Olympic triathlon champ wants 2:07 marathon debut
"If I can give Kipchoge a good race as well, that would be good fun," said Great Britain's Alex Yee
Photo by:
Coros
Making your marathon debut is an intimidating prospect–but doing so while chasing a world-class goal time is next-level. Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee of the U.K. is set for his first attempt at the 42.2K distance at the London Marathon on April 27, and on Thursday, in a blog post by his sponsor, Coros, the world got a sneak peak at his training secrets–including his target time. “I’d love to run somewhere around 2:07 to 2:10,” Yee said. “We are going into the unknown, so we will see, but I want to give it a really good go.”
Why the marathon?
Despite returning from the Paris Olympics last year with a gold medal and establishing himself as the most decorated Olympic triathlete of all time, Yee didn’t feel satisfied–and his team acknowledged that some changes would be made. “We all agreed that [training] can’t look the same as it has for the last few years,” Yee said during a press conference in February. “If I do the same stuff, then I’ll stay the same. It was all about looking down different avenues to improve and be better as a person and an athlete. For me, that fit really well with doing one of my dream races, the London Marathon.
“To be able to race at home is pretty special,” he added.
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Yee’s training secrets
While he’s clearly skilled across all three triathlon disciplines, Yee’s greatest strength lies in the run. For the first time in five years, he’s shifted his focus to refining his run thresholds, using the Coros Heart Rate Monitor and Coros Pace Pro to track and analyze his training data. In January, he made his 10K debut in Valencia, breaking into the top 30 with a time of 28:07.
Prioritizing run training has meant significantly easing up on his weekly volume in the pool and on the bike; as of February, Yee had “only” swum five times and ridden for nine hours. That’s a major drop from his usual 15 hours on the bike and extra pool sessions, but the adjustment allowed him to push his running mileage to 130 km per week. Yee also said he planned to scale back the bike even further and increase his weekly running volume to 145 km.
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The blog post also revealed one of Yee’s most intense training sessions in his marathon build–a 30-km progression run averaging 3:07 per kilometre. “I’m really enjoying these longer sessions,” the athlete said. “Going from shorter intervals like 6 x 2 km to now running 30 km continuously is a big jump, but my body is responding well—and most importantly, I’m loving the challenge.”
On race day, beyond chasing his goal time, Yee said he’ll focus on “enjoyment as much as anything, and making that first marathon a good experience.”
“If I can give [Eliud] Kipchoge a good race as well, that would be good fun,” he said with a laugh.
For a deeper look at Yee’s training, check out Coros’s latest blog here.
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