Luca got into running to lose weight. Zone 2 only, nothing fancy.
A couple of months in, he was hooked. So he did what most of us do. Downloaded a generic 12 week half marathon plan off the internet and got to work.
It actually went fine. He finished the half marathon. But afterwards, with the race done and no plan to follow, he felt lost.
That's when he decided he needed help.
Luca is a curious guy. The kind who reads the books and listens to the podcasts. The problem is every answer led to a million new questions. Lab testing, nutrition, sodium, tapering, race prep. He had nowhere to take any of it.
Once we started working together, that changed. Any question, he could ask.
The training itself felt too easy at first. He still says that now, sometimes. There are days he feels like he has more in the tank. Like he has more to give.
That's on purpose.
You can't train hard all year round, even when it feels like you could. The hard work shows up when he needs it most.
We introduced strength training into his training. Nothing hardcore. Just sport-specific bodyweight exercises that he could do anywhere. Very different from his perception that strength training meant spending countless hours in the gym.
These days it's simple.
A long run, a tempo run, and something faster than race pace anchor his week. Around that, sit a couple of aerobic days where easy stays easy. Drills, accelerations, hills, and strength work are also in the mix.
The one thing he's cut out entirely is running without a purpose.
A sub 90 minute half marathon in hot, humid Singapore. A 3:00:29 debut marathon. Goals he was almost embarrassed to say out loud when he first set them.
But ask Luca what's actually changed, and it's not just the results.
He gets antsy now when he can't run. He builds holidays around it. Consistency didn't just make him faster. It made running the thing he genuinely can't go without.
In his words: "The biggest thing I've learned from training this way is how far you can get if you consistently put in the hours, and how much fun such progress actually is."
