Sunday Long Run on race goal pace

Hi! Welcome back to my running blog!
In my journey towards the NN Marathon Rotterdam 2025 I post here to keep you up to date with my progress.

My training schedule is based on the Pfitzinger Advanced Marathoning handbook from which I made some adjustments that suit my individual needs (for example I prefer recovery runs over full resting days plus my body especially my knees don’t react too well on the prescribed speed work in the schedules) so with some experience I made some trail and error adjustments. What is the core principle at the pfitzinger plans is to dedicate specific goals to each training - in such a way that you can max the benefits of extra kilometers while reducing your recovery needs. Would definitly recommand reading the book if you want to run a marathon one day!

Peak weeks!
With Today’s run I finished my first out of 3 peak weeks with a total of 77.2 kilometer done.

While it is smart to do long runs on a slower pace - I was struggling what race pace to set in order to beat my PR. Therefore I used today’s long run as a means to find the pace that I am comfortable with. For now I seem to have found it slightly below 4:40 / km.

My new consideration is about my running vest and water bottles. On my trail marathon in februari it was a must, now I am considering running without and rely on the drinks NN Marathon Rotterdam provides. With the vest I can run my own pace, ignore supply stations and carry more stuff comfortable - but it is an extra 1.5kg weight, and on days like this it is also a lot of additional warmth. So still something to consider next few weeks!

My run today
I did a zone 3 long run of 31 km, starting at 07:15. I used 7 sis isotonic gels as fuel and about 0.5L water with sis hydro tabs (while carrying 1L)

The temperature was about perfect < 10 C , no wind and sun. Just amazing to be outside on a day like this!

Happy running!