being watched by the staff.

6. James Moran

Registered Dietitian & Performance Nutritionist with Uno-X Cycling

The final practitioner presentation was the one I had been looking forward to most, since James, like me, works in endurance sport, albeit at an elite level. I had met James the night before at the SNG networking event, and he’d shared with me a few surprising stats from his talk (which focused mainly on Tour de France nutrition), so I made sure I kept quiet during the talk when he asked for guesses…some of the carb numbers among his group were astounding.

Some interesting take-aways here were the different phenotypes of different types of riders, from time-triallists to climbers, and how data-driven the sport is; much more so than other sports discussed today. I think I would have already assumed this to be the case, but it was also interesting to hear James emphasise that nutrition decisions are often a compromise between this data, and what the riders themselves are telling him.

He also explained that ‘fatigue resistance’ or ‘robustness’ is a less well appreciated determinant of success in his sport (in addition to, for example, power to weight ratios), but that nutrition can be key in building this, through training consistency and promotion of good overall health. I am increasingly hearing this in regard to running too, with ‘durability’ emerging as the fourth physiological determinant of running performance.

Linked to this, James explained the importance of peaking at the right times in terms of weight and body composition, to avoid injury / illness by being too lean throughout the year, and yet again this is something that I discuss with my clients and will continue to do so.

And as well as sharing some of those amazing individualised plans and reports from some of his riders, above all, James once again explained it was about delivering  ‘maximum impact, minimum brain cost’ for the team.  

So, there’s my potted summary of a day that also included some interesting sponsor sessions and of course loads of networking with like-minded folks (the room was packed). Roll on 2025, and thanks again to SNG.

The post Learning from the best: My reflections on an elite sports nutrition study day appeared first on Tom Hollis.

1. Unusual build and how ten mile training translated into marathon performance

Summer was a 5k block, then autumn was focused on extending speed out for my first ever ten mile race, the Great South Run. Having a marathon dumped two weeks prior to this goal race was far from ideal, but you don’t give up your first opportunity to represent your country (at your favourite distance), so it just needed to be managed carefully.

Chester was never going to be a PB attempt, though, for a few reasons:

1. To hold back just enough to recover for GSR.
2. I had done literally no runs over 30km for more than five months.
3. It’s not the fastest course; not crazily hilly, but certainly not flat, and about double the elevation of London, for example.
4. I only went into this with a partial taper, since the England ‘experience’ was far more important to me than the result.

So, I went in excited and proud, but with limited expectations, and my coach and I agreed that sub 2:35 sounded reasonable. The plan was to run sub-maximally, keep heart rate low, and just see what that spat out in terms of time. It couldn’t have gone better. I barely even looked at my pace or splits, and finished in 2:32:04, less than two minutes off my marathon PB, and to my great surprise after, as the second placed M40 runner across both the England and Wales teams.

2. Running relaxed is key to performance

Given the casual build-up, the low-key expectations, and the fact that Chester Marathon is a welcome couple of tiers below the majors on the general event stress scale, I was pretty relaxed on race morning. Knowing I was running to such a sensible heart rate (keeping it below 162, approximately 85% of my estimated max) meant there really wasn’t much that could go wrong.

So I did just that, and I also had a smile on my face for a lot of it. I had family in the crowd, my England vest on, and this was an opportunity to proudly reflect for a couple of hours on how my running journey had taken me here. I was that incredibly annoying guy thanking all the volunteers and spectators, and engaging far more than normal with my fellow runners. Absolutely buzzing, basically.

The fact that this translated into such a surprising result was also made possible by my historical endurance running (i.e. plenty of previous marathons), although while the heart and lungs were very comfortable, there was certainly a bit of neuromuscular fatigue creeping in towards the end. The body just wasn’t used to going long in this block. Fortunately, the end arrived before this became a real issue, and I was able to finish with a flourish, unknowingly pipping the second place M40 runner.

