Making your marathon debut is an intimidating prospect–however doing so whereas chasing a world-class aim time is next-level. Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee of the U.Okay. is ready for his first try on the 42.2K distance on the London Marathon on April 27, and on Thursday, in a weblog put up by his sponsor, Coros, the world obtained a sneak peak at his coaching secrets and techniques–together with his goal time. “I’d like to run someplace round 2:07 to 2:10,” Yee stated. “We’re going into the unknown, so we are going to see, however I need to give it a extremely good go.”
Why the marathon?
Regardless of getting back from the Paris Olympics final yr with a gold medal and establishing himself as essentially the most embellished Olympic triathlete of all time, Yee didn’t really feel glad–and his workforce acknowledged that some adjustments could be made. “All of us agreed that [training] can’t look the identical because it has for the previous couple of years,” Yee stated throughout a press convention in February. “If I do the identical stuff, then I’ll keep the identical. It was all about trying down totally different avenues to enhance and be higher as an individual and an athlete. For me, that match rather well with doing one among my dream races, the London Marathon.
“To have the ability to race at house is fairly particular,” he added.
Yee’s coaching secrets and techniques
Whereas he’s clearly expert throughout all three triathlon disciplines, Yee’s biggest power lies within the run. For the primary time in 5 years, he’s shifted his focus to refining his run thresholds, utilizing the Coros Coronary heart Price Monitor and Coros Tempo Professional to trace and analyze his coaching knowledge. In January, he made his 10K debut in Valencia, breaking into the highest 30 with a time of 28:07.
Prioritizing run coaching has meant considerably easing up on his weekly quantity within the pool and on the bike; as of February, Yee had “solely” swum 5 instances and ridden for 9 hours. That’s a significant drop from his normal 15 hours on the bike and additional pool classes, however the adjustment allowed him to push his operating mileage to 130 km per week. Yee additionally stated he deliberate to reduce the bike even additional and improve his weekly operating quantity to 145 km.
The weblog put up additionally revealed one among Yee’s most intense coaching classes in his marathon construct–a 30-km development run averaging 3:07 per kilometre. “I’m actually having fun with these longer classes,” the athlete stated. “Going from shorter intervals like 6 x 2 km to now operating 30 km repeatedly is an enormous soar, however my physique is responding effectively—and most significantly, I’m loving the problem.”
On race day, past chasing his aim time, Yee stated he’ll deal with “enjoyment as a lot as something, and making that first marathon a very good expertise.”
“If I may give [Eliud] Kipchoge a very good race as effectively, that might be good enjoyable,” he stated with fun.
For a deeper take a look at Yee’s coaching, try Coros’s newest weblog right here.