DVOTION Labs · London

Performance Articles

Practical guides to marathon training, fuelling, pacing and tapering, alongside articles on physiology, movement and performance testing. Written by the DVOTION team.

Marathon preparation

Read the London Marathon 2027 training guide for training, fuelling, pacing and tapering.

VO₂, lactate and endurance physiology

• London Marathon 2027: Preparing for Your Best Race — Running, 7 min read. A place in the London Marathon gives your training a clear destination. The next questions are more personal: where should you start, what should your training include, a
• Training for Your First Marathon — Running, 6 min read. Preparing for a first marathon involves learning what longer running asks of you. You may be comfortable over shorter distances and still be unsure how far to run in trai
• How to Train for a Marathon PB — Running, 6 min read. A faster marathon starts with understanding the last one. Perhaps you held a steady pace but want to raise it. Perhaps your shorter-distance results suggested a faster ti
• Marathon Fuelling: Choosing Your Carbohydrate Intake — Running, 6 min read. A marathon fuelling plan needs to answer a few practical questions: how much carbohydrate will you aim to take, which products will provide it, and can you keep using the
• Marathon Pacing: Choosing a Pace You Can Sustain — Running, 6 min read. The difficult part of marathon pacing is choosing an effort that will still be manageable several hours later. A finish-time calculator can convert a target into pace, bu
• The Marathon Taper: Preparing to Race in the Final Weeks — Running, 6 min read. When you have spent months building your running, reducing it before the marathon can feel uncomfortable. There is a temptation to add one more long run or test the targe
• Cycling FTP and Lactate Threshold: Which Number Should Guide Training? — Cycling, 3 min read. FTP is a useful way to organise cycling sessions. A blood lactate profile answers a different question: how your physiological response changes as power rises. Understand
• Cycling VO₂ Max and Lactate Testing in London: Choosing an Assessment — Cycling, 3 min read. The right cycling assessment depends on the question you want answered. VO₂ max testing describes aerobic capacity and breathing responses. Adding blood lactate provides
• Why Triathletes Need Separate Cycling and Running Zones — Triathlon, 3 min read. A triathlon plan can contain two sessions called easy that ask very different things of the body. Cycling power, running pace and heart rate describe different parts of t
• HYROX Running Pace After Stations: Using Lab Results in Training — HYROX, 3 min read. Running after a demanding station feels different from running fresh. A laboratory assessment can clarify your aerobic capacity and thresholds, while training shows how y
• Inside an Endurance Assessment Report: An Illustrative Walkthrough — Assessment, 4 min read. A useful endurance report should help you understand the measurements and decide what to do in training. This walkthrough uses fictional figures from DVOTION’s demonstrat
• What Is VO₂ Max Testing and Who Is It For? — Endurance, 3 min read. VO₂ max is the maximum volume of oxygen your body can consume and utilise during intense exercise. It is one of the most widely used markers of aerobic fitness, and one o
• VO₂ Max vs Lactate Threshold: What Actually Matters for Training? — Endurance, 3 min read. VO₂ max describes aerobic capacity. Lactate and ventilatory thresholds describe changes in your response as exercise gets harder. Together they can guide training, provid
• What Data Should a Runner Actually Use to Train Better? — Running, 2 min read. Running watches now generate more data than a runner can readily act on. Heart rate, pace, power, cadence, training load, VO₂ max estimates. All of it available without a
• Training for a Half Marathon: The Most Threshold-Dependent Race You Will Run — Running, 5 min read. The half marathon is run at or very near the second lactate threshold, which makes it the road distance where one measurement explains more of your performance than anywh
• Marathon Performance Testing: VO₂ Max, Lactate and Training Zones — Running, 4 min read. Aerobic capacity, sustainable intensity and running economy all contribute to marathon performance. Testing can help you choose training intensities, but it does not prod
• Training for an Ironman: What Is Worth Measuring, and What It Changes — Triathlon, 5 min read. Long-course triathlon is decided by the intensity you can hold for eight to seventeen hours, and by whether your fuelling and hydration hold up over that time. Both are m
• Running Economy: What It Means for Your Training — Running, 3 min read. Running economy describes the energy required to hold a given pace. It helps explain why runners with similar VO₂ max results can run at different speeds, but it is only
• How to Improve Endurance Without Overtraining — Endurance, 4 min read. More training often feels like the most obvious route to better endurance. But endurance adaptation requires the right training stimulus at the right intensity, not simpl

Resting metabolic rate and performance nutrition

• What Resting Metabolic Rate Testing Measures — Nutrition, 3 min read. A resting metabolic rate test measures the energy your body expends at complete rest. It is one of the few figures in nutrition planning that is measured rather than pred
• RMR and Total Daily Energy Expenditure: What Is Measured and What Is Estimated — Nutrition, 3 min read. Resting metabolic rate and total daily energy expenditure are often used interchangeably. They are not the same, and the difference matters when a calorie target is being
• Preparing for a Resting Metabolic Rate Test — Nutrition, 2 min read. An RMR measurement is only as good as the conditions it was taken under. Preparation is not a formality here. An unprepared measurement produces a number that describes s