So this was a big tick for running relaxed, and indeed for slightly smaller races. Sometimes it’s good to go all in for the adrenaline of a major, but sometimes it’s just a nicer and more chilled experience for runners (and spectators) at a medium sized event like Chester.

3. The importance of pack-racing and in-race decisions

The previous paragraph describes what sounds like the most serene race of all time, and while this was mostly true, there were a couple of key points in the race that helped ensure this was the case.

The first, and most important, was after about five miles. I found myself on my own and adrift of two packs; one in front and one behind me. Given the sparsely populated course and the headwind for the first half of the race, I made a snap decision to chase down the pack ahead. They were about 20 seconds ahead at that point, but I put in 2-3 quick kms and this did the job. As soon as I got there, I was blowing for a bit, but knew it had been a good decision. There were now about 8 of us all running at a similar pace, and we took it turns to lead, but generally stayed together for about 8-10 miles, which flew by as a result of this shared load. It’s impossible to quantify the benefit of a stretch like that, but I’ll try. It felt like it was worth about 5 seconds per mile, both at the time and in hindsight.

That pack eventually started to dissipate behind just myself and a Scottish chap called Ross. We introduced ourselves to each other at this point and it transpired that he once ran the marathon for Scotland in the commonwealth games. Anyway, we kept a bit of gentle chit chat going to push each other through the hilly final few miles, and generally this helped really put the seal on what was a wholly positive race experience…but this was all down to a really good bit of decision making to chase that pack down about 20 miles earlier.  

4. The pros and cons of race tourism with family

What can I say…there are definitely pros and cons to having family support at races like this, especially when one of them is an incredibly boisterous 23 month old. Here’s a quick summary off the top of my head:

Pros:

• Lovely to feel truly supported and share the experience.
• Exposing my son to the positivity of running as much as possible.
• Nice distraction from my usual pre-race anxieties and weirdness.
• That post-race beer with my wife was just perfect.

Cons:

• I couldn’t just be ‘selfish’ with my usual pre-race routines; everyone needs to be factored in (although I sent everyone to Chester Zoo for the day to get a few hours of peace!)
• This managing of everyone’s needs / travel plans / meal requests / spectator logistics is definitely quite tiring in itself.
• Toddlers don’t suddenly become good sleepers in the build-up to a marathon. Ray refused to sleep in the travel cot I had hauled up from London on the train, so I spent my two nights before the race on some cushions on the floor. Yup, not exaggerating.

5. Fuelling for sub-maximal effort (and increased hydration)

Given that I knew I would be running this one sub-maximally, I would be using a slightly higher percentage of fat than carbs per minute than in previous marathons, so I knew I could get away with a less intense carb load. I went for 550-600g on both Friday and Saturday (approx. 9 g /kg, compared with ~11g/kg in recent marathons), and found this absurdly easy to manage; I really had to hold myself back.

I also kept my  intra-marathon carb intake a little lower than usual, with approx. 210 g over 2.5 hours (84g per hour), compared to my usual ~100g/hour. As with previous races, this was a combination of a homemade carb mix drink (90g in 250ml today) and gels (3 x 40g today).

I also made more of a conscious effort to proactively drink water in the second half of the course, which is something I often neglect a bit. I don’t often feel especially thirsty and don’t like to break my momentum, but the hot and humid Big Half 2024 reminded me to reassess this, and I feel this, and my fuelling plan overall worked really well for the race plan and conditions.  

6. London 2024, cancelled GSR, and the benefit of hindsight

After a performance like this, I couldn’t help but look back at London 2024 and feel cheated. I was in such strong shape in April, for 2:29 if not more, but as I’ve written before, something wasn’t right on the day and I took myself to a dark place to squeeze another 2:30.

To cruise round to 2:32:04 in Chester, barely a minute slower than London, on a much hillier course in fairly windy conditions, having neither trained for a marathon nor pushed myself hard in the race just confirmed my suspicions that London had been out of my control.

That said, the relaxation and control piece is definitely a factor too. I was perhaps inappropriately pumped for London and can learn from Chester in that respect.

The other big old dose of hindsight going on is that, as I write this in mid November, I can sadly  report that my ten mile goal race that I had been saving the legs for, Great South Run, was cancelled at short notice due to Storm Ashley, and who knows what I might have been able to achieve at Chester if I’d really gone for it. That said, maybe if I’d pushed even five seconds per mile faster I’d have crashed and burned. Like I say, who knows.

So those are my six things that I thought worth mentioning or documenting for my own reflections, but above all, this was just one of my most enjoyable race experiences to date, and hopefully not my last opportunity to represent my country at the sport I love. Chester is also a beautiful city that we will definitely be going back to, and I’d certainly do this race again…just perhaps staying in an AirBNB with a spare sofa bed next time.

Since writing this, England Athletics have written their own blog on the day, and have mentioned me by name and my (unintentional) finishing straight battle for M40 second place!

The post Representing England at Chester Marathon (2:32): my big six takeaways appeared first on Tom Hollis.

Before I reflect on the special day itself representing my country (next blog, coming shortly), I’ll recap here on the events that led to my selection.

Following my 2:30 PB at Valencia in December last year, I then had the smoothest and best marathon block of my life; every session went to plan, and I fully expected to break 2:30 at London in April. Sadly, something just wasn’t right on the day, and my heart rate started high, and kept rising. I ran for over two hours above my threshold, clinging on for dear life and finishing again in 2:30. To this day, I don’t know how I did it (a very high carb intake certainly helped), but I seriously wouldn’t recommend it; it was a wild and thoroughly unpleasant physical and mental battle.

At the finish line, there were seriously mixed feelings. I was proud of how I’d grafted for a good time and sizeable course PB when I was clearly not at my physical best (it turned out to be a cold that reared its head a couple of days later), but gutted not to go sub 2:30. Added to that was then having to deal with the emotional weight of explaining all the above to expectant family, friends, and clients, who had all assumed 2:29 was a done deal. We all know marathons don’t work like that though. Unlike shorter distances which can be, to some extent, blagged, the marathon will expose any weakness, any chink in the armour. London 2024 was also a big lesson to me in the value, sometimes, of keeping my cards a little closer to my chest in the build up to a race.

My coach wanted me to salvage some positivity from the block, and suggested I consider a last minute entry to Milton Keynes Marathon in early May, since it was the last of the year’s qualifying events for Masters marathon qualification for an England vest. If I could patch myself up quickly and recover in time for this (just fifteen days after London), and then finish among the top three M35 group (since I was still 39 at the time), I would be selected for England. It was a risk, but based on previous years’ results, it did seem possible, so I went for it and booked that day. Perhaps this was a classic post-marathon knee-jerk response, but there wasn’t time for indecision, as I think I took literally the last place available (I had to email the organisers, as it had officially sold out that morning). As per London lessons, I kept this race a secret from all but about five people in a bid to take the pressure off.

Within a day of booking, the aforementioned cold symptoms appeared, and perhaps unsurprisingly, given the exertions at London, they persisted right up until MK. My normally robust immune system had taken an absolute beating around the capital, and despite an array of pharmaceuticals and my trusty vitamin C + zinc, it wouldn’t shift.  

Milton Keynes arrived, and despite the sniffles, it was time to deliver the best that I could on the day and hope it would be good enough for that top three M35 place. I had been led to believe that it was a ‘fast, fairly flat’ course, but although it was a scenic and well organised event that I would certainly do again, it was apparent from early on that this course description was not at all accurate.

Annoyingly, within the first mile I experienced the same heart rate issue from London. It shot up during what should have been a really sensible start, pace-wise, and again it just kept climbing scarily towards threshold. The dread started to grip me. I wasn’t sure if I could do this all over again.

Then, just as I was about to go deep into a negative spiral, I was distracted and saved by Mark, an affable and like-minded guy from Durham. We met at about mile five, and then spent the next twelve or so miles running together, chatting a bit and just generally encouraging each other through tough moments. He was M45, but a very similar standard to me (2:30 at Seville 2024), and with similar aspirations for the day. The non-stop undulations and tight turns of the course were actually helping too, both as a distraction from me being a slave to pace, and also with the downhills providing opportunities for heart rate to settle a bit. However, without Mark I would probably have DNF’d regardless.

We went through halfway (the first loop of two) together in seventh and eighth place overall, which we knew would probably be enough for both of us to be top three in our age groups. However, it transpired that everyone else had misread the course too, and we started to reel people in. Despite slowing down ourselves, we were gaining on everyone in front of us, and one by one, started to pick them off.

At no stage was I feeling comfortable, but I think my London experience had given me extra confidence of pushing closer to my physical limits, and I had to leave Mark with a few miles to go. Spectators and marshals informed me that third place, then second, and finally even first place were not far in front, and I started to wonder if I could win this.

In the final mile, I overtook that final runner and took the lead. I was running on fumes by this point, but figured he must be too, so I just had to grind it out (including one last killer hill which we’d all been dreading from loop one). Once that was safely negotiated, I looked round and knew that I was clear. My wobbly legs got me round the MK Stadium finish as best they could, weaving past the half marathon finishers, and I burst through a hastily assembled finish line ribbon and promptly collapsed, gasping like a fish out of water.

2:37 was the finishing time; not especially impressive on paper, but this tells you nothing of the race itself. Not only had I secured top three M35 and done what I came to do, I had won a city marathon of nearly 2000 runners. Most importantly, this would mean I would qualify for that England vest. I was chuffed to see Mark soon finish in third place overall too, and it felt fitting to share the podium with him a little later. After allowing myself a few moments to bask in the glory, I jogged to the train station to get back to London and resume Sunday afternoon daddy duties, trying to explain to little Ray that I’d just won a big race.

A few weeks later I received email confirmation of my selection for England. What a moment! The representative ‘international’ marathon would be in Chester in October, which was totally at odds with the rest of my training schedule for 2024, but I wasn’t going to miss this moment; I booked Chester later that day.

The following summer months of running were really up and down, with more misses than hits. My 5k block was punctuated with too many races, but also too many fun weekends in quick succession: in Germany at the Euros, at Glastonbury, and then my 40^th birthday parties ( dietitians and coaches need downtime too), which meant that I struggled for consistency and rhythm. Results were all over the place, and my 5k PB of 15:55 was never under threat.  It goes to show how difficult it is to be on peak form all year.

The inconsistency continued into autumn, with solid outings at Sri Chinmoy 10k (33:19) and my hilly home town Frome Half Marathon (73:55, second place) followed by a chastening day at a humid Big Half (74:28) in early September. To compound the uncertainty, I managed to break my toe on holiday in Cornwall the week after, swinging my leg around and smashing my bare foot on a sofa leg while looking after Ray (a very similar injury to this time last year…I really must be more careful around the house). I knew exactly what to do this time though, so I strapped the toe, started cross training on day one, and waited for the pain to subside sufficiently to resume running. Luckily this was even quicker than last year – less than a week – and no fitness was lost. Next stop (and next blog) Chester…and England vest time.

The post Winning MK Marathon and qualifying for England representation! appeared first on Tom Hollis.

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The post Webinar: Marathon Nutrition | Race Week Booster appeared first on Tom Hollis.

However, as training load increases, our nutrition needs to adjust too, to match the new demands placed on the body, and this applies particularly to intake of carbohydrates (the body’s preferred fuel for most exercise) and overall calories (energy). 

Unfortunately, whether consciously driven by a desire for greater weight loss or not, this upregulation of fuelling often does not take place. In my experience as a sports dietitian and running coach, runners are not always comfortable taking this step, especially if weight loss and body image concerns have been a longstanding issue, and even less so if they have seen some short-term performance benefit from being lighter.

Unfortunately, this approach can be really dangerous in the long-term. RED-S is a common syndrome that can affect runners across the spectrum, from elite to recreational, old and young, male and female, and yet remains poorly understood and under-recognised by most runners and coaches.

RED-S stands for ‘Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport’, an evolution of a previous syndrome called the Female Athlete Triad. The common thread between the two conditions is that both are characterised by low energy availability; that being the energy left over after exercise to fuel all the body’s essential functions. In 2014, the International Olympic Committee coined this new term of RED-S, acknowledging the growing evidence that a chronic calorie deficit (and thereby state of low energy availability) can affect males as well as females, and many more bodily systems than previously thought. Whereas the Female Athlete Triad focused on links between energy deficit, menstrual dysfunction and poor bone health, RED-S is much broader, and identifies that immune, gastrointestinal, mental, and cardiovascular health (to name a few) can also be impaired by chronic underfuelling. It’s also worth noting that the processes of metabolism itself can be impacted (i.e. slowed down) in RED-S as the body attempts to preserve energy, which can actually make weight loss and body composition goals harder to achieve, potentially convincing the runner they need to restrict even further.

Early warning signs might include frequent or persistent colds and bugs, indicating that the immune system is being downregulated as the body tries to adjust to low energy. Other early signs can be general fatigue, reduced motivation, or reduced performance in or recovery from training sessions. Since these symptoms are, in themselves, relatively minor and perceived to be common, it’s easy to see how they might be overlooked.

However, if these trends continue, more serious issues can arise. Bone scans are not routine within recreational sport, so a runner may have no idea that they have dangerously reduced bone density until suddenly experiencing a stress fracture. By this point, RED-S has likely become quite severe and needs careful management of nutrition and training load, over an extended period (and ideally with specialist input), to overcome.

Another key area is the hormonal dysregulation that impairs reproductive function. In both males and females, this might first present as decreased libido, and in males may correlate with erectile dysfunction, or reduced frequency of morning erections. In females, it can lead to irregular (oligomenorrhea) or total absence (amenorrhea) of menstruation, which can have knock-on effects on fertility that take months or years to overcome. And these symptoms may of course be masked (again, whether consciously or otherwise) by being on the contraceptive pill, preventing runners and coaches from picking up on this big red flag for inadequate fuelling. 

Despite being an uncomfortable topic, this fertility element of RED-S in particular has started to gain more mainstream media exposure, such as this widely publicised interview by Laura Kenny, Britain’s most successful female Olympian.

However, although RED-S awareness among recreational runners is on the rise, it is still poorly understood and under-diagnosed. It is therefore vital that articles and interviews continue to appear across all media, but also that coaches move away from outdated ‘thinner is faster’ attitudes, and that they help to screen their runners for RED-S. It has become a routine part of my practice for all new nutrition and coaching clients.

Indeed, the detection, prevention and management of RED-S should become slightly easier thanks to the updated IOC consensus statement from last year, which summarises the emerging evidence and provides a new clinical assessment tool. I would strongly urge runners of all levels to take a look.

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Planning and prep

In some respects, planning for Valencia started several years ago, when I first became aware of it as such a rapid course. I very nearly took the plunge in one of the covid years but remember thinking that the cancellation policy looked particularly harsh given the state of the world at the time, so backed out and waited for normality to return. With London finally moving back from October to April this year, space was freed up, and 2023 felt a good bet. I booked as soon as I found out they were on sale, which, 11 months in advance, was still only quick enough for their second or third price ‘tranche’. It’s a hell of a long build up in terms of event participation.

This was my first overseas marathon for 8 years (the last being Rotterdam in 2015, when I broke 3 for the first time), and in all honesty, I found planning for it quite stressful. 2023 has been a year of strikes and travel uncertainty. As a man that hones in on detail in race week, this, plus hand luggage restrictions (how to get gels AND beetroot juice across?!), and choosing between accommodation certainty and affordability (I chose the latter), all added a layer of pre-race organisation I didn’t really relish.

Added to that was the nagging guilt of flying to a race, which, as I have posted on IG about, is something I don’t feel very comfortable with, and equally, of leaving my family behind.

Also, with international races so rare for me, it added an extra dimension of pressure (completely self-imposed, I should add), of a) getting to the start line in good health, which is challenging when all around you are coughing and sneezing their way through November, not least my little boy, and b) to smash the race and really make it count.

All this said, I got relatively lucky and can’t have many complaints about the logistics. I did get a dreaded email about flight times changing, but was then able to renegotiate more favourable times. I struck very lucky with my bargain Airbnb (happy to share details), and I somehow managed to avoid getting sick. I was here!

The event itself

The rumours are true: Valencia Marathon is an absolutely brilliant event, and I would recommend it without hesitation, whether you are chasing a PB or otherwise. Communication in the build up was slick, organisation on the day was great, and the whole city seems to be invested and proud of their race. 

One minor annoyance was the expo. Apparently this used to be in the city centre, but this year was moved to the Feria, some way out (pictured). I understand this might need to be the case as the event grows (and by comparison, the Excel expo is a nightmare to get to even for those who live in London), but getting there and back was difficult. No public transport route from the airport, for example.

The course is essentially flat, with only very minor undulations, before a slight but sustained downhill over the last 6km, which starts with a memorable, intense patch where the passionate spectators are so close on both sides that the course is only about a metre wide (very Tour de France). It all then finishes on the iconic blue carpet under bright skies, surrounded by glistening water. That dazzling blueness all around will stay with me forever…the most special finish to a race I’ve ever witnessed (even if I was absolutely eyeballs-out sprinting at the time).

Conditions play a huge part, of course, and having monitored Valencia closely for a few years, it seems it’s pretty much always perfect on race day. 2023 was no exception: sunny, cool (actually very cold initially), and barely a breath of wind. Marathon dreamland.

My training block

After London in April (2:34:30), I had my usual post-marathon month of running downtime before 2 months of dedicated speedwork, AKA a mini 5km block. This was a great plan, firstly because I got the sub 16 monkey off my back (15.55 in August), but also because I was then able to bring that improved top end into longer races. In September I went sub 33 in the 10k (32:47, Vitality 10k) and sub 72 in the half (71:40, Big Half), for the first time. 

The marathon block was 16 weeks, and generally went pretty smoothly. The exception was a freak broken toe incident at home in October, which thankfully healed in about a third of the 6 week prognosis I was given in A&E. Cross training saw me through that period, and I lost no fitness at all. I have newfound respect for the elliptical machine and aqua jogging!

As a new dad with ICU work and a business to run, free time is close to non-existent, so all but one of my runs each week are run commutes or buggy runs. Sunday early morning is my negotiated me time for a longer run, and it all just about works. 50 miles per week was the target for the first 10-12 weeks, then I was able to increase to 60-70 (a new high for me, in fact) in the final month pre taper.

Race and prep tactics:

Rather than list everything (because it gets refined each year…see previous blogs), I’ll mention a few things I did differently (and better) than previously.

1. Day to day nutrition. Even as my job, there is always room for improvement in nutrition. When sleep quality is inevitably and consistently poor, for reasons that are obvious, I needed to look at what else I could prioritise in terms of recovery, and I became incredibly consistent with pre and post run nutrition, matching this to the needs of the session. My wife and I have also made a conscious effort to improve the quality of our diet, from what was already a good baseline, especially with breastfed Ray in mind. Ultra-processed foods are at an all time low, and, anecdotally, I think it has been a big help.

2. Carb load. I hit 11g/kg on both the Friday and Saturday, which was a new high, on the back of a carb depletion at the start of race week, which takes skill to get right. 11g/kg takes practice, planning, and to learn what foods and drinks work for you, but it really makes all the difference on race day. This was one of the areas that was tougher to plan for an international race, and involved more carbs from drink mixes than usual, and plenty of snacks brought from home to reduce risk. 

3. Mid race carbs

I took 244g from gels over my 2.5h race, plus a few sips of the on course sports drink (it was in paper cups, so of course at least half of it ended up on my face), so I would have pretty much hit exactly 100g/hr for the first time. Again, this takes practice and it makes all the difference in what intensity you can sustain in the back end of the marathon. 

3. Running to HR

There’s way too much data in running and I certainly don’t get on board with it all, either as a coach or runner, as a lot of it is data for data’s sake, and prone to misunderstanding (prime example: continuous glucose monitoring in non-diabetics). Heart rate is an exception, and one of the simplest but most useful running metrics out there. My own coach, Chris, has long been an advocate of using it, and I certainly work it into my plans, where appropriate, with my own coaching clients as well. 

That said, the idea of running a marathon entirely to heart rate would have terrified me, right up until I did the Battersea marathon in October as a training run with no mid run fuel. This was done on heart rate to keep me well below threshold, and I ended up not only winning the race, but PBing by a few seconds. I was staggered, and also convinced to give this a go in Valencia, working with Chris to plan the race based on percentages of my maximum HR that I could tolerate for certain periods of time.

Battersea also showed me the importance of starting a race relaxed, especially in terms of HR management. My watch suggested I was managing this well on race morning, and it was great to meet and chat to a lovely Irish runner called Trevor (2:35 PB for him) for the final hour pre race to help ease the tension. 

Anyway the HR plan worked an absolute treat, and gave me the confidence that I could really attack the final 10k knowing I wouldn’t blow up. I went through halfway in 1:16:20, then 1:13:50 in the second half (which would have been a HM PB before this summer), with a 16:30 final 5k as I threw everything I had at it. 

I would be lying to say I was completely unaware of time and pace, and in the final 10k was trying to work out if there was an outside chance of sub 2:30. My brain couldn’t quite work it out, and from one km marker to the next, I kept changing my mind. As I approached the final straight I was sprinting, but knew I’d be slightly outside. 2:30:10. Arms outstretched, overly dramatic roar for the crowd…no part of me was anything other than elated. Another 4 minute PB and I’d done myself, my family, and my coach proud.

Could I have found another 11 seconds somewhere out there? Of course. I suspect if I raced the same course tomorrow (marathon legs notwithstanding), I’d be savvy enough to find that time. But sub 2:30 was never the aim. I am now within touching distance of a crazy milestone, but it can wait.

What next?

In the short-term: running downtime, navigating a sociable December, and repaying some favours to my wife. 

Then it’ll be a London marathon block from January, and I think the aim for that doesn’t need spelling out. It’ll be my last marathon before I turn 40 in July, and I’m not going to lie, I’m quite looking forward to being able to favourably compare myself to the V40 crew!

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1. Perspective

Evidently, I love running. More than that though, I love the satisfaction and graft that comes with ticking off session after session of structured training and seeing this translate into race day PBs. It’s my number one hobby by a mile (no pun intended), and what keeps that fire burning inside me.

However, it took several years to become a dad. The unexplained infertility and IVF rollercoaster (with mammoth Covid delays) was a long, emotional, and mostly terrible one, but we were one of the lucky ones to have a happy ending (and a shout out here to the quite incredible NHS service we received throughout all those years).

We now have our beautiful baby boy, who this week comes to the end of his ‘fourth trimester’, so called because human babies are so utterly dependent on their parents for the first three months of life that they may as well still be in the womb.

Anyway, my main point here is that I’ll never get these pivotal first months of his life back, and as much as I love and live for running, it will (hopefully) always be there in my life. I’m happy for it to take a distant back seat for as long as it needs to, especially given what it took to get us to this point.

2. Pick your moments and commit

Despite a thousand warnings, the first few weeks of parenthood were far more intense than I had anticipated (especially while also starting a new clinical job and navigating a flat sale and purchase at the same time). It’s no exaggeration – but undoubtedly gross – to admit that we sometimes didn’t even get round to having a shower or brushing our teeth, such was the intensity of those frenzied evenings.

Trying to wait for a calmer moment for self-care / a long run / strength work etc was and still is a pointless move; it will never come. A better approach is to be realistic, pick perhaps one of these things you want to do each week, commit to a time and try to stick to it. Half of those times there will be a last minute drama that prevents it, but at least you’ve tried!

3. Embrace the run-commute

I have been very pro run-commute for years, but it’s now reached the point where I do very little running outside the commute; it must be responsible for 80+% of my weekly volume currently, and my running would have fallen off a cliff without it. If you can make it work for you (i.e. you have a shower at work – everything else can be worked around with a bit of planning), it really is a no-brainer. For me, the time difference to public transport is negligible, it saves money, helps the planet, and is a journey I have to make anyway, as opposed to finding an excuse or that non-existent ‘good time’ as a new parent to get out of the door for a run.

If a run commute doesn’t work for you, the same can be said for any other journey that you needed to make anyway. Perhaps it’s easier to say from the perspective of someone who lives in a city and doesn’t own a car, but those first few weeks of parenthood were filled with me running to collect second hand baby clothes / kit / buggy from all over London. You spot an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and you take it, basically.

4. Accept you can’t do it all

All that said, it’s essential to accept that you can’t do it all. This applies to all elements of life when you’re a new dad (with the exception of the five star service I maintained for my private clients, of course ?), but running training in particular. The unpredictable nature of those first months means that consistent training is just not going to happen. My week by week Strava graph from October onwards resembles a child’s drawing of a mountain range, and I’ve long since accepted that this is fine…you just have to be kind to yourself and keep things ticking over as best you can.

Perhaps even more so than the running itself, though, is the impact on everything that goes alongside it. You can pretty much wave goodbye to any good routines you had around S&C, recovery, sleep etc.

Starting with sleep – yes, it is as bad as everyone says, especially in the first couple of months. I had long held the suspicion that my already terrible sleep quality that comes from the trauma of working on ICU throughout the pandemic (plus the early starts of ICU life) might mean that this would all be less of a shock to my system than it might be for some new dads, and I’d say this is probably how it’s turned out. I knew it was all worth it in the long run!

However, what has taken a massive hit has been any sort of S&C, warm-ups and stretching / yoga, all of which I had finally started to develop some consistency with in recent years. With every passing week, I realise these are the good habits that are quickly slipping. Each time, it’s ‘next week’, and so on, and so on. As we all know, it’s so much easier to continue doing something than it is to restart it once you’ve paused.

5. The baby lunge

The only exception to the above is my signature move: the baby lunge. Little Ray seems to love being held while I count through a few lunges (something to do with repetitive movement and me generating heat, I’m sure), and it’s second only to white noise* in terms of getting him to sleep during a crying fit. Naturally then, this tactic gets resorted to a lot, often in the middle of the night, and with the pressure on me to keep the lunges going for as long as possible and Ray slowly gaining in weight, at least I now have quads of steel even if the rest of my body is slowly turning to mashed potato!

*Specifically the ‘Womb Sounds’ app. Words cannot describe how grateful we are for this! We were recommended it during a particularly desperate evening of non-stop crying in about week three, and just looked at each other in disbelief at how quickly it worked – genuinely like giving a sedative. If this little snippet helps any new parents out there, then you are very welcome.

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