How Ben Connor trained for his marathon debut
Ben Connor has been self-coached for just over a year, following stints training under Ray Treacy at Providence College in the United States and then Steve Vernon as part of Team New Balance Manchester.
He says his girlfriend, fellow GB international athlete Lily Partridge, calls him "a bit of a geek" for the way he likes to do his research but it is a process he really enjoys.
Despite the disruptions in 2020, the British 10,000m champion has got himself into great shape ahead of his marathon debut in London on Sunday (October 4), with a half-marathon PB of 60:55 clocked in Antrim three weeks ago further proof of the work he has put in.
Here the 2017 English National cross country champion shares insight into his marathon build-up.
"We (Connor and Partridge) were in very high mileage when the lockdown got announced so we said to each other 'let’s take a break' as if we had run a marathon, because although we hadn’t run the event we had effectively done the miles for it, so we took a couple of weeks off or easy," Connor explains.
"We trained well but we didn’t train hard during lockdown because we didn’t need to take the risk, especially because we couldn’t get physio treatment or go to the gym. So we didn’t push ourselves too much, we just did what we could with a lot of running on the grass or the trails.
"We found new loops, messing about on Strava, just trying to make it as fun as possible when nobody really knew what was happening. We didn’t think we would be racing this side of Christmas, really. It’s obviously great that we are. We kept ourselves fit but we also kept ourselves uninjured. I feel like we did it just about right."
Both Connor and Partridge, who is also running the London Marathon on Sunday, were training in Font-Romeu when it was announced that the iconic event would be taking place but in a different elite-only format and then began their second event build-up.
Describing an average training week, Connor says: "Monday is always the easiest day – start the week off right! I say an easy day, an easy day is probably something like 12 miles now! One run of 12 miles.
"I’ll do a couple more easy runs on Tuesday, a little bit longer, probably 10 and then six in the afternoon and also maybe some strides. I usually do a bit of gym work, such as core work and stability and glute activation.
"Wednesday is a big session day so that will be something like a 15km volume session. One week I did 6 x 2km and 10 x mile I’ve also done. Just simple, maybe a tempo and then some hills after that. It would equal around 15km or 16km of hard work.
"Thursday would be an easy day to recover, maybe 10 miles and then five in the afternoon.
"Friday is probably a medium long run," he adds. "16 miles maybe with some hill sprints or strides and some gym in the afternoon.
"Saturday, another easy day. Just miles. Another 10 and five in the afternoon. I’d usually get a massage as well.
"Sunday is my biggest session of the week, that is the most marathon-specific session. It’s a long run but there will be a session within the long run, not just going out for two-and-a-half hours at a decent pace. One of the sessions I did was a four-mile warm up and then 4 x 3 miles with a mile float recovery in between and then a four-mile cool down. So the run all together equals around 24 miles but a good 17 miles of it is at marathon pace or quicker.
"So two hard sessions and a medium long run and the rest of it is easier running. That equals around 110 miles a week with a couple of gym sessions."
(Photos by Dan Vernon for London Marathon Events)
» Click here to read more from an interview with Ben Connor as he looks ahead to making his marathon debut
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