Workout of the day - Lactate-Threshold Run | road to NN Marathon Rotterdam 2025

Hi all,

After completing my coast marathon last weekend I quickly switched to my new challenge my revanche on the NN Marathon Rotterdam in 2025.

Revanche, why?
Yeah, as I have been running marathons for close to 10 years (Amsterdam 2015 was my first), the marathon in my home town seems to be cursed / or at least emotionally charged. In 2016 I had a perfect trainingscamp but got struck by pneumonia 2 weeks before the event and had to pull out. Last year I did run NN Rotterdam 2024 - with a decent trainingscamp - targeting 03:30:00. I ran okey-ish, but got my left knee locked in km 34 causing me to visit the aid stations during the race (for that - my compliments for the organization!) I finished at 3:50:00 which is nowhere what I had in mind. The 950K supporters in Rotterdam 2014 where amazing - and comparing this event to any other marathon in The Netherlands and you will quickly realize there are levels in this. The runner up event in the Netherland (Amsterdam) - might be the biggest event in participants , it has less than 10% of the supporters of Rotterdam.
To explain the difference in it I see Amsterdam as a Sports Event, Rotterdam is a community event. In 2024 my knee was compromised and I needed to take a break - but there where legit 6 rows in a row of supporters on 80% of the route, so if I tried to stand still they jumped me and yelled at me until I got moving again - I was in survival mode from aid station to aid station to catch a breath... I finished at 3:50 and was honestly very disappointed.

Me finishing in Rotterdam 2024

My PR on the full marathon is 03:22:12 (from 2023) - I aim to get my revanche on the earlier editions of Rotterdam by breaking my PR in 2025.

Lactate threshold training
You would expect that in order to run a fast marathon you need to train hard and run fast. Ofcourse running fast will help you get faster over time - the issue is that a hard training means that you will need more time to recover from. Therefore (and following guidance from "Advanced Marathoning - Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas" | if you are serious on running this is a must read!) I learned how to mix things within my training schedule. How to easy up on long runs (>26km) and how to incorporate training blocks for fast runs.

Lactate threshold runs are a specific training subject, where you aim to increase the time you can hold a strong pace. The goal here is not to increase your speed, but you run slightly above the pace you are comfortable with so you learn to be able to hold that pace longer.
If you use a hart rate monitor - your Lactate Threshold is a range between 82 and 91% of your maximum heartrate - which is roughly the pace you can hold for 1 hour to 1,5 hour.

The key to running a faster marathon is to combine 3 workouts - steady easy pace long run (in order to use less energy over a long distance), speed work (ability to go faster - either speedruns or interval), Lactate threshold (abitily to hold a faster pace for a longer time).

Today's run
Today's run was a LT (Lactate Threshold) run, I ran at a heartrate of 162-170 BPM.

After my injury after my injury check after the sunday Marathon, I felt fine on Monday. Today I noticed I have some blister underneath my toenails, after
puncturing and cleaning them I felt quite some relief as my toes where pounding quite a bit.

weekly target 60 - 70 km!

Happy running!

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