[TrainingTalk] Training log 2025
This is my training log for 2025.
I am mostly writing it for me, as a diary, but please feel free to comment or engage in conversation should you have any questions. This is how we learn and grow.
I will keep editing this post every Sunday evening or Monday morning.
Profile
This year I’ll be 41 years old. I have been running since 2009, and I have been building very gradually over the years. Below is an overview of my training volume over the past 10 years (since I started using Strava):
In terms of performance, in 2024 I ran personal bests in the half marathon (February), 50 km (twice, April and September), and 100 km (May). The year before (2023) I ran my first sub-3 marathons (Manchester and Amsterdam):
Year Races and Goals:
This year, my focus is only on the 100 km (Passatore), even though I will try to get a bit better in the 50 km as well (Winschoten).
This being said, in the past 6 months (mid of 2024 onwards) I haven’t been able to train and perform well, and I am currently implementing some changes in my training and diet. If things don’t turn around by spring 2025, I will skip ultra racing altogether and give myself a year and a half to prepare for the following Passatore. The body will decide what I can do and when, I won’t rush anything.
April 5th, C goal: Maratona del Lamone
Part of the Trittico di Romagna, which includes also the 50 km di Romagna and 100 km del Passatore. I will not really race this but run it at high-end zone 2, most likely.
April 25th, B goal: 50 km di Romagna
Beautiful, hilly course, where I train daily near Brisighella (50 km, +650m). The goal is to race strong but without going too hard. Last year it went really well and I ran 3h 57’.
May 24th, A goal: 100 km del Passatore
Aiming to race well, the time will depend on how hot it is, but I would like to race at least sub-10, ideally closer to 9 hours. I think I have sub-9 in me on a perfect, cloudy day.
September, A goal: Winschoten 50 km
Aiming for a personal best if I do well after Passatore, ideally breaking 3h 50’.
There will be a few other C events in there, to be taken as training.
Training Periodization
I am currently using a non-linear periodization with a 3-week microcycle which is modulated by how close I am to the main race of the year, in terms of specificity and types of workouts used.
I opted for this approach to address some of my limiters (i.e. poor economy and durability, high rate of injuries), while trying to get better at the long distance and remain injury free (more details about this periodization, here).
Below is an overview of the high-level plan I put together:
See also:
Week one
This week is BASE, MICROCYCLE 1, WEEK 3
Training: 12 hours
Running: 100 kilometers, +3000m
Workouts: strides, hill sprints, long at z2
Cycling: none
Strength: none
Injuries and rehab: left foot and right knee still troubling me a bit
Weight: 72.1 kg (down from 76.4 kg 3 weeks ago).
HRV: stable baseline, acutely suppressed in the last few days after an overshoot due to the caloric deficit.
Score: 6/10
First week of the year, following the new plan I recently put together (some of it is discussed here). As this was the third week of the microcycle, I didn’t have any big workout scheduled, but more z2 and some neuromuscular work. In terms of execution, hill sprints and strides were fine, with some minor discomfort at the knee, while z2 was a struggle due to the weather here in Tenerife. I find myself running a lot slower at the same heart rate (a 10-15 bpm difference wrt before coming here), even if it’s been 3 weeks already (and I was even heat-adapted when arriving here). Direct sunlight is the main problem, more than the temperature, but that’s how it is now. I will try to see if I can do some more shorter doubles, and fewer longer runs.
Overall it’s all good though, I am mostly focused on the diet (something I will blog about later on, shifting to lower carbs to initially lose weight and later on possibly become less reliant on carbs for Passatore - an experiment that is however motivating me again and putting me in the right mindset to take care of myself better). This focus means also that it will take a few weeks to understand better how to adjust in order to train well, e.g. having more carbs before / after workouts or else. Given that I wasn’t really training well since the Florence marathon due to physical issues or the weather, I feel like this is a good time to experiment and see how things go, without really missing out on anything. Time will tell if it helps me or not.
Full week:
Resting physiology:
Week two
This week is BASE, MICROCYCLE 2, WEEK 1
Training: 15 hours
Running: 110 kilometers, +3500m
Workouts:
10 x 90” hard, 90” easy
10 strides, 10 hill sprints, 90’ at z2 with 10’ harder
Cycling: none
Strength: none
Injuries and rehab: left foot and right knee still troubling me a bit, but not limiting training.
Weight: 69.9 kg (down from 76.4 kg 4 weeks ago).
HRV: suppressed below normal values since I started to eat low carb (reasons for the diet here, and for the suppression here).
Score: 7/10
A decent week. The workout was really slow, but the effort was just right. The other days were better than average, with good energy, and a bit of extra work here and there (strides, sprints, strong finish during a z2 run), I won’t complain even if good fitness feels far.
Weight loss proceeds well, as I am dropping some more but I have good energy levels, much better than a few weeks ago. I went on three adventures on trails, one solo, one with Ale (beautiful coast to coast), and one with Sophie and Ben, which was also a lovely day with some extra scrambling on a trail I hadn’t seen before here in Tenerife.
For next week, more of the same, but with a threshold effort instead of a VO2max session. Curious to see if I can hold the intensity. As per the diet, I will eat more carbs the evening before the session, and a bit more also on the morning of the session, and see how that goes.
I’ve booked a lab test with Melvin back in Amsterdam on February 28th, so I can check fat oxidation (and lactate) and see how things are proceeding after two months of dieting.
