Hi all, welcome back to my “Road to Spijkenisse - SPARK Marathon 2025”, in which I take on the challenge to break my 3:20:16 Marathon PR with a 8 week trainingsprogram.
After an intense 5 days, I decided to make a small adjustment in my trainingsplan. My Saterday 30 min recovery pace became family time and an opportunity to give the legs complete rest.
Sunday morning Setting the alarm at 06:30, waking up, getting dressed and relaxing with a coffee. Then preparing my camelback with 2x 0,5l of water with electrolytes and a few energy gels (took 4 isotonic and 1 with a caffeine boost with me). Before hitting the road at 07:30.
While traditionally the long runs are mostly zone 2 (slower) runs, I felt that the day off made me feel strong, so I decided to go for a decently paced zone 3 run. Heading outside, it was still raining quite a bit - but that was ok => if you are wet, you are wet so I just don’t really bother. I decided to run to go to Rotterdam Krallingen , which features a little lake and a small forest. To go there I crossed some if the older parts of the city
When I was in the forest area the rain had stopped and a nice sun came up for the early birds.
I sticked to my nutrition plan for most of the run, alternating drinks and gels every 10 minutes and I felt strong maintaining a 4:35-4:45 / minute pace without any trouble.
After the forest area I decided to do a lap around the lake. While it had stopped raining, the strong wind blew quite some water into my face - which at that point was refreshing!
Finishing the lake, put me around 20km in after which I headed back home (another 7km) where I focussed on maintaining pace and posture. I decided to skip the last 2 energy gels as I felt strong enough to finish it strong without any additional boost (hoping it would benefit my fat burning a little).
Overall, fun long run with perfect weather conditions!
Happy running