#109 - How to structure speed into your marathon training with Olympian Steph Davis

A Runner’s Life

Episode 109, I’m joined by Olympic marathon runner Steph Davis. I first spoke with Steph in episode #89 when she won the Great Britain Olympic marathon trials.

This live episode is the second of three adizero Marathon Season Twitter talks to help you improve your running with insight from elite Adidas runners and coaches. In this conversation I speak with Steph about how you can structure speed into your marathon training.

In the first live adizero runner’s round table talk I spoke with Charlotte Purdue talking about developing the marathon mindset, which you can listen to in episode #106.

In this conversation we covered the following topics:

• Start with the basics, what criteria would you look to measure speed.
• Covering essential training concepts to develop your speed.
• Defining what key sessions are, including tempo runs.
• We discuss different types of speed sessions, Steph talks about how she integrates them into her current training.
• Steph shares some key changes and developments in her speed sessions from her first marathon in Berlin marathon up to the current day.
• The importance that cross-training plays to supplementing your running.
• Discussing the importance of quality versus quantity.
• Allowing for flexibility in your training blocks.
• We cover methods of how you can apply speed into your training.
• Why it’s important to develop speed in the shorter distances and how it complements the marathon.
• When should you look at putting races in your marathon programme to test yourself.
• The pros and cons for doing speed sessions in running groups versus running solo.
• How to mix things up to prevent your training from going stale.
• Plus so much more.

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