Hunger

Since Sunday I've quite reduced my carbohydrate intake. I had debated with myself long and hard about this and decided in the end to give it a go, for 2 reasons:
I had listened to an interview with the legendary Ron Hill & he reckoned ideal preparation was to deplete the body of carbohydrates so that when you reached the last few days and start to carboload it becomes more effective. He said that this concept originated in Scandinavia and is called the Sultin (I assumed this came from the Scandinavian word sultan meaning "hungry" but it turns out it was from the doctor who developed it!) Whilst I had heard of this concept before while reading about carb loading the general consensus is that it is unnecessary and just the carb loading portion is required. I have read though that it does no harm so my second reason kicks in - not to put on weight.
As my mileage has dropped & due to knowing that I'll pile on a few pounds when I do start carb loading I said it was no harm for a few days to cut down my overall calorie intake and by cutting down on carbs this makes it a lot easier. I haven't had to make any huge changes though. I normally have porridge for breakfast so have been having an omelette instead. I don't normally eat a lot of potatoes, pasta, bread (unless I'm racing or doing a session) so just swapped some of my vegetable intake, spinach instead of carrots for example. The other change is I haven't had any fruit except for an orange yesterday.
The results have been quite stark, it's been much harder than I thought! I haven't been hungry (due to the extra protein) but my energy levels are way down. As I was a little sore monday from my fall I only ran 2 miles and yesterday struggled through 6, there's no way I could have done speedwork! But this means it's working I suppose. On the plus side I have had 2 of the best nights sleep in ages as I'm totally zonked come 8pm.

I will try keep it up until tomorrow evening or friday morning & then comes the best bit of the entire marathon process - CARBO LOADING :)!!!
Monday: 2 miles @7.43 HR 117
Tuesday:6 miles @7.29 HR 132

The Start line is in sight...

Had planned on doing an easy run on Friday morning before breakfast & then heading for the airport. Got quite a surprise when I looked out the window & it was lashing rain! Nice weather for travelling I guess. So a quick change of plan, I popped down for breakfast, did most of my packing and headed out for 45 minutes.
Did another easy 35 minutes Saturday at home & finished the week off with 10 miles Sunday, which will be the last "long" run I'll do. Quite shattered today as it was quite late getting back to Denmark.
Being the idiot that I am I slipped on the bathroom floor this morning and banged my hip and knee. Will head out for a run but if it's sore I'll turn back.
Friday 6.6miles @7.12 HR130
Saturday 5miles @7.08 HR134
Sunday 10miles @7.30 HR134
Weekly Total: 75miles
 

Making the best of a bad session

The plan for today was to repeat last Wednesday's pyramid session. I felt that it should in theory be easier considering I didn't have the fast finish long run in my legs as I had last week. I was wrong. Actually as I type this, it has occurred to me that the fast finish was done in the morning whereas Monday's long run took place in the evening. Conversely I was doing the session in the morning whereas last week it was the evening, so I guess I had almost an extra 24 hours recovery in total. Or maybe I was just going better last week!
I had planned on going to the track but it would have meant renting a bike & trying to find the bloody thing! I decided it wasn't worth the hassle as I wanted to get the session in before it got too hot. Besides there's a lovely cycle path running along the seafront in Palma which would do nicely. After warming up and causing a cyclist to crash (just before I got onto the cycle path so there shouldn't be a lawsuit!) I set about the first mile. While I was holding 5.30 pace as planned it felt anything but comfortable. Not to worry I thought, just getting warmed up. Onto the 2mile section and things were definitely not going well. Was digging deep enough to maintain the pace and only managed 11.05. Knew at this stage my lofty hopes of doing the entire session at 5.30 pace was beyond me so I headed into to 3 mile section with an open mind. After a bit I looked down and the pace was around 5.45 and I was under serious pressure. And next thing I knew I had hit the lap button at 0.4miles and was jogging. As I contemplated the jog home and pondered if what I had done justified the chocolate milkshake waiting in the fridge as my recovery drink, I had a bit of a brain wave - Ok so I can't maintain 5.30pace so why not knock out a few miles at target marathon pace. Sher why not? Started off nice and relaxed, at what felt like marathon pace. When I looked down I was doing 5.50 miling. Hmm, it felt so much easier that just a few seconds a mile quicker, obviously being more relaxed helped. Although I thought I was at a pace I could maintain for 30 minutes or so, I had slowed to 6 minute miling by the time I hit 3 miles and by 5 miles I had to push on a bit to maintain this pace. Ok so I was going a little faster than my planned marathon pace but I think I still gave myself a timely reminder that even though a pace might feel comfortable it doesn't mean it's not too fast!
Not the toughest session I've ever done,  10 days out might be a good time to kill yourself before a 5 or 10K but I think for what I would have gained by really burying myself, wouldn't have been worth it. As I neared the end of the warm down it dawned on me - it's done! The training's done, happy days!! I'll do some sort of speed work next week just to break up the inevitable tedium but I won't even bring the watch (who am I kidding?) but nothing too hectic. Ok I guess there's just the small matter of the 26.2 miles to go...
Thursday: 2 mile warmup, 1mile (5.30) 2min recovery, 2mile (5.33) 3.5min recovery. 0.4mile (5.44) 2min recovery, 5mile (6.00), 2 mile warm down. 13.3miles total

