Firstly, don’t worry. This isn’t going to be one of those blogs telling you how long you need to run for to ‘burn off’ all those mince pies you plan on eating. Nor am I going to be telling you that you need to make sure you stick to your plan 100% to ensure you continue to make progress.

As we are coming towards the end of the year, like me, you might now be starting to think more about your 2025 running goals, and what you want to achieve.

Yep, that’s right, Christmas is right around the corner. And the big question is… what is on your Christmas list this year?

If you are reading this blog, I am going to assume that like me, you are planning to run the 2025 TCS London Marathon. And perhaps also like me, now that we are in December you may have had that slight panic that marathon training is officially going to kick off very soon.

Over the last few weeks we have touched on the different areas of marathon training - from the perfect sandwich, to the petrol tank in your car (10/10 if you have been reading up and understand these references) and today we are going to cover another really important part of the marathon training puzzle… Strength and Conditioning.

We know that getting injured whilst training for a marathon is pretty much the last thing that any runner wants to happen. And whilst unfortunately we cannot 100% guarantee this won’t happen (sorry) there are things you can do during your training to give you the best possible chance to get to the start line injury free.

I like to compare marathon training to making a sandwich; there are lots of different ways to do it, lots of extras you can add in, but if you can nail the basics, then you will always have a solid foundation to work from.

So, lets break it down together.

With just under six months to go until the 2025 TCS London Marathon, it might seem like there’s plenty of time to prepare, but now is actually the perfect time to get started and lay the foundations for your marathon success.

When you think of marathon training you may think of repetitively pounding the pavement at the same pace to increase your mileage. At Coopah we include a variety of runs in your marathon training plan to encourage running at different paces.

Not all training plans are the same & long run distances on a marathon plan can vary, but how long should your longest run be of the marathon block, & what determines this? At Coopah we recommend your longest run is no more than 20 miles, or 4 hours of running, & here are some reasons why…

The TCS London Marathon saw a record-breaking 840,318 people enter the ballot for 2025! If you missed out on a spot for London, we’ve got you covered with our top alternatives within the UK, Europe, as well as our favourite beginner friendly marathons!