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

Road to Valencia 2025 - Training block analysis

·1 hr 40 min·5 clips

Compared with Barry 40, Owen doubled time between LT1 and LT2 and cut easy-run intensity.

Dan and Jen open the episode with a Road to Valencia training block recap. Dan says he is ready to get stuck into the next marathon again. He does not think he is still in shape after a down week, but he sounds pretty sure the fitness will come back fast enough. Jen says the last week was awful. She could barely walk down the stairs. This week she is back running and feels all right moving, but there is absolutely no pop in the legs. Her heart rate is through the roof, so she has stopped looking at that number for now. The plan is to go off pure vibes and get back into the swing of things. She admits she is probably pushing a little harder than Dave really wants her to. Even so, the compromise is just jogging. A double from Sunday to Monday counts as a good step. She also went to see Johnny for physio and got a firm talking-to. Dan checks in too and says he has man flu. The conversation then turns to threshold data and how it compares with what actually happened on race day. Dan says he still thinks he was in better shape than he showed on the day. He adds that he was ill until Friday and does not want to spend the whole time on symptoms. From there they drift into fast Japanese marathons, Fukuoka standards, Lake Biwa lore, Jake's YouTube as scouting material, a possible Amsterdam fallback, and the not-so-sellable idea of natto for breakfast. They finish by saying they will do a Q and A episode to wrap up the year. They also mention a few more episodes planned before 2026. If people want to tell them what they got wrong, they can slide into the DMs.

As heard by us

A candid check-in on training, recovery, and the gap between feel and numbers.

Road to Valencia 2025 feels less like a polished race report than a candid check-in after a rough patch. Dan is trying to get back toward that 2:09 shape after a down week, while Jen works through the long tail of first-marathon recovery.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Valencia debrief that treats heart rate and vibes as real data.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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