24...The Long Run

I have not completed any specific Marathon training programme, but I am aware of what they contain and knew the time had come to complete my longest run ahead of race day. With 4 weeks to go my plan was to run 22 miles on a fairly undulating course, which would reflect some similar elevation to my race. I was intending to run this alone, but by the weekend it was all change. In the end I decided to run with friend and running partner Brian. He planned to run 24 miles; our route of 12 miles along the Basingstoke Canal to work, get there and then turn around and head back, One for all, and all for one!

Although this was longer than I planned, the canal is very flat apart from about 15 locks that on the way back give you some short hills to go up. Brian's thinking was this would be more of a confidence booster in completing the distance rather than struggling on a hilly run.

It was also a chance to fine tune my nutrition. Like my previous long run I stuck with my bite size flapjacks, jelly beans and Powerade sports drink. My Camelbak can take 1.5 litres of fluid, so I put 2 x 500ml bottles into the bladder, It didn't quite last the run, but come race day will be plenty of water stops.

It was around mile 18, I noticed the tiredness, and this was more mental than anything else. But I kicked in and broke down the final 10K in my head in the typical way all of us runners do. " If I can just get to the BP garage.....train station.....that tree!".

So I made it and Brian had been right, this has boosted the confidence. The short walk home was more of a struggle than the last 4 miles had been running, but I was lifted when my two son's came past me, the eldest going for a run and his brother following on his bike. If I had inspired, then job done!

Just under a week later from this run, and as I conclude this post, I have been out for a couple of runs. I went for a 4.5 mile run 2 days after the long run. The legs were heavy but by the end of the run had loosened, so I think this was worthwhile. Yesterday I ran into work on a 12 mile run, again I took this easy.

That now leaves 3 weeks until race day. I have a 20 mile race next Sunday which will leave 2 weeks to taper. I have not planned what to do in them couple of weeks and have never tapered before, so any thoughts let me know.

Bouncebackability!

An English football manager once described the ability to comeback as 'Bouncebackability'. This was exactly what I needed to do today following a blow out on my last long run a couple of weeks ago.

I didn't put too much pressure on myself but deep down I knew this was a big week of running for me. After taking a weeks rest, I got back into it this last week. I had a week off work so as well as fitting around the family I also managed to get some decent runs in. These consisted of medium runs of 6 and 9 miles, a tempo run of 4.5 miles and today's 17 miles, totalling a very nice 37 mile week.

The real satisfaction though came from today's run. Before I set off I was far more confident than I had been for two reasons: 1) I was really up for this run, and 2) I was a lot more confident with my fuelling today.



Today's Fuel

I had my Camelbak filled with a Powerade sports drink which I topped up with a little water. I also tried the Lucozade Jelly Beans which tasted no different to the regular beans you can buy, just twice the price! I also packed some flapjack pieces. I individually wrapped these in cling film and nicknamed these my 'Scooby snacks'. My thinking was I would have a flapjack and a few beans along with a swig of drink every 3 miles. This seem to work really well although somewhere along the way I must have dropped a flapjack as I was one short come mile 15! I also like the fact of having some real food with me and I had no problem with stomaching these.



As well as getting the fueling right, I think the course helped give me a lift as well. It was a similar route to what I have done a few times before but to give it a fresh feel I run through a couple of typical quaint English villages set in the heart of the Surrey hills.



Seale



Puttenham













The villages of Puttenham and Seale were quiet and still on this sleepy Sunday morning and were the perfect back drop for the run. The course in parts was quite undulating and the best part was running up 'Thundery Hill' I thought this was just a great name for a road and would sound brilliant to have as an address.

OK so this was still 9 miles short of Marathon distance but I could have quite easily gone on today. So with 40 days to go till my race it was good timing to show some 'Bouncebackability'. 

Thank You!

Following my bad run last week, I've had a great response from people offering advice that I thought I'd share as it may help others. I haven't put names but you know who you all are, from the Blog, Twitter and Dailymile. A massive Thank you. I've taken everything on board and putting it all into practise.

