How Wattbike changed my marathon training and led to a PB

This blog has been written by Emma Kirk-Odunubi, Under Armour athlete and Wattbike ambassador - a specialist in long distance running, coaching and gait analysis.

On the 16th April 2023, I ran Manchester Marathon - my toes hit the start line in the fittest shape of my life. You could say the race felt almost dream like, running negative splits from the first half of the race to the second. Overall, I beat my personal best by 9 minutes, taking my time down from 4hr13min59s to 4hr4min. Along with, of course my race strategy, I believe my training plan this year had everything to do with it-the inclusion of my bike sessions.

My training plan was 18 weeks long. I started the training with 2 strength sessions a week, 3 runs a week and a minimum of 1 cycle. Being a novice cyclist, I would just jump on and spin the legs for an easy 30-45minutes.

Into the peak weeks of training (weeks 11-15), I utilised my sessions on the Wattbike even further. I used the Wattbike Hub+ features to not only programme my own intervals; but as a coach be able to also share my intervals with clients to conquer themselves. The off-feet benefits I was able to elicit from my body and muscles were powerful - I was able to push my heart rate to zones 4 & 5 without the extra pounding on the ground for my joints. It enabled me to not only recover quicker for my next session but also still feel I was achieving the bodily responses of training.

To replicate a 10 x 400m running session with 60 second recovery blocks, I used the Wattbike Hub+ workout builder to create a 10 x 2 minute intervals with a short warm up and cool down. You can ride this session by tapping this link.

Throughout my taper, I also utilised the Workout Builder to create an easy recovery session at 60-80% of FTP. You can also ride this session via this link. The Hub+ has really made my training plan be as specific as possible to me and my own training.

I believe my success at the Manchester Marathon couldn’t have happened without the use of the Wattbike. I have learnt so much and I'm so excited for not only my future races, including the London Marathon this weekend, but also for future clients and keeping them strong and injury free for conquering the roads!