Force plates, power and monitoring

• What Countermovement Jump Testing Shows — Power, 3 min read. A countermovement jump on force plates is one of the most informative tests available for how an athlete produces force. The jump height is the least interesting thing it
• Interpreting Left and Right Differences in Force Plate Data — Power, 3 min read. Dual force plates record what each limb contributes separately. A difference between them is a finding, not a fault, and treating it as a fault is the most common error m
• How Force Plate Testing Helps Athletes Understand Power Output — Power, 2 min read. Force plates measure how an athlete produces and expresses force. They give objective data that standard strength testing (barbells, machines, jump height estimates) cann

Movement strategy and athlete profiling

• Biomechanical Assessment: Why Movement Screens Are Not Enough — Movement, 2 min read. Movement screens identify what is restricted. Biomechanical Assessment looks at why, and that difference matters considerably for how training is built and what actually
• Training for HYROX: The Event That Needs Both Halves of You Tested — HYROX, 5 min read. HYROX is eight kilometres of running broken up by eight strength stations, which makes it a race decided by how well each half survives the other. Most testing addresses
• Complete Athlete Profiling: What It Shows and Who It Is For — Assessment, 3 min read. Complete Athlete Profiling costs £600 and combines biomechanical analysis including force-plate testing, VO₂ max and blood lactate analysis in one appointment lasting abo
• Gym Strength vs Emergent Force: Why the Weight You Lift Is Not the Whole Story — Movement, 4 min read. There are two types of force an athlete can develop. One is produced in isolation, the strength of a specific muscle or movement pattern under controlled conditions. The
• Why Posture Doesn't Exist: Strategy Does — Movement, 4 min read. Good posture is one of the most commonly given pieces of advice in health and performance. Stand tall. Pull your shoulders back. Engage your core. These instructions have
• Systemic Drift: How Injuries Develop Before They're Visible — Movement, 4 min read. Injuries often feel sudden. A movement goes wrong, something gives way, pain appears from nowhere. But in most cases, what felt sudden was the final stage of a process th
• What Range of Motion Norms Actually Tell You (And What They Don't) — Movement, 4 min read. Range of motion norms are a standard reference point in movement assessment. A hip should flex to this angle. A shoulder should reach that degree. These values are widely
• What Data-Driven Coaching Actually Means for Athletes — Assessment, 3 min read. "Data-driven coaching" is a phrase used by many coaches and programmes. Used well it means training built from your own measured physiology. Used loosely it means checkin
• How Biomechanical Assessment Helps Runners — Running, 4 min read. Most running assessments focus on what happens at foot strike. Cadence, stride length, pronation, hip extension. Biomechanical Assessment asks a different question: how i

Performance support

• What Is Sweat Rate Testing and Why Does It Matter for Endurance Athletes? — Endurance, 3 min read. Sweat rate is how much fluid you lose per hour while exercising. It varies enormously between people doing the same session in the same room, which is why a general fluid
• How to Measure Your Sweat Rate — Endurance, 3 min read. You can measure your own sweat rate with a set of scales and some care about the details. Here is the method, the arithmetic, and the four things that most often make a h
• What Sweat Sodium Concentration Means, and Why It Is the More Useful Number — Endurance, 3 min read. Sweat rate tells you how much fluid leaves you. Sodium concentration tells you what is in it. Of the two, concentration is the more stable, the more individual, and the o
• Sweat Testing, Sweat Rate Testing and Sweat Analysis: What Each One Means — Endurance, 3 min read. Sweat testing for athletes is advertised under at least four names, and they do not all mean the same thing. Here is what each term refers to, and which one you probably
• Building a Hydration Strategy From Your Own Sweat Data — Endurance, 4 min read. Once you know your sweat rate and your sweat sodium concentration, the question becomes what to do with them. The answer is rarely "replace everything you lose", and the
• Setting Training Zones From Blood Lactate Testing — Endurance, 5 min read. Training zones are only as good as the boundaries they are drawn from. Blood lactate testing puts those boundaries where your physiology actually places them, rather than
• Why Athletes Should Retest Instead of Guessing Progress — Assessment, 2 min read. Training creates physiological change. But without retesting, you cannot know exactly what has changed, whether your training zones are still accurate, or whether the pla
• Sports Positive Psychology for Endurance Athletes — Psychology, 2 min read. Endurance training places demands on the mind as much as the body. Long training blocks, accumulated fatigue, comparison with other athletes, race-day pressure and the in
• How Confidence Changes Under Fatigue — Psychology, 2 min read. Confidence in training and racing is not fixed. It shifts with fatigue, stress, bad sessions and comparison with others. Understanding how and why confidence changes unde
• Why Recovery Is Psychological as Well as Physical — Psychology, 1 min read. Recovery is not just sleep and nutrition. The psychological dimension of recovery (how athletes relate to rest, easy days and unstructured time) shapes how well the body
• Flow State and Focus in Endurance Sport — Psychology, 2 min read. Flow state (the experience of effortless, absorbed, optimal performance) is not random luck. It emerges from specific conditions that athletes can deliberately create. In
• How Athletes Can Rebuild Confidence After Setbacks — Psychology, 2 min read. Setbacks are part of sport. A bad race, a missed target, an injury, a period of poor form. Every athlete experiences them. How athletes process and respond to setbacks sh
• Positive Psychology for Marathon Runners — Psychology, 2 min read. Marathon training is a long game. A 16 to 20 week build involves hundreds of decisions, dozens of hard sessions, and the inevitable weeks where motivation drops, the body
• How to Choose a Running Coach in London — Running, 3 min read. London has more running coaches than ever. The choice can be overwhelming, and the wrong one can mean months of training that moves in the wrong direction. This article e

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