Countdown Conundrum 

When the clock begins ticking into the final two months of your marathon training, Coach Matt Long offers some green, amber and red traffic lights🚦

Green Lights
1. Carry on carrying on. Consistency is key to all aerobically dominant events and the marathon is no different. Continue building aerobic and strength endurance as we work towards race day.

2. Begin to run to split a little more than simply running to feel. The late, great American Oregon based coach Bill Bowerman spoke of the gap between ‘date pace’ and ‘goal pace’. Now is the time to close that gap between how you feel on your key sessions on any given day and what your target pace is.

3. Begin to try and periodically habituate the time of day in which your marathon kicks off. If it’s a morning start you need to be ready to run from the ‘get-go’ and its no use of all your training has been effected at 8pm on dark winter nights. Your body clock will not quite be aligned and performance may suffer.

4. Fine tune fuelling and hydration strategies on those long runs so there’s no surprises on race day and you feel comfortable with a particular gel or say carrying your own water on route. 

Amber Lights:
1. Listen to those niggles which are inevitable. Are you in danger of ‘over-reaching’ risking the possibility you may not make it to the start line at all?

2. Take note of that sore throat or sniffle. It may be nothing but listen to your body as illness may be a sign of overtraining and / or under-fuelling.

Red Lights: 

1. Trying to run through an obvious injury like a meniscus tear or shin splints just because you have a ‘golden ticket’ to a marathon place which may not be transferable to next year. Protect your long-term athlete development including your health.

2. Being sucked into playing the dangerous game of ‘catch up’ for training missed due to injury or ill health. Rather than risk injury, realign your goals. Have an A goal and B goal which are ordinarily time and performance driven but try and include a C goal which is more process based and might include nailing your hydration on the day or adapting your warm up in a confined space- something you will learn from the experience regardless of
performance as dictated by the watch.

3. Believing you don’t need to taper until a couple of days before the marathon. So ok you’ve run a decent 10k or half marathon off a couple of easier days before the race but it’s a mistake to think you won’t need a much longer taper for 26.2 miles. The marathon is a massive step up from 10k and half marathon racing and the prep and recovery must be specific to the demands of the event.

4. Changing shoes a week or two before you race. Yes the look, feel and even smell of a new pair of shoes will lift you psychologically but it’s a huge risk in terms of issues like cramping and blistering. Stick with the shoes you wear for those tempo-blocked long runs which closely mirror the demands of the marathon and if any change is needed die to shoe wear and tear do it now!

The above leaves us with the questions for self-reflection:

 1. What things am I currently doing well and which give me the green light to keep on doing over the next few weeks?
2. Have I inadvertently driven through any amber traffic lights and not heeded the roadside warnings to slow down or stop due to risking illness or injury?
3. What can I do to avoid speeding on through any red traffic lights which could have some serious consequences for the cleanliness of my license to run in the future?

Matt Long has served as an England Team Manager or Coach or 30 occasions and has guided three athletes to become world champions. In 2025 his lifetime contribution to our sport was honoured in the form of an award by England Athletics.