We are now just 20 weeks from TCS London Marathon 2023! Some of you may have already started your marathon training, whilst others may be starting very soon. At Coopah, we recommend to start marathon training 16 – 20 weeks ahead of Marathon Day. In this blog we will cover five helpful tips when training for London Marathon as well as how to start your marathon training.

5 Tips to Prepare for TCS London Marathon 2023

1.Don’t do too much too soon

You risk getting injured if you do too much too soon and that make marathon training even harder. We advise to follow a marathon training which is personalised to you and your running experience. Your marathon training plan will have the running mileage, session types and pace already set out for you.

Coopah’s personalised training plans even include S+C sessions and Yoga Classes to make you a stronger runner.

2. Think of long runs as time on feet

In training, you are not trying to bash out a 10-mile personal best in your weekly long runs. Many different factors will impact your fatigue levels so just focus on getting your weekly long run done.

3. Run with a group of people

It is brilliant to get out and run with other people during marathon training. You can have a catch during a long run as these are supposed to be run at a conversational level.

Come race day, there will be times where you will run with fellow marathon runners but they will also be times where you will run by yourself. Marathons are about learning to listen to your body.

4. Start thinking about your marathon goal and paces

You may have already ran a marathon and you want to finish it 5 minutes faster time than previously or aim to get that sub 4 hour marathon. Or another brilliant London Marathon goal is reaching that finish line and enjoying the whole experience.

Once you have established your goal, you can start figuring what pacing works best for you. Do you think maintaining a pace throughout the whole marathon is best suited to you or would you prefer running faster in one half or the other? Everyone has their own preferences, so make sure to try out different strategies during your training runs.

5. Think of Long runs as race day rehearsals

We do not want to try anything new or different on race day other than running 42.2km. That is more than enough for our bodies to handle.

So make sure you experiment what breakfast best suits you and discover what pre-race dinner agrees with you the most. On the week leading up to London Marathon, stick to the solid routine which works for you.

You should also try out different race day outfits and fuelling strategies during your long runs too. Marathon week is not the time to start experimenting, make sure to do all the experimenting when in our training.

4 Easy Steps to start training for TCS London Marathon 2023

1.Download Coopah

The Coopah app is supported on both Android and iOS devices.

You can download the Coopah app for Android devices from the Google Play Store. Users of iOS devices can find it in the App Store.

2. Sign up to Coopah

3. Answer a few questions to help us create a personalised marathon training plan for you

4. Complete your run with us and start preparing for TCS London Marathon 2023.

And if you ever have a question about your training, don’t hesitate to chat to your 24/7 Coopah Coach via the app.

We hope you found these 5 tips useful in your preparations for London Marathon. To read about a runner’s experience training for London Marathon, head over to Victoria’s blog on how she found training for London Marathon.

Leave a comment below if you are training for the London Marathon