The Physiology of Endurance Running Podcast · Dan Nash and Owain Zerilli

Road to Valencia 2025 - 4 weeks to go

·1 hr 51 min

Awain opens the Valencia countdown with Dan and Jen. Dan says he is healthy and not injured yet, which in marathon season is about as good as it gets. He has been running a lot of miles and sneaking in a tiny holiday. Jen says she has had a small break too, though she is quick to point out it was not exactly a luxury week. The running banter starts straight away, including the joke that Jen is the blue-collar one because she uses a head torch in the dark. It is the kind of easy teasing that makes the show feel more like training partners chatting after a session than a polished studio programme. Saw gets a quick shoutout for a new kit drop, including a T-shirt everyone likes before the conversation settles down. The tone stays loose, but the subject is serious for anyone in marathon training. The athletes are deep enough into the block that there is not much more fitness to squeeze out, so the talk shifts toward easing off, doing a bit less if in doubt, and protecting the race that is already built. One speaker says they are basically ready to go and just need to get to the start line, and that becomes the centre of the discussion. Once the big work is done, the job changes from building fitness to not messing it up. The next few weeks are expected to feel hard in a different way, because the running starts to take over. The weather keeps getting in the way too, with grim conditions making it harder to feel keen about heading out. There is also a practical temperature concern, though nothing dramatic. The episode keeps coming back to the same conclusion: the fitness is there, the remaining job is to stay healthy, stay patient, and avoid overdoing it. It ends on the familiar runner hope that everybody makes it to race day without losing their minds. That is probably as close to the truth as late marathon prep gets.

As heard by us

A candid four-weeks-out marathon check-in with dry banter and late-build fatigue.

Road to Valencia 2025 reads as a candid four-weeks-out update, shaped more by mileage and routine than by polish. Dan sounds healthy, not injured yet, and the wider conversation settles into the familiar marathon-build mood of training, backing off, and trying not to invite…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Four weeks from Valencia, the training talk gets properly real.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify