Burned out during marathon training? How runners push past the hardest phase

It doesn’t storm out dramatically, there’s no slammed door or heartfelt goodbye. It just sort of fades. One week you’re enthusiastically plotting long-run routes and googling carb-loading strategies, and the next you’re staring at your trainers wondering how they’ve managed to look so judgmental overnight.

It gets worse as the long runs get longer. Your social life begins to resemble that of a 19th-century monk and somewhere in the middle of all that, motivation – the thing that got you into this mess in the first place – becomes noticeably harder to find.

If you’re there right now, you’re simply experiencing marathon training as it actually is and there is a light at the end of that tunnel.

Early on, I assumed successful runners were permanently driven. That they bounded out of bed each morning with a deep and meaningful desire to run intervals. The reality is much less glamorous.

Most marathon training is built on fairly ordinary decisions: choosing to run when you’d rather not; starting slowly and hoping the legs eventually get the memo; and accepting that some sessions will feel like hard work from start to finish.

Motivation is helpful when it appears but consistency is what gets you to the Start Line, regardless of the pace. 

Sometimes it shows up in the form of worrying whether you’re doing enough. Sometimes it’s the opposite – the fear that you’re doing too much and are one niggle away from disaster. Occasionally it’s a low-level hum that follows you out the door and sits quietly on your shoulder for the entire run. 

What helped me cope with that anxiety was controlling the controllables. What I mean is this: write down all your anxieties, which is often a pretty therapeutic thing in itself, and then figure out which ones you can control and which you cannot. You can do this by yourself or by talking to others. Control the ones you can control; the ones you have no influence over will often be outweighed by those you can do something about. Doing this has helped me sleep at night. And sleep is often a key factor when it comes to motivation, anxiety and training lows, so just getting some more of that often helps! 

Life continues to be complicated. Work remains demanding, relationships require attention and, crucially, your mental health doesn’t politely pause because you’ve got 32 kilometres planned on Sunday morning.

There were periods in my own journey when running was the only structure I had. It gave me routine when everything else felt uncertain, but there were also times when training became another pressure, another standard I worried about failing to meet, especially when I became a dad and a business owner. Learning to be flexible with myself was crucial, but being kinder is what made running enjoyable again, and enjoyment is usually the key to motivation.  

Missing a run doesn’t erase the ones you’ve already completed and adjusting your plan isn’t a sign of weakness. Sometimes the strongest decision you can make is recognising when to ease off. 

There is a mantra I have used through most of my running which is “always forward, forward always”. It’s a simple, sometimes daft, mantra to keep moving during a tough race or training run but it also acts as a reminder in the moments where you have to adjust and change your plan and that forward progress isn’t always linear. It’s just; forward. 

For a long time I trained almost entirely alone. Partly out of practicality as I live in the middle of nowhere but mostly out of self-consciousness. Joining running clubs felt too intimidating. Everyone seemed faster, more knowledgeable, more certain of what they were doing.

Eventually I realised that most runners are just trying to figure things out as they go along. Sharing miles can lighten the mental load. A conversation mid-run can turn what felt like an obligation into something resembling enjoyment. And enjoyment, though often overlooked in training plans, is surprisingly important as I’ve touched on before.

Mental strength isn’t about feeling good all the time, hell, there were weeks in many, many training blocks where I didn’t feel good at all. 

Mental strength is all about continuing when you don’t. It’s about accepting doubt without letting it make decisions for you. It’s about being patient with the process, even when progress feels frustratingly slow and putting in the miles when they don’t want to happen. Over time, those moments accumulate, and they are what truly shape the runner you become long before Event Day arrives.

So if you find yourself low on motivation, managing anxiety, wondering whether you’re mentally strong enough for what’s ahead, try to remember this: You don’t need to feel unstoppable; you need to keep going. Always forward. Forward always.

James Dunn is a runner, mental health advocate and content creator. Since taking part in the 2016 London Marathon, he's completed epic ultramarathons like the legendary Marathon des Sables and is currently preparing to take on his 50th marathon. You can follow his journey on morningcoffeerun.com and on Instagram.