Taper Time, well kind of

So in to the home straight now at last. I know there's often a lot of debate about how long the marathon taper should be, with 2 to 3 weeks often considered the optimum duration. As my training had been disrupted I feel that my situation is slightly different. Traditionally one should begin the taper after coming off the hardest training in terms of intensity and mileage & while I got some good quality workouts in, my weekly mileage had been hit or miss. Since Ballycotton (i.e. the recovery week of 57 miles) I had mileage of 77, 67, 23, 41, 57, 77. While I'm hopeful the lack of mileage won't come against me Sunday week, it means at the moment I feel quite fresh, whereas I should be on my hands & knees by this stage.
With this in mind even though I had always planned on doing my last 20 miler 2 weeks out I postponed it by a day as there was no way I was doing it the day after the 10K race. It turned out to be my hardest long run so far, not because of the intensity - it was my slowest one and on dead flat roads, as I've moved to Palma for the last few days. The hangover from the Easter celebrations meant it was mentally tough to keep going. Maybe subconsciously having the few beers was a good idea as I hadn't really suffered mentally on any of the long runs so far, so I needed a bit of "wanting to throw in the towel and just keep the head down". Even after 19 miles I wanted to call it quits but I'm glad I stuck it out. The pace was slow, but that's perfect as it was all about getting time on my feet. I think anyone that knows me well can well understand how I could fully integrate a night on the lash as an essential component of my training plan!
Did a 30 minute recovery run tuesday morning & felt a little stiff. Did another hour in the PM and felt a bit better but still not fully recovered.
Got up this morning with an easy hour in mind but it felt anything but easy. The old familiar big race coming up feeling of lethargy is starting to creep in but I kept the head down in the knowledge I could just relax for the rest of the day.
Tomorrow is 10 days out which means last session and then the taper proper can begin.
Monday: 20 miles @6.58 HR141
Tuesday:AM 4miles @ 7.47
PM 8miles @7.02 HR132
Wednesday: 8miles @ 7.23 HR125

Warm weather training

So on Monday I had the luxury of heading off to Mallorca for some warm weather training. Not specifically because of the marathon (although if it is an unseasonably hot day it may help!) I had initially booked a week off work due to the 3 Danish bank holidays at Easter, but I was encouraged to take an extra & didn't need too much convincing!
Following Sunday's hard long run, the first 2 days were spent recovering, an easy hour on the treadmill monday, and 2 easy 40ish minute runs on Tuesday (one on the treadmill). On Wednesday I had a session planned. As I said in a previous post I was planning on doing 4x2mile on the road, but due to the hilliness of the area (Porto Cristo) & due to there being a track only 15 minutes away I decided to make the most of it. Rather than the tedium of 4x2 miles I said I'd give a pyramid session a go, 1-2-3-2-1 miles with 2-3-4-4 minutes recovery.
As the day was spent shopping & generally messing about I was in no real form for it and was dreading it by the time I made it to the track. Still I said I hadn't come all this way not to make the most of the weather & facilities!
Found it a bit tougher than I expected to keep the pace (5.30) on the first, but loosened out on the 2 mile and managed 10.58. Decided to decrease the effort for the 3 mile but was still on 5.30 pace after 7 laps. The pace did drop off a bit but not too badly so I ended with 16.50 (5.37 pace). I suffered on the next 2 mile and only managed 11.33 (5.47 pace) and told myself that anything under 6 minutes would be fine for the last mile. Surprised myself with a 5.33 which was very pleasing on tired legs!
Needless to say I was tired the next morning so did an hour easy, or as easy as one can go on the hilly Mallorcan roads. Did another easy 30 minutes that evening.
As I had found a 10K race for Saturday I just did 50 minutes very easy on friday. Although I had Wednesdays session (and Sundays long run) in my legs I was hoping to see how I could go in the 10K but it turned out to be a humbling experience. For some reason I was exceptionally nervous before hand. Almost as soon as we got going I knew I wasn't in the right frame of mind, and that was even before the course started going up & up & up. It was a mix of trails and road so it was very difficult to get into any kind of rhythm. I just hung in and said it's training and ended up in 8th place in just over 38minutes (I know!).
Did 30 minutes easy on Sunday Morning & actually felt better than after the session. Goes to show the effort wasn't there, but probably no harm not to kill myself just over 2 weeks to my A race. Did an easy hour Sunday Evening before treating myself to the nicest steak I've had in years and a few pints. Well it was the end of my last hard week of training & Lent was over after all!
Monday:8miles @7.30
Tuesday:AM 5miles @
PM: 5.6miles @7.30
Wednesday Session: 1-2-3-2-1 miles total :14miles
Thursday: AM 8miles
PM: 5miles
Friday: 6.8miles
Saturday: 10K Race
Sunday: AM: 4.5miles
PM: 8miles
Total for week: 77miles

For Thursday’s session I had planned on best case scenario doing 4x2 mile or else start with 2 miles & drop down to one if necessary. My latest niggle (seems to be touring my body!) was on the tendon that runs just below the ankle on the inside of my foot & I was aware of it during my warm up but hoped once I got up to speed on the track it would disappear. Unfortunately this was n’t to be the case & after getting through the first repeat @5.26 pace (comfortably difficult) I decided to call it at day. Had what I considered my make or break fast finish long run planned for Sunday so didn't want to jeopardise it. Considering how I felt during the repeat I did manage I think I went a little quick, so all going well I will aim to do it this week, maybe start around 5.35pace and also I think I’d be better off doing it away from the track. 8 laps at high pace is mentally quite difficult I discovered!!

I travelled home on friday and was up early enough to get a run in before heading for the airport but decided that running cold was a recipe for disaster. As a result I squeezed in 40minutes when I got home. As I was caught for time I found myself running a little faster than usual, not consciously - I find the difference in time saved between running fast and slow is precious little. But it was nice to see the pace well below 7 minute miling and still feeling comfortable. Managed to do another hour on Saturday, again below 7 minute miling. Both hip and tendon below ankle were quite sore so I gave a good session on the foam roller/boule. Also in the hopes of some devine intervention, my mam lit a candle for my various ailments after mass!

After a really bad nights sleep I was quite nervous heading for my long run. Decided to do a fairly flat loop of about 5 miles in Cork, so I could pick up drinks and bail out if it came to it. The reason for the flat course was so I could practice putting in a consistant effort, but there was two shortish sharp hills just to ensure it wouldn't be too easy :)

The plan was to take it easy for the first 8 miles or so & then pick it up goal marathon pace (6.10) for the next 7 miles before just running as fast as I could for another 5. Sounds straightforward eh?

Started off at around 7.15 pace but as it turned out that was pretty much the slowest part of the loop. By the time I had hit the first mile it had dropped to 6.55 and my HR still below 130bpm, good start! By the time I hit the end of part one at 8 miles I had dropped down to around 6.45 pace with only the odd foray into the 140's. I picked it up towards the end, as per last time in order not to shock the system . When I started at the 6.10 pace section it actually felt a little harder than I expected - I thought to myself 12 miles at this will be a challenge (not to mind 26.2!) but again it started on a tough part. After a few toughish miles, got back into my comfort zone. My HR had gone to 160's but came back to high 150's and started cruising at around 6.07 pace and felt (almost) like I could go like that all day. When I got to my transition point after 7 miles I had half thought of staying at that pace for another 2miles but instinct kicked in & I picked things up. Things started getting tough now but managed to get down to an average of about 6.02. I hit the last mile just at the beginning of the only real hill & by the time I crested it I was at 6.30 for that mile, managed to dig pretty deep to get it back to 6.14 by the end of it. Finished shattered but a different shattered than after say a track session. Met a buddy on the warm down which was nice. Felt I could have ran another 10 miles handy enough, just not very quickly!!