Sorry to hear about your dead stop. Maybe a couple of lower-mileage weeks would help? I
can't get my head around gels either - pricey, sticky & yukky! surprising how many of the ultrarunning bods on twitter use jelly babies or haribo instead... 3 jelly babies=1 gel, by all accounts. certainly taste nicer & a fraction of the cost.

Most of those gels just don't agree with people's stomach's, that carnitine theory of the gels will only work in the long term, i cant see it getting to your muscles fast enough to switch your major carbon source to fat. I'm all about jelly babies, they taste good, there cheap and if you suck them you will absorb the sugar straight away. Sorry maybe don't be so harsh on yourself, you got 8 weeks to your Marathon, that means you got 4 weeks to get to 20 so maybe slow down take your time. It may hopefully just be a mental thing.

I've tried jelly sweets but they are harder to digest (more solid) and therefore upset my stomach on a run. I don't go for sweet food at all anyway. I'm back to gels and I don't notice a "kick" from them, but my energy levels stay OK, which is the goal. Note that you have to be taking 500-600ml of water per hour with the gels too. Have you tried Endurolytes? I take one every 30mins along with gels.
Good luck!

My preference is for a mix of caffeinated gels (powerbar) and jelly beans, I also fill my camel back with electrolyte sports drink and water half and half.
Are you making sure you're 100% hydrated before your long runs and picking your evening meal the night before carefully? All these things can have considerable effect, especially the hydration. If I have a load of booze on Friday night, I suffer from not being totally hydrated by the time Sunday morning and the long run comes along.

And don't forget getting enough sleep: a brief period of sleep deprivation has shown not to impact performance significantly, but a prolonged period of sleep deprivation does. If your mileage increases, so should your time asleep.

I'm no expert but previous distances looks OK. I have lots of calories the night before and usually just water on the run.

If I run for 3 hours I take about 600/800 cals, you sure your not just bonking because of lack of cals.

Take another rest & re-focus. Look at your nutrition, maybe that's why you bombed?

Sorry to hear Ian :( I'm not nearly as experienced as you at running so I can't offer any advice about your schedule. But looks like you have a good mix of workouts going on so maybe your body saying 'i need a little break'? Have you tried Power Bars before - they give about 39g of carbs, and are more filling than cereal bars/gels. I haven't had one for a few years, but used to eat them a lot during running or squash back in the day.

Hi Ian. Just spotted your posting. IMHO, you are possibly pushing your body too much, too fast. Maybe you should run flat terrain for your long runs and separate out your hills/speed work to shorter weekday sessions. Also, if you sweat a lot, you need to replace lost salt/electrolytes so SiS Go in your water is a good idea. Good luck and keep up the good work.

You have a lot of long runs in there Ian, I think you can do a marathon for sure. You might try salt tablets, and Magnesium and Potassium pills at key points during your long runs. The electrolytes are important, so if the GU isn't working for you switch off to the beans! And Fig Newtons and Smarties (M&Ms here) and Swedish Fish!

Don't sweat it mate, one bad run doesn't a bad runner make or change any of the hard work and miles you have already banked. Have a rest the let the body recover and you'll come back stronger than before, but hopefully not so strong that you leave me trailing in your wake. :)

Help!

Today my legs gave up! They finally just cut out on me like an old battery in a car. I was on a planned 18 miler, admittedly it was a tough 18 miler, undulating with some testing hills around 12 miles. To my surprise I got up these hills but they must have sapped the last of the energy from my legs because come mile 15 I just stopped. I've never felt like this before, but I mentally and physically could not go on. I walked for a couple of minutes and tried to go again but within a few hundred yards I was forced to stop again. This was the pattern for the remainder of the run walk! albeit the running part was getting less and less. I stopped the watch at 15.75 miles I couldn't include the rest as part of the run because it wasn't running.

The worrying thing is that recently the last couple of long runs have gone this way and I have a tough Marathon approaching in 8 weeks time. I'm not sure of the problem, but this is where I need people's help! Any advice big or small would be much appreciated, please leave a comment.

I'll give you a little bit of recent history. You can see below my running for the last couple of months. Have I been doing too many long runs? Not enough of something else?

