When people think about marathon training, they usually imagine the big moments: sunrise long runs, race medals, dramatic transformation photos, motivational music in the background.

What they don’t see is the boring middle.

The random Tuesday evening 10K after work when your legs feel dead before you even start. The humid mornings where your heart rate spikes for no reason. The constant internal negotiation between “I should rest today” and “if I skip this one, skipping gets easier next time.”

Between May and the end of July 2025, marathon training stopped being an idea and became part of my routine. This was the core block leading into the Berlin Marathon in September, and looking back at the data now, I can clearly see where things started changing.

Not overnight. Not dramatically.

Just slowly, week by week.

The Numbers Behind the Grind

Over these three months, I logged:

  • 37 runs
  • Multiple CrossFit and cycling sessions alongside the running
  • Peak long run of 24 km
  • Several weeks close to or above 45–50 km
  • Consistent long runs nearly every weekend

What stands out most isn’t any single workout.

It’s consistency.

At the beginning of this journey, even the idea of running 20 km casually sounded ridiculous to me. I came from years of lifting and CrossFit where suffering is short and explosive. Running taught me a completely different kind of discomfort — the slow-burning one.

The kind that waits for you at kilometer 16.

May: Still Figuring Things Out

May was messy.

I was running, technically, but still approaching training with a “fitness-first” mentality instead of a runner’s mentality. Some weeks were decent, others inconsistent. I still relied heavily on general fitness to carry me through.

But one thing changed after Prague.

I finally started believing I could improve.

After cutting around 10 minutes off my half marathon time compared to Berlin 2024, something clicked mentally. For the first time, running didn’t feel like punishment anymore. It started feeling rewarding.

The long runs in May were still hard. Heart rates were higher. Pacing was inconsistent. I’d often start too fast and survive the second half through stubbornness alone.

But the foundation was forming.

June: The Base Started Building

June was where the training became real.

This was the first month where I genuinely felt like I was building endurance instead of just collecting workouts.

The mileage climbed steadily:

  • 18 km long run
  • Multiple 20 km efforts
  • Back-to-back weeks around 40–50 km

And maybe more importantly: I stopped treating easy runs like races.

This sounds obvious to experienced runners, but for someone coming from CrossFit, slowing down was surprisingly difficult. My instinct was always to push harder. Faster pace meant better workout. Higher heart rate meant more productive training.

Turns out marathon training punishes ego very quickly.

Some of my best progress happened when I learned to stay controlled — especially in the heat.

And the heat was brutal.

A lot of these runs happened during summer, often with humidity that made easy pace feel like threshold work. There were mornings where my heart rate looked completely disconnected from reality. Runs that should have been comfortable suddenly became survival sessions.

Earlier version of me would panic seeing slower splits.

This time I started paying attention to effort instead.

That was a massive shift.

July: I Started Feeling Like a Marathoner

July was probably the biggest turning point mentally.

Not because every workout felt amazing — honestly, many didn’t — but because the volume stopped shocking my body.

A 20 km run no longer felt impossible.

That’s a strange thing to realize.

Your body adapts quietly. One day you’re struggling through 12 km wondering how people run marathons at all. Then suddenly 18–20 km becomes “just the long run for this weekend.”

The highlight was definitely the 24 km run at the end of July.

Not because it was fast.

Because it felt controlled.

Average heart rate stayed relatively stable, pacing was sustainable, and for the first time I could actually picture myself covering marathon distance someday without completely falling apart.

That run gave me confidence.

At the same time, July also exposed the other side of marathon prep: accumulated fatigue.

Some runs felt flat from the first kilometer. Sleep quality mattered more. Recovery became more important than motivation. I started realizing marathon training isn’t really about heroic workouts — it’s about how well you can absorb training week after week without breaking yourself.

And honestly, my body started fighting back a little.

During some of the longer runs in July, I developed pretty serious lower back pain shooting from my hip area. Sometimes it would linger for days after the run. At first I tried ignoring it, assuming it was just part of marathon training, but eventually I realized that mindset was stupid and unsustainable.

Luckily, I got help and learned that a lot of it came down to preparation and mobility. I started taking warm-ups seriously before runs and became much more consistent with stretching afterward. Eventually it turned into a daily habit — spending time every evening stretching instead of collapsing straight onto the couch after training.

That small change probably saved the rest of my marathon block.

It also taught me something important: endurance training isn’t just about how much work you can survive. It’s about how well you can recover from it.

What This Training Block Taught Me

1. Consistency Beats Motivation

Most runs were not exciting.

Nobody sees the easy recovery jogs or the average weekday runs. But those sessions are exactly what made the bigger breakthroughs possible.

Motivation gets you started.

Consistency changes you.

2. Easy Runs Are Not Junk Miles

This took me embarrassingly long to understand.

Running slower felt wrong at first. But once I stopped turning every run into competition, my endurance improved dramatically.

The biggest gains came from restraint, not aggression.

3. Recovery Is Part of Training

CrossFit mentality taught me to push through fatigue.

Marathon training taught me to respect it.

The difference between productive training and digging yourself into a hole is often just recovery quality: sleep, nutrition, hydration, pacing, and knowing when not to push.

4. Data Helps — But Only If You Listen to It

As a data engineer, I naturally started tracking everything:

  • pace
  • heart rate
  • weekly mileage
  • long run progression
  • training load

The interesting part wasn’t collecting the data.

It was learning not to fight it.

The watch doesn’t care about ego. If recovery is poor, the numbers usually show it. If pacing is too ambitious, the second half of the run exposes it immediately.

Over these months, running became less emotional and more honest.

And honestly, I needed that.

5. Mobility Isn’t Optional

For most of my life, stretching was something I knew I should do but never consistently prioritized.

Marathon training punished that laziness quickly.

The combination of higher mileage, CrossFit, sitting at a desk for work, and poor warm-ups eventually caught up to me through lower back and hip pain during long runs. Once I started treating mobility and warm-up routines as part of training — not optional extras — things improved dramatically.

Not immediately. But consistently.

Looking Back

Between May and July, I stopped seeing myself as “someone trying marathon training” and started identifying as an actual runner.

Not because of pace.

Not because of race times.

Because I kept showing up.

Even when I was tired. Even when the weather sucked. Even when progress felt invisible.

That’s probably the biggest thing this marathon block gave me.

Not confidence that race day will be easy — it definitely won’t be.

But confidence that I’ve done the work.

And for now, that’s enough.