I've been having a bit of a crisis of confidence since my 17 miler at the weekend. I don't remember feeling so tired after a run - races yes, but training runs no. I am starting to worry that this new higher mileage schedule is a bit too much for my soon-to-be-40 year old legs.
Last night, after a day of zigzagging across London for various meetings (one of which was totally forgotten by the person I was meeting, despite a reminder on Friday) and eating crappy meeting food, I came home and headed out for a shortish run. The schedule said 5 miles but I just wanted to get out and clear my head. It's great weather this week - even an evening run doesn't require the same number of layers of clothing and I felt really quite free as I was running. I didn't feel particularly fresh or lively, instead quite sluggish, but then I put that down to tiredness and the poor diet of the day. I had wolfed down a low-fat rice pudding about 15 minutes before heading out, to make sure I had some carbohydrate in there somewhere.
Well, the rice pudding might have had some effect, because after 3 miles of running I started to feel really good. I felt like I was picking up a lot of pace, but decided not to check my pace and just run and go with my feelings rather than the GPS. It was good - I felt good. Surprisingly good, given how exhausted I had felt the day before. So I ran another 1.5 miles home, feeling exceptionally strong and pretty convinced I had posted a magic mile.
As you can imagine, when I checked my splits, I was pretty disappointed to note that I hadn't really been that speedy at all. My fastest mile was 9m 21sec, which was a lot slower than it seemed out there on the street. Disappointed, I showered, ate and sat on the sofa wondering if my mind was starting to play tricks on me.
But of course, I am a sad statto of a runner so I couldn't resist checking my statistics in more detail. According to the stats, I was 1 min:10 sec faster than mile 3 in my final mile - hence the feeling of speed I had got when I was running. But, more importantly for my confidence, I realised that the route I took home was a consistent gradient. I'd basically run my fastest mile uphill all the way.
I'm still a little bit worried about the mileage on my schedule - especially as it's going to be a tough work week and difficult to fit miles in - but at least I get the odd glimpse of progress, even at my advanced age.
Maybe I can run that marathon after all.
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Saturday 25 February 2012
Self-chicked
Just when you think you are getting the hang of this marathon running lark, you do something that makes your thighs go 'oi, cocky, what are you playing at?'
In my case, it's pacing. I paced my first marathon badly but paced my second one to perfection. I thought I'd cracked it.
On Thursday night, I knocked out 7 consistently paced hill intervals and congratulated myself on really mastering pacing.
Then today I ended up crawling for the last 5 miles of my long run, because I ended up overdoing it on the Thames Towpath in an effort not to get duded (copyright: lazy girl running). It did cross my mind I was going too fast for my long run, but it was sunny, I felt good and I was winning! He couldn't get past me. So on I went, picking up my pace and increasing the gap between us. At mile 10, my rival finally peeled off and I realised I'd been racing a tall woman of 'advanced years' - gutted.
I think the moral of that story is 'you always need to focus on your pace, no matter how good you think you are' (and maybe check who's chasing you before you start 'racing')
Friday 24 February 2012
What I have learnt from marathon running
Recently, I've been talking to quite a few people attempting their first marathon. It reminded me what a daunting prospect it is when you've never done one before, and what a daunting prospect it still is when you've done two. As I hit the halfway point of marathon training #3, I am reflecting on lessons learnt in the last two and half years, and what I could pass on to first-timers.
1. Training is so much harder than the marathon itself
Trust me, you think hitting the streets or the treadmill 4-5 times a week, with increasingly long runs at the weekend is hard? Well, it is. It’s a psychological tool, designed to make the race a lot easier for you. This is particularly true of your first marathon, as the thrill of it all will carry you along for at least the first half. Actually, what am I saying? It works in the second one as well!
2. Do not listen to negative thoughts
You should only listen to your inner voice when it is saying good things. Good things include, ‘keep going, you lazy cow’, ‘stop whingeing’ and ‘you can have a beer when you finish’. Bad things include ‘you can’t do this’, ‘you’re too tired’ and ‘I can just go in my shorts, it won’t make any difference’.
3. You will at some point in the race feel very tired
This is totally normal. Do not let your head tell you otherwise. It does not mean you have not trained properly (unless you haven’t – see 5), it just means you are running a long way. Keep going, you will get there eventually. And then you can sit down.
4. It is very difficult to sit down after a marathon.
You’re ok for the rest of the race day itself, but the next day consider fitting a temporary grab rail next to the loo or your chair so you can lower yourself down gently. This is way more surprising a side effect than not being able to walk down stairs properly. You can avoid stairs, but you can’t avoid the loo!
5. Training (unfortunately) is the best preparation
Ok, people have run marathons with barely any training (reader, you know who you are!) but they are a) mental and b) quite fit in other ways. Even when you don’t feel like training, just get out there and do it, because it will make you feel a lot better at mile 22 of that race. That’s a promise.
6. The thrill of it all
No matter how hard you find it, I guarantee you will look back on the race experience as a good thing. Maybe not immediately. But eventually. I saw a banner during my first marathon that read ‘marathons are like childbirth: you say never again, and then the next thing you know you’re doing it all over again’. I can’t comment on childbirth, but I can vouch for the addictive quality of 26.2 miles.
1. Training is so much harder than the marathon itself
Trust me, you think hitting the streets or the treadmill 4-5 times a week, with increasingly long runs at the weekend is hard? Well, it is. It’s a psychological tool, designed to make the race a lot easier for you. This is particularly true of your first marathon, as the thrill of it all will carry you along for at least the first half. Actually, what am I saying? It works in the second one as well!
2. Do not listen to negative thoughts
You should only listen to your inner voice when it is saying good things. Good things include, ‘keep going, you lazy cow’, ‘stop whingeing’ and ‘you can have a beer when you finish’. Bad things include ‘you can’t do this’, ‘you’re too tired’ and ‘I can just go in my shorts, it won’t make any difference’.