My second concern, Nutrition. Today's run I took my Camelbak filled with water, so there was plenty of water on tap! I also tried a new gel. The SIS Burners gel, these work in a slightly different way than a usual gel, The theory behind the gel is that the added carnitine in the product increases the levels of carnitine stored in the muscles so you become more efficient at burning fat as a fuel and therefore helping to spare your carbohydrate stores. Gels just don't seem to give me any benefit and this one was no different. I took it half way round, and the only thing I noticed from it was the bad after taste in my mouth. So if Gels aren't working, what else can I try, filling the Camelbak with a sports drink? Ideally I would like to go on a long run without the Camelbak but a 330ml sports drink is not enough for me for 3 hours running.

I actually don't mind running with the Camelbak, it's a great product and after a little while you soon get used to it on your back. I have tried running with a cereal bar. I found this great (real food!) but just not enough to keep me going.

I'm getting concerned. As I was walking at the end of today's run, thoughts of  'Maybe I'm not a Marathon Runner' filled my head, but I remind myself that apart from the last couple of runs, I've been out for 18-20 mile runs and have been OK. My thoughts are that maybe I'm making my long runs too hard, they do tend to be undulating.

I would really appreciate any help on the above in my quest to get me back up and running.

Thanks in advance.

Ian

Beauty and the Beast: G3 series 2011



The North Downs



I caught the last of the G3 races yesterday. The race is part of series of five races which take part in the beautiful surroundings of the North Downs in Surrey here in Southern England. The first three
races take part in the early months of the year finishing with the final two back to back over this Weekend in Sunny June.

I say Sunny, the forecast was for this to be the hottest day of the year, fortunately though the day started very misty and the race start was 8:30am.



Setting Up at the Start



It was an early start as I had offered to help friend Tim whose Company sponsor the event, a helping hand in putting up his Company banners. Tim had got me my race place so it was the least I could do to help out. It also gave me a chance to meet some of the Organisers and chill out a little before the other competitors turned up. I enjoy helping out at events, especially shorter races as it makes more of the time rather than just turning up racing and going straight home.



The Calm before the Storm!



The race course consists of Forest trails and Woodland sandy paths with quite a few challenging hills thrown in too. The well organised start to the race made a prompt start as scheduled at 8:30am. Tim had warned me that the first two miles of the race were fast and downhill and it would be easy to get swept along at a fast early pace. He was not wrong and I shot off from the start like a greyhound. This was my first mistake as I would learn later in the race.

I'm really pleased with the way my Nike Lunarglide's handled this type of terrain although a Trail shoe would be recommended for this course. After the easy start to the race and crashing through two seven minute miles, the false sense of achieving a PB was slowly but surely zapped out of me. The next mile and a half was by far the toughest I have competed in, the ups were tough and the downhills just as daunting. Be warned the Down hill's are steep and fast with the terrain uneven and rocky!

 
 
The toughest of the hills follows up to the Church of St Martha's. Not only is this steep but the terrain is loose sand. I've run this hill from the other side on a training run. That particular run was the first time I have ever had to stop and walk while running and today would be no different. Despite my recent efforts to include more hill runs as part of my training, St Martha's, my Nemesis, had reduced me to walk for the first time in a race.



The Final Stretch



Once I had got past this, my confidence came back and I was able to go past a few people up the smaller hills that followed and finish the race strongly. I finished with a respectable time of 52:12 on this very tough course. It was nice to be greeted by the race director who I had met earlier while setting up, with a "What took you so long!" I like this kind of banter at the end of the day and laughed along while I ate my Banana and Recovery Shake that you receive at the end of the race.

There is no medal, which was a little disappointing but you do have access to download your photo for free after the event and I was pleased that the Recovery Shake was my favourite 'For Goodness Shakes' which I swear by as part of my recovery at the end of a tough event.

The race was faultless in it's organisation and the Marshall's were encouraging and friendly. I will definitely be up for doing the full series next year, a great race although not one for the beginner.



The Course

Getting There

I was unsure what to name the post this week, 'Nearly There' was an option, but after 20 tough,tough miles this morning, 'Nearly There' felt along way from the truth at mile 16 and 'The Run from Hell' was feeling more appropriate at mile 20!

