How to use a race prediction to keep you motivated for your second marathon and help you smash your P.B.

Compared to your first marathon, the second time round is a very different kettle of fish (weirdest metaphor ever by the way).

During your first round of training you were likely primarily focussed on being able to finish the race, good time or not.

Or if you did have a target time, you might not have been completely confident you had it in you to achieve it.

Anyway—there are plenty of ways to approach your second huge run that’ll give you a sense of focus and make you feel good about your training.

Today we’re going to cover some key tips.

Step 1: Use a race prediction to give razor-sharp focus to your training

Getting to the end of your first marathon was a great achievement. You trained. You showed up. You ran for three or four hours straight. You also got a personal best time, an invaluable piece of information to help you define your goals for your second marathon.

Second time round, it’s a good idea to try to beat your PB.

It’s also kind of obvious. So much so that you probably didn’t need me to tell you that.

The thing is—how do you go about it? Do you simply ‘train more’ this time around? Do you ‘somehow’ eke out a little extra pace and oomph during training?

That sounds good, but exactly how much extra training do you need? And how much more oomph? (OK we’ll stop writing oomph).

To take the next step as a runner, you need three things:

A race prediction
A race target time that you set for yourself
A training plan to help you achieve these goals

Find a Race Prediction, Work to a Training Plan for Peace of Mind

There are a lot of running apps that fudge together a race prediction somehow. Some of the vague techniques of doing so involve adding 25 seconds per mile to your half-marathon time, or 30 seconds onto your 15k time.

It’s not difficult to pick these ideas apart for being a little vague and generalised, but they’re also kind of useless if they don’t come hand in hand with a training plan.

Of course, feel free to use whatever means you have available in order to get a race prediction.

But one option you do have is our lovely app, Kaizen. To big ourselves up, our prediction is based on sports science and a complicated algorithm. It is incredibly accurate—most often to within a minute or two of your future marathon time. It is, we believe, the best of the bunch.

In fact, to illustrate this point, half our team joined Kaizen because they first used our app and believed in it so much that they wanted to get involved.

You can read more about it here. And as a li’l bonus, here’s a link to a free trial.

Now You Have a Race Prediction, Set a Target Time

You want to improve your PB, so now you need to set a target time. And by doing so, you will become the embodiment of a growth mindset and an example to all those out there longing to improve their own motivation.

Exactly how much you can improve your PB comes down to a lot of different factors:

How well you ran your first race (if you mis-paced marathon number 1, for example, like Fred, then you can reasonably expect big improvements)
The amount of time you have to train in your week
How much time you have before the date of your second marathon
How your body adapts to training

Our users have had some pretty stellar results—Kaizen runners have improved their times by 20-40 minutes in a matter of just a few months.

The key thing is that with an app like Kaizen, your race prediction will constantly adapt to your training, so you’ll always be aware of your overall progress and fitness level. If you’re not quite hitting your marks and need to adjust your target time down, then you can do so with complete confidence that it’s the right decision.

And if the heat of the running gods burns positively through your veins and you’re overperforming then you can similarly increase your target time.

Step 2: Hit that weekly training load to make sure you’re on course—or adjust your goals

We like to think of training as a step by step process—something simple and calm, worthy of the meditative rhythm of running itself. All you need to do is focus on one run at a time.

But as you know, those runs also need to add up over time into a big enough training load to make sure your body is ready for its next 42k.

A personal trainer would help guide you here, making sure that you get enough distance and training into your legs to make sure you’re ready for your race.

But not everyone can call on a PT.

So—apps again. And Kaizen again (this isn’t meant to be a sales blog, but we just so happen to have structured the app around the exact problems we’re talking about).

Our philosophy and method are all rooted deeply in science and good practice. The app functions in many ways as a personal trainer that you get to keep in your pocket.

Alternatively, there are plenty of other apps that also provide training plans.

And you just need to hit the training loads these apps suggest—or if you can’t, then, again, adjust your target time.

With Kaizen, we prefer not to over-complicate things with prescriptive distances and over-specific this or that. We know that the key to progress is never much more complicated than overall training load over time, so we give you a simple target distance to hit each week, which you can do in any way that suits your lifestyle.

How Does The Training Plan Work?

If you run faster, you get more training load into your legs than if you run slower.

If you run further, it’s the same. You also get more training load into your legs.

Obviously, the data from your training in relation to speed and distance changes with every run you do—and our app sets this simple distance target for each week by analysing the specifics of your run to an incredibly precise degree. There’s a lot of complicated stuff going on under the hood—our algorithm is capable of judging how well you’re responding to your training and adjusting your target accordingly.

And all you need to do is hit that weekly target. Hit the target and you’re doing well.

And once again, if your target training load (e.g. that single distance target that Kaizen provides you, to be tackled and divided as you wish over the course of the week) is too much, then you’ll have to adjust your goals accordingly. But now you’ll know what you’re capable of. You’ll be making informed decisions.

Which is just another excuse to feel good about your training.

With this much focus to your training, staying motivated should be easy.

Conclusions

Let’s get those running shoes on. With clear goals, almost anything is possible. You’re growing as a runner (appropriately) step by step.

Soon you might smash that 3 hour barrier. Or more. Imagine your calves.

If you took a break over the festive period, or slacked off a little (understandably) then build back slowly. But soon you’ll be smashing those bi-weekly 10-15ks once again.

So pick out a podcast or an audiobook, or just listen to the birds (or cars, or planes, or roadworks).

Do you have any other tips for keeping motivated? Chat to us here on our Discord and Strava

And here’s another link to that Kaizen free trial.

See you out on the streets!

Oh…one more thing.

In 1785 Thomas Newte described the following during his Tour of England and Scotland:

“It is customary for the gentlemen who live near the Tweed to entertain their neighbours and friends with a Fete Champetre, which they call giving ‘a kettle of fish’. Tents or marquees are pitched near the flowery banks of the river...a fire is kindled, and live salmon thrown into boiling kettles”

So there you go. The origin of ‘a kettle of fish’.