3. You will at some point in the race feel very tired
This is totally normal. Do not let your head tell you otherwise. It does not mean you have not trained properly (unless you haven’t – see 5), it just means you are running a long way. Keep going, you will get there eventually. And then you can sit down.
4. It is very difficult to sit down after a marathon.
You’re ok for the rest of the race day itself, but the next day consider fitting a temporary grab rail next to the loo or your chair so you can lower yourself down gently. This is way more surprising a side effect than not being able to walk down stairs properly. You can avoid stairs, but you can’t avoid the loo!
5. Training (unfortunately) is the best preparation
Ok, people have run marathons with barely any training (reader, you know who you are!) but they are a) mental and b) quite fit in other ways. Even when you don’t feel like training, just get out there and do it, because it will make you feel a lot better at mile 22 of that race. That’s a promise.
6. The thrill of it all
No matter how hard you find it, I guarantee you will look back on the race experience as a good thing. Maybe not immediately. But eventually. I saw a banner during my first marathon that read ‘marathons are like childbirth: you say never again, and then the next thing you know you’re doing it all over again’. I can’t comment on childbirth, but I can vouch for the addictive quality of 26.2 miles.
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Food not so glorious food
I've been getting a lots of emails and tweets lately with links to items about food or diet. Runners food specifically. Like we have our own aisle in Sainsburys. (In local Sainsburys I do have my own aisle. It's the fruit and veg one. No one else seems to bother with it. But I digress).
All this talk of food has made me think about just how much of the whole marathon prep revolves around food, or fuel. But in general, web articles and magazines are quite unimaginative about what they suggest. Pasta, bananas, low-fat protein...yadda, yadda.
For a record, I hate ready meals or most forms of processed foods. I'm a bit weird, and prefer to know what I'm eating as far as possible. I can cook, so it seems a bit pointless to eat something out of a bit of plastic when I cook myself the same thing, except fresher, with less salt and more flavour. I'm also really suspicious of low-fat versions of fatty things - e.g. low-fat cheese. If cheese is making me fat, I just eat less cheese. Cheese with the fat taken out of it cannot be good for you - something bad will have been inserted at some point to compensate for the essential element of that foodstuff.
So my whole marathon training diet is juggled around fruit and veg I like, eggs, fish, chicken, pork and a bit of beef the night before a race. It seems to energise me. I eat yoghurts, and pasta, and tinned tuna, which are obviously processed. But for the most part, I try to make everything I eat from scratch. For instance, I make a lot of soups. But I am desperately trying to avoid eating too much of a good thing this time round, because I have a track record. I get bored of food. I get so bored, that it reaches the point that I never want to see that foodstuff again.
Since I started training for my first marathon in 2009, I have turned myself off the following 'runners foods':
Jaffa Cakes - I still mourn the fact I have not eaten a Jaffa Cake since October 2009. I loved Jaffa Cakes until I started running marathons. Now, they are dead to me. Dead to me, I tell thee.
Cereals - admittedly this is probably quite a good thing to be off health-wise but still, these used to be a convenient low-fat breakfast foodstuff, with some fruit added. Now they are milk or yoghurt covered instruments of torture .
Bananas - I ate a banana after the Berlin Marathon last September. I went off them. I tried another one yesterday. It's official - I hate them. My Room 101 would be full of slightly overripe bananas.
Items in the danger zone currently include crumpets, porridge and rice pudding.
I am now becoming terrified of turning myself off more foods that I used to enjoy. I need more variety. I need ideas. And I need them now. Before the bananas get me again.
All this talk of food has made me think about just how much of the whole marathon prep revolves around food, or fuel. But in general, web articles and magazines are quite unimaginative about what they suggest. Pasta, bananas, low-fat protein...yadda, yadda.
For a record, I hate ready meals or most forms of processed foods. I'm a bit weird, and prefer to know what I'm eating as far as possible. I can cook, so it seems a bit pointless to eat something out of a bit of plastic when I cook myself the same thing, except fresher, with less salt and more flavour. I'm also really suspicious of low-fat versions of fatty things - e.g. low-fat cheese. If cheese is making me fat, I just eat less cheese. Cheese with the fat taken out of it cannot be good for you - something bad will have been inserted at some point to compensate for the essential element of that foodstuff.
So my whole marathon training diet is juggled around fruit and veg I like, eggs, fish, chicken, pork and a bit of beef the night before a race. It seems to energise me. I eat yoghurts, and pasta, and tinned tuna, which are obviously processed. But for the most part, I try to make everything I eat from scratch. For instance, I make a lot of soups. But I am desperately trying to avoid eating too much of a good thing this time round, because I have a track record. I get bored of food. I get so bored, that it reaches the point that I never want to see that foodstuff again.
Since I started training for my first marathon in 2009, I have turned myself off the following 'runners foods':
Jaffa Cakes - I still mourn the fact I have not eaten a Jaffa Cake since October 2009. I loved Jaffa Cakes until I started running marathons. Now, they are dead to me. Dead to me, I tell thee.
Cereals - admittedly this is probably quite a good thing to be off health-wise but still, these used to be a convenient low-fat breakfast foodstuff, with some fruit added. Now they are milk or yoghurt covered instruments of torture .
Bananas - I ate a banana after the Berlin Marathon last September. I went off them. I tried another one yesterday. It's official - I hate them. My Room 101 would be full of slightly overripe bananas.
Items in the danger zone currently include crumpets, porridge and rice pudding.
I am now becoming terrified of turning myself off more foods that I used to enjoy. I need more variety. I need ideas. And I need them now. Before the bananas get me again.
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