Week 2 of the Ahmedabad Marathon training block was a reminder that marathon training is never a perfectly straight line.
The plan called for a little more mileage, but life had other ideas. I missed one aerobic base run, which meant the week’s volume ended at 47.5 km instead of the planned 55–60 km. A few months ago, I would probably have tried to “make up” for the missed session. Experience has taught me otherwise.
A missed recovery run is just that—a missed recovery run. Trying to compensate often does more harm than good.
Quality over guilt
The week’s highlight wasn’t the mileage. It was the quality.
⛰️ Hill Repeats
The first key session was the hill workout.
Five forty-five second climbs don’t look intimidating on paper. They are a different story when you’re halfway through one, lungs protesting and legs asking uncomfortable questions.
Hill repeats remain one of the most efficient workouts in marathon training. They quietly build strength, improve running economy, recruit muscle fibres that easy running never touches, and prepare the body for harder threshold sessions later in the block.
No heroics. Just controlled suffering.
Exactly as intended.
🏃 The Long Run
The weekend long run was the confidence booster.
After the warm-up, the run settled beautifully before finishing with the faster closing segment. Heart rate stayed largely where it was expected despite the effort increasing towards the end—a reassuring sign that the shift to LTHR-based training is beginning to make more sense.
There is still plenty of work ahead, but the body is slowly learning the difference between running comfortably and running efficiently.
That distinction matters far more than an extra five kilometres in the training log.
The Numbers
- Running sessions: 6
- Distance: 47.5 km
- Time on feet: 6 hr 17 min
- Strength sessions: 2
- Key workouts completed: ✅ Hill Repeats, ✅ Long Run
- Missed: One aerobic base run
The Bigger Picture
This training block isn’t about collecting impressive weekly mileage screenshots.
It’s about arriving at the Ahmedabad Marathon healthy enough to string together twenty consistent weeks.
Consistency beats intensity.
Months beat days.
Training adaptations don’t know what day of the week it is. They simply respond to repeated stress, sensible recovery, and patience.
Week 2 wasn’t perfect.
It didn’t need to be.
It simply moved the story forward.
20 weeks to Ahmedabad. The engine is still being built.