This was probably my toughest run to date, 20 miles consisting of 2 circuits of the route I ran last weekend, titled in my last post as 'My favourite Run'. It still is my favourite place to run and the weather was perfect this morning for running, overcast but the odd spells of sunshine to lift the spirits.

I don't like to run repeat circuits if I can help it on long runs, I find it hard to know on the first lap you've got to do this all over again, but this is a great course to get some tough hill training in, as well as dealing with the undulating terrain on the way.

Today's Fuel

I forgot to purchase some Gels beforehand, I wanted to try something different rather than the Lucozade ones that I don't really like. I had my faithful Camelbak with about a litre of water in, and I thought I would try taking a cereal bar with me. That really went well, the thought of having 'real' food along the way worked as a motivation tactic. I broke small pieces off and rewarded myself after completing a hill. So not to suffer any stomach problems I made the bar last for probably 45 minutes in the middle part of the run. The only problem was it was quite a small bar and didn't give me enough energy for the over 3 hours that I was out, but is definitely something to work on.

I got to half way round (10 miles) feeling quite strong, I took the hills steady and my pace slower than usual for a long run. Mile 12 and slowly but surely the breakdown begins. It's amazing how one moment you can be feeling strong and within minutes struggling. I finished my last piece of cereal bar which renewed some energy and over the next few miles kept me going but once I hit the main hills for the second time round I was reduced to a staggering mess, looking like a boxer at the end of round twelve and trying to hold on.

A tough hill in the distance (The Photo does not do it Justice!)

As I approached home I realised that my distance was going to be nearer 19.5 miles rather than 20, and there was no way that was going to happen. I was not going through all this to still have a '1' in front of the distance, this was going to be 20 even if I had to crawl in. My mantra of 'Push' (I was saying this out loud on each breath!) seemed to do the trick and get me to my door in 3:08:39.

I'm hoping that I am not peaking too early, I still have a few months to go to my first Marathon, but it's a tough one and I want to be at that start line knowing I prepared well.

My Favourite Run (Despite the Rain!)

Burger (Home made) and Fries, Bottle of Beer, 2 glasses of Wine, and watching Batman Begins till after midnight...Oh and a Ready Salted Crisp and Cream Cheese Roll (The Best!), all in all not the best preparation for an early morning hilly 11 miler.

It made me think about my nutrition today and how it definitely affects your running (Must try better!) because the run felt harder than usual and I partly put this down to last night indulgences. We eat fairly well as a family, I do the cooking in the household and try to cook most things from scratch, even the burgers when we have them but I reckon that there is room for some improvement.

I knew the forecast today was for rain for much of the day (The Weatherman always seem to get that one right!) I was OK with this, as of late we have been blessed with some great weather, it made a nice change to get out in the rain again.

My favourite run takes me over the Ash Ranges which are about a mile from my front door. The Ranges is an vast area of common land owned by the MOD which the nearby Army at Aldershot use for their training, The area of Trails and Woods with plenty of hills makes this the perfect place for running. Sometimes on these runs I don't see a soul, so is the perfect way to escape from the world for a couple of hours.



The only trouble is that when the Army are using the Firing Ranges you can't use the area, the use of Red Flags around the perimeter are used to show when this is happening (and the sound of shooting gives you a good idea to keep out!) Normally at the weekend the flags are flying until about 4 o'clock, but I was fortunate that the flags were down for the whole weekend.

The Long and Winding Road

From door to door the run is just over 11 miles. Its fairly undulating all the way although early on there are some flat straights. Between mile 7 and 9 is where the main hills lie, in this area the elevation rises by a few hundred feet. One hill in particular (Tunnel Hill) is a tough steep hill that you think you've got to the top only to bend round and climb some more. This hill is a real 'Thigh' burner! and when I'm grunting my way up it, I question and try to remind myself why this is my favourite run!

On a Summers day this run gets a 10 out of 10, today with the rain maybe a 9.

I have to apologise to all fellow Juneathoners for not sticking to the task of exercising and blogging everyday through June. a) I was struggling with the time b) I was struggling to write everyday. Especially when I'd just been out for a routine regular 4 miler it was hard to come up with something half decent to write and the posts were losing quality. I salute the other bloggers who are sticking to the task and getting the blogs out everyday. Well done to you all.