Road To Recovery: As marathon training ramps up - 5 tips for maintaining motivation, from a 9x marathon runner

It’s 7.15 am on a sunny Saturday spring morning and, I’ll be honest, I haven’t felt this excited in a long time. After nearly three months of patiently waiting, it’s finally time to lace up for my first run back - a humbling one-minute run, one-minute walk of a kilometre. But I’m not taking a single second of it for granted.

I spend far too long choosing my running outfit - Nike AeroSwift shorts, Pruzan long-sleeved tee and Free People striped athletic socks to match my New Balance Rebel v4’s, for any of you who are interested - and listen to my Berlin Marathon playlist from 2023 to put me in the mood. Runners will know that half of the fun of being a runner is coordinating your outfits, curating pop-packed playlists, and choosing which bakery you’ll pick up pastries from once you’ve finished.

That dreamy first run back was a few weeks ago now, and since then, I’ve been slowly building my mileage week on week, quite literally starting from the ground up.

A life highlight has to be lacing up for my longest run of the year on my hen do. Picture the scene: eighteen of us have driven down to Bournemouth for the weekend, staying in an old Georgian townhouse a stone’s throw from the beach. Following a Friday evening of prosecco and canapes, we’re up bright and early for a 5km run along the seafront and a spontaneous (and hangover-curing) dip in the sea. Picturing us all lacing up - me, in head-to-toe bridal white from one of my go-to brands lululemon and with all of my best mates by my side - has become my Roman Empire.

As for whether I’ll be lacing up for the London Marathon in just over a month’s time - I still don’t know. I’m focusing on the right now, injury-proofing my body with strength training workouts and physio exercises, and hoping for the best. All of this to say, progress isn’t linear - and nothing has reaffirmed that more for me than the last few months.

I thought I’d be disheartened by the rebuild. I used to average between 30 and 40 miles a week, with my shortest run sitting at five miles and my longest, anything from ten to 22 miles. And I’m a long way from that right now, aiming for three to four runs a week of between three and five-mile distance. But rather than focusing on what I used to do, I’ve made a conscious effort to focus on what I do right now, instead.

The biggest mindset shift has to be my newfound appreciation of my body’s ability to be able to run - something which, especially when you’re in the throes of marathon training and absolutely exhausted, it’s all too easy to forget.

So, with the London Marathon just 35 days away, I wanted to share my top tips for maintaining not only your motivation but protecting your mental health as the mileage ramps up.

1. Focus on what you’ve done, not what you haven’t

While voice noting a friend who’s currently training for London - her first ever marathon - last week, I found myself sharing wisdom I only wish I’d heard when training for my first. The salient fact of the matter is that a “perfect” marathon training cycle simply doesn’t exist. We’re all busy, it’s cold and flu season, and as women, we’re training around our cycles, too, meaning some weeks we simply won’t have it in us to train at 100%.

Rather than obsessing over the runs you didn’t bank, instead, take the time to feel proud of all of the ones that you did. It’s a simple hack, but one that promises to reassure an anxious or spiralling mind.

2. Commit to your routine

Hear me out on this one - because, as the Senior Health Editor here at MC UK, I’m also a staunch advocate for being flexible with your workout routine and following an 80/20 approach to wellness to ensure movement doesn’t negatively impact your quality of life or overall happiness (it should always add, not take away, from your life).

That said, when you’re eleven weeks into a training program and physically and mentally exhausted, having a consistent routine can actually be one of the easiest ways to get your mileage done without having to play jenga with your calendar each week to make it work.

Research shows that it takes 66 days to form a habit, and while you’re probably well acquainted with morning workouts by now as a way of fitting your training runs in, committing to getting up and out could be a great way to free up spare time if you’re starting to feel like marathon training is taking over your life.

3. Remember your “why”

You’ll likely have heard this time and time again - but really rooting down into your reason for running, or motivation to push yourself to achieve a distance that once seemed impossible, is absolutely key for distance runners.

For thousands of runners at this year’s marathon, it’ll be because they’ve lost a family member or friend and are running in their honour. For many others, it’ll simply be to prove that they can. Whatever your why, it’s an emotive, powerful and essential driving force and will be the ultimate motivator in helping you reach that finish line.

4. Be kind to yourself - and remember, you’ll be in that 1%

In case you’ve forgotten, less than 1% of the world's population will complete a marathon in their lifetime - a statistic that’s all too easy to forget when our Instagram feeds are awash with Puresport-clad, PB-beating speedsters who seemingly never find training difficult or get injured. But do remember - Instagram is a highlight reel, and everyone will find marathon training challenging at some point. If it was easy, everyone would do it, right?

Be kind to yourself, make sure you’re prioritising rest, recovery, and your favourite nutrient-dense refuel, and be sure to take some dedicated time each week to reflect on what you’re most proud of with your training for that week. Even just getting out of bed and lacing up on a particularly sleepy morning counts - it’s taking you one step closer to your end goal, after all.

5. And finally, prioritise the controllable

So many things could happen on race day that are out of your control. It could rain. It could snow. You could get a blister. You could get a stitch. You could need a wee at mile two (and then again at miles six, nine, sixteen, and 22). Rather than worrying about what could happen, though, now’s the absolute prime time to be nailing all of the parts of your pre-race routine that’ll help you to keep the controllables in check.

Take the blisters, as an example. While blisters do happen, making sure you’re banking your long runs in the shoes you plan to wear on race day is a great opportunity to ensure they don’t start to hurt over a longer distance. And on the stitch front - testing your carb-heavy breakfast of choice before your runs is another great way to ensure you know can digest your fuel properly (mine has always been a bagel with peanut butter and a banana an hour and a half before my start time, with a Maurten gel when there’s 15 minutes until kick-off).

Weather, sadly, isn’t something you can have any say in. But you can prepare for it, heading out for those training miles when it’s raining and, again, checking how well your kit holds up in sleet and hail so that you know what to wear if - god forbid - it’s chucking it down come race day.

Focusing on what you can control - your fuelling, your kit choices, your playlist, your cheer crew, and your race day mantras - is a great way to remind yourself of all the hard work you’ve put in to get to this point. You’ve done most of the hard work now - it’s nearly your victory lap.

To read more of Ally's Road To Recovery column, where she explains her injury, her hopes of running the 2025 London Marathon, and how surprised she's been at her love of low impact alternatives, click here.