Thursday: 4miles incl. 2miles in 10.54
Friday: 5.5miles @ 6.42 HR 138
Saturday: 8miles @ 6.57 HR 137
Sunday: 22.3miles @ 6.33 HR 149 (8 @6.45, 7 @ 6.07, 5 @ 6.02)

Despite feeling Ok after Sunday's long run, I was pretty sore on Monday. Thankfully it was a tired muscles sore as opposed to an injury sore. The run Sunday had 248m of ascent and obviously the same in descent, some of the decent's being quite steep. As a result my quads were pretty sore. I understand now why people find the Boston marathon tough! Just got out for 30 minutes or so monday evening. Was happy to note no pain in my hamstring although my hip was a bit sore (as it had been after the 22miler).
Did 75 minutes yesterday and had recovered a bit more but was still a bit tired. Hip still sore but was able to run through it. Did the run on some playing pitches to give the body & the quads in particular a bit of a break. Definitely want to do a session this week, the thought had crossed my mind to do it today, but I think I will just go easy again this evening & hopefully will be fit for fight tomorrow.
Monday: 3.8miles @7.55Min/mile HR118bpm
Tuesday: 10.3miles @7.17Min/mile HR138bpm

Mind over matter

Took Monday and Tuesday off completely, in order to give my various ailments time to recover. I was starting to worry that the wheels had come off my marathon hopes as this is the crucial time for getting in the mileage/quality really before the taper starts. On Wednesday I did 30 minutes easy and while the tendon was grand during, it was a little sore after. As a result I took Thursday off and had a physio appointment Friday morning. By now I had pretty much said to myself the marathon was a non runner. I even started planning my track season (well googling race dates so I could plan my trips) to take my mind off it.
But towards the end of the massage the physio said something that surprised me - "Are you sure it's as bad as you say it is?" The reason she asked was, because she was able to work on it without causing too much discomfort. Hmm, could she have had a point? I remembered reading another runners blog who developed a problem at a similar point in training for a marathon (I won't mention his ailment in case he ever happened upon this blog, as it was quite a specific and unusual problem) and my immediate thought was that it was at least partly psychological. You get so far in training and everything is looking good, but the fear of failure makes you subconsciously seek an out.
As if by chance I was listening to a marathon talk podcast that afternoon and an interview with a runner who was racing across America. He mentioned how he'd go from one injury to the next and that one of the other competitors told him that running is able to fix most of the problems it causes (a bit like alcohol!) I took this as a sign & also remember that my Achilles managed to right itself not through rest, but by running sensibly (i.e. no killer sessions) and it'll go away of it's own accord.
So with that in mind I decided to HTFU and went out for 5 miles friday evening. I had bought a support but after a mile I realised it was the wrong size and was aggravating the problem but once I took it off I was fine. Managed 8 miles on Saturday, after about 5 felt a pinch in the tendon but once I slowed down it was ok again, it came at me again towards the end so slowed to a crawl.
So with today being 4 weeks to Limerick I had a decision to make, was I going to keep the dream alive? If so there was no doubt in my mind that I simply had to do a long run. I would prefer to quit here than hit the wall at mile 20 due to lack of preparation.
So I got up early and hit the road, into the unknown. I consoled myself in that if I had to turn back I'd be able to see Bekele's marathon debut in Paris.
Of course when I say unknown I'm talking about my body, I had driven a route near my house during the week (just in case) A hillyish 8.5mile loop http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/385461518 with 95m of ascent. This would give me an out if required. The forecast had been for about 3 degrees and light wind but it was foggy, wet and a bit breezy. It was strange but I wasn't overly concerned with would I survive the distance from a stamina point of view and was totally focused on the legs. First few miles went grand, pace was quite fast, around 6.45min/mile but had the breeze with me and a lot of downhill. HR was low 140's which was grand. Typically the hilliest part was directly into the wind but just went steady up it, leg was fine thankfully. On the road back in I started motoring for a bit and the pace dropped as low as 6.41 but was back to 6.46 by the time I was back at the house. Everything was still hunky dory, passed 10miles not a bother with pace still at 6.46. Breeze had picked up a bit. When I got to 15 feeling fine I was thinking how far should I go. As my longest run in time was 2.30 I decided I would do whichever came first of the following:
1. Exhaustion
2. 2hrs45min
3. 24 miles
Still felt grand as the miles passed on, although my HR was creeping up to high 140's with the odd foray into the 150's. Got to 20 miles , pace hovering between 6.46,6.47, still grand. Around 22 miles it finally started to get tough and my pace dropped to 6.48. I decided to increase the effort ever so slightly just to know I could stay strong until the end. Finished off with the pace back at 6.47. Delighted to get through it and satisfied with how it went but won't get too carried away as I've almost had a 2 week taper leading into it. Still it was nice to get it in. The next thing is to see how I recover. I know I'm far from out of the woods, but at least I know I'm still in the game.
Weds: 4.2miles @ 7.39min/mile
Friday: 5miles @ 7.27min/mile
Saturday:8miles @ 7.18min/mile
Sunday: 24miles @ 6.47min/mile HR146bpm