<\/p>\n
When George Schwiening took five minutes and seven seconds from her marathon PB to go to seventh on the UK all-time list in December, the Cambridge athlete\u2019s reaction was refreshingly humble. She tweeted her delight at her 2:26:28 in Valencia but asterisked it with: \u201cI was in super shoes and half the top 10 all-time runs were without springs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uncomfortable with sporting the carbon-plated footwear which have been responsible for a radical overhaul in elite road running standards in recent years, Schwiening did eventually give in last year. She might not like it, but rightly wants to be on a level playing field with everyone else.<\/p>\n
That great leap forward in Spain was not just down to what she had on her feet, though. Her previous best, set in the Therme Manchester Marathon last April, was also run in carbon-plated shoes, and though quick to note the part played by technology, the former junior world duathlon champion also believes her improvement was a product of years of conditioning her body for the event and learning how to train for it.<\/p>\n
Since her debut performance of 2:58:23 in 2017, Schwiening has completed 14 marathons, including her 11th place at the Commonwealth Games for England in Birmingham last summer. It\u2019s been a remarkable progression \u2014 achieved without a coach, while working full-time and without ever training on a track.<\/p>\n
The journey began with an active childhood. Schwiening took part in swimming, cycling, high-diving, rock-climbing, netball, hockey, gymnastics, tag rugby and trampolining before eventually focusing on running and triathlon. However, her swimming was relatively weak so she switched to the run-cycle-run sport of duathlon. As well as winning the world junior title in 2013, a world senior bronze followed five years later.<\/p>\n
While running has lost several athletes to triathlon and duathlon in recent years, Schwiening went the other way \u2014 partly as a result of the pandemic limiting travel.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the duathlon scene is in Europe,\u201d she says. \u201cWith the travel, it didn\u2019t seem quite the right thing to be doing, so it\u2019s where the simplicity of running has its advantages. I suppose it wasn\u2019t a conscious choice, it\u2019s just that I haven\u2019t done a duathlon for a while and the pandemic was part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duathlon\u2019s loss was running\u2019s gain and Schwiening, who had already improved to 2:35:22 in 2019, continued to advance.<\/p>\n
Georgina Schwiening (Mark Easton)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cSince my first marathon in 2017, I have just chipped off times and gradually improved,\u201d she says, adding of her 2:26 run: \u201cOn paper it looks like a big jump, but I think I probably hadn\u2019t always been able to show my fitness in the past. It also wasn\u2019t a shock in the sense that that\u2019s the time I trained to do and I set out at that pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her approach seems straightforward. Avoiding injury is key. \u201cI just continued to chip away, being sensible,\u201d says the 28-year-old. \u201cMarathon training is mainly about avoiding picking up those niggles that can stop you \u2013 just listening to my body, building up really gradually and not taking risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me the most important thing is that your body is adapting at the same speed that you\u2019re building. It\u2019s making sure the training load is appropriate for the state your body is in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00bb <\/i><\/b>This is an excerpt from an interview that appeared in the February issue of AW, which you can <\/i>read here<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n