Full week:
Normalized HRV (see here):
Week three
This week is BASE, MICROCYCLE 2, WEEK 2
Training: 13 hours
Running: 115 kilometers, +2000m
Workouts:
4 x 2000m hard, 2’ easy (Threshold)
10 strides, 10 hill sprints, 90’ at z2 with 10’ harder
Cycling: none.
Strength: one session.
Injuries and rehab: left foot and right knee still troubling me a bit, but not limiting training. The knee is the main concern among the two.
Weight: 68.9 kg (down from 76.4 kg 5 weeks ago, 1 kg in the last week).
HRV: suppressed below normal values since I started to eat low carb (reasons for the diet here, and for the suppression here).
Score: 8/10
Maybe by best week in a while. Happy with the structure of training, execution of workouts, and the longer run. Nothing too exciting yet, paces are slow, distances are short, but I feel like this week was another step in the right direction.
In terms of diet, I am eating mostly low-carb but also periodizing carb intake depending on training. For example, I had 50 grams of carbs the evening before the 2k reps (pasta) and 50 grams of carbs on the morning of the workout. The other days I had mostly a low carb diet as intensity was limited (see example below from Friday).
I ate low-carb also before the z2 workout, which was quicker this week, but had a gel before the last 10 km in which I ran harder (4’10”/km this week). For the long run, I had 2 snacks, one each hour, for a total of 28 grams of carbs in 3 hours.
Here is the threshold workout:
And the full week:
My night HRV has fully renormalized and overshoot above normal range this week. On the other hand, the morning data is still suppressed. I have also noticed some issues when I stand up during the day, feeling dizzy and almost fainting despite no energy issues and no issues when running, even running hard. Maybe still readjusting in a way, my body has changed a lot in a short time (dropped more than 10% of my weight at this point). Let’s see next week.
Week four
This week is BASE, MICROCYCLE 2, WEEK 3
Training: 12 hours
Running: 105 kilometers, +1500m
Workouts:
20 x 45” hard, 60’ easy
20’ tempo
8 hill sprints, 80’ at z2
Cycling: none.
Strength: one session.
Injuries and rehab: left foot and right knee still troubling me a bit, but not limiting training.
Weight: 68.5 kg (down from 76.4 kg 6 weeks ago, -0.5 kg in the last week).
HRV: Re-normalized.
Score: 7/10
This week was okay. Probably I’m loading too much in the third week of the microcycle, when I skip the workout but do more z2 and tempo. I did well on the short intervals on Tuesday (just an extended version of a strides workout), and then also ran well at z2 the following day, but I was tired when I was supposed to do a longer run with a faster finish (2h 30’ with some tempo). Eventually I ran only 2 hours, then went out in the afternoon again and felt strong, so I did the tempo at that time. Obviously, not the same stimulus. I’m getting a handle of the periodized carb intake, but still experimenting a bit, and I think I did not have enough that morning before the long and hard run. I’ll try again with more and see how it goes.
I’m feeling better and stronger, doing a weekly double, good z2, etc. - I think it’s time to step up a bit the workouts and I have higher hopes for the next 2 weeks, where I’d like to start hitting better paces. Let’s see if my body is on the same page.
Full week:
Week five
This week is BASE, MICROCYCLE 3, WEEK 1
Training: 14 hours
Running: 130 kilometers, +2000m
Workouts:
8 x 3’ hard, 2’ easy
10 strides, 10 hill sprints, 80’ at z2 with 2 km harder, one double
Cycling: none.
Strength: one session.
Injuries and rehab: left foot (discomfort 1/10) and right knee (2/10) doing better. My left hamstring has been tight since I started training properly around last week (4/10).
Weight: 67.6 kg (down from 76.4 kg 7 weeks ago, -1 kg in the last week).
HRV: Re-normalized, all good.
Score: 8/10
This week was good. A proper workout, and feeling good all other days, accumulating some more volume than in the past week, but without compromising quality. The only warning sign is the hamstring, need to be careful there.
I feel like the weight is where it should be now, even though I lost some more this week. I feel good and running is finally getting a bit quicker, even though not particularly exciting yet. I’ve started playing around with some data for an upcoming blog post (something I’ll put together when I also have lab data for fat oxidation). Nice to see how intake follows well expenditure, and the macros periodization is also based on training demands. Periodized nutrition:
Here is the main session of the week, a classic VO2max workout for me:
My zone 2 pace is also getting back where it should be, after a few months of struggling even at this intensity, as shown below in terms of aerobic endurance in HRV4Training Pro:
Full week:
To be continued.
Other resources
Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching.
He has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.
He is co-founder of HRV4Training, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.
Social:
first off, nice PRs! I am hoping to break 3 in the marathon at some point in 2026 and will spend most of 2025 getting faster at the half. Regarding your injuries, from 2009-2015 my training was pretty dumb (way too hard, way too often) and I wound up with posterior tib strains/injuries way too often.
Since then, I've made two big changes: heavy, low volume strength training (trap bar deadlifts, belt squats, etc) and training my feet and lower legs! I use three devices: the Toe Pro, the Mobo Board, and more recently have incorporated the Blackboard (well, the cheap amazon knockoff version) to help with better movement at the calcaneus.
The Mobo board and Toe Pro are key, and I highly recommend them. As Jay Dicharry says, don't put on a better shoe, put a better foot into your shoe! I also have been running in Altras since 2012 and find them to be the only shoe I can tolerate these days.
But shoes aside, really recommend the Toe Pro and Mobo. Fantastic.