My FLM2006 Training Diary

[Dilbert]

Just in case you have escaped my hundreds of other posts :) and because I have just brought it upto date I would like to point out that you can read about my London Marathon Training in my blog at www.nickruns.org (http://www.nickruns.org) just click the training diary link on the right hand side.

Last Sundays long run was an interesting yet incredibly stupid experience .... but then I guess no matter how much you know you shouldnt do something until you have actually experienced it once you wont fully appreciate why .... thats me trying to convince myself it was research not stupidity :)

Anyway maybe someone will find it useful .. or equallyfunny to laff at my suffering / stupidity.

ty

[Zee]

Is that the longest run you have done while training for the marathon? I can understand your reasons for not taking water with you as it can be very annoying running with a bottle in your hand.

Sound slike a nightmare tho, lucky you didnt totally cease up and couldnt make it back home, did you have money for a taxi??!! :)

What other alternatives are there tho besides stoppping off at a shop? That could be a nightmare if theres some dithering old biddy in front of you in the que and your jogging up and down on the spot trying to prevent your legs from ceaseing up! :D

[Dilbert]

Aye 19.5 is the furthest I have run so far m8ty, the marathon training schedule I am on builds up to doing 22 miles as the longest run and then tapers down 3 weeks before the actual race. I aim to be a little bit ahead of schedule on the distance so will maybe get upto about 24 as my longest run before I start my training taper ready for the marathon.

Yup theres all sorts of things yah can buy for carrying water in m8, from a simple running bottle, waist bags with bottle holders to specially designed running backpacks .. which is what I meant to go out and buy before last sundays long run but never managed.

Something like one of these is what I will end up with before this sundays long run me thinks >>Running Backpacks<< (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/Default.aspx?Main=CategoryProducts.aspx&Cat=run&w=0&CategoryName=Bags%20-%20Backpack)

Regards stopping, its not that much of a problem really with the long distance runs m8ty cos you sometimes have to stop anyway for daft things like removing a stone from your shoe, to have a pee or even give someone directions ... so long as you dont stop for more than a minute or 2 and dont sit down your ok to carry on afterwards ... and even if you did have to stop for 10 mins or somert it would be just the first few mins that would feel uncomfortable till you got going again and so long as you complete the distance it would have the same benefits as if you hadnt stopped.

[Zee]

Some of those backpacks look great, really streamlined and light. I used to love cross country and ran for the district at school. Have run on and off since then but only a few miles a week. Must get back into it...need some decent running gear first...any suggestions?

[Dilbert]

Some of those backpacks look great, really streamlined and light. I used to love cross country and ran for the district at school. Have run on and off since then but only a few miles a week. Must get back into it...need some decent running gear first...any suggestions?

Sorry if you already know a lot of this m8 and I sound like I am lecturing but I dont know much of your past so am writing it for someone with no assumed knowledge.

Main thing if your gonna start running or increasing your mileage is to make sure you get the right running shoes for your foot type and running style as this will help you avoid injuries and assist in keeping your running efficient.

Up until last year I hadnt been to a proper running shop and I had just bought trainers I liked the look of from high street stores like JD sports, sports soccer etc but last year I paid a visit to my local running shop and will now never buy running shoes from anywhere but a specialist shop as its a whole different experience.

As I had just started running when I visited my local shop I felt like a bit of a cheat going there as I perecived it was just for "proper runners" but after my first visit I realised this was all very silly as everyone has to start out sometime so they see a constant stream of people going in there who have just started running.

In a proper running shop rather than you choosing the shoes from what you look like the experience would instead rather work along these lines, this is certainly what I found when I bought my last shoes.

* Assistant asks what your looking for, what type of running your going to be doing, how many miles a week, what your past expereince of running is and whether you have/have had any injuries and what sort of price range your looking at (buying proper runnings shoes doesnt have to be mega expensive, first pair i bought last year £35)

* Gets you to take your shoes and socks off and roll your trousