gobino's bites

Road to Valencia - Part 14 πŸƒ

maraton_1

Intro

This is an ongoing series of how I'm preparing for the marathon of Valencia, taking place on Dec 7th. I'm using Stryd to train for this event based on running power, a metric I have found very useful for the past years.

I'm ramping up my fitness, hope to finish somewhere around 3h10 / 3h15 / 3h30 without any expectations (adjusted goal due to prolonged sickness).

Read my introduction post here or check out the full series.

Week 13 training schedule

Distance: 40km

Week 13 review

Overall feeling: Lost πŸ˜•

My week started of great, accomplishing every run according to plan. It did feel a bit more tired on Friday, and had to see it coming with a dropping HRV, but I went out for my interval run (switched with Thursday) anyway. It wasn't as easy as I expected, but thought this was due to running less in the past weeks. I was able to sustain the set power and felt good throughout the session. And more importantly, I felt great afterwards.

I focused on my recovery with the right shower, nutrition and breathing afterwards. Unfortunately, the infection that was spreading through my body for the past weeks returned over the night, and made me feel bad in the morning. I tried focusing on rest and recovery on Saturday, going to bed early, but to no avail. My HRV was worse on Sunday, similar as to how I was feeling. I decided that any type running would not do any good, so I skipped my long run. Again.

Additional training, tools & comments

I've had issues and sickness during previous preparations as well, but not as bad as this, skipping the long run week after week. Normally, I ran a 30km long run or more each week, now I haven't completed anything above 25km.

I've therefore decided to remove all expectations, focusing only on finishing the event.
The fact I've not ran any long runs, makes me worry. But luckily, this isn't my first marathon and I know what I can expect. I only hope I can still get in at least one +35km run this weekend, before my tapering (easy and short runs) starts.

I also decided to stop doing intervals to remove any strain during workouts. I'll only focus on distance and volume, instead of speed. Speed gains are minimal this late in a marathon schedule, so it's better to focus on helping my body and legs adjust.

And hopefully, this will be enough to enjoy and finish the event in 3 weeks.

Besides letting go and giving myself some mental release I continued focusing on breath work. The more I read into it, the more I see and feel that so much can be gained or lost by it.

This week

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#2025 #2025-11 #article #road-to-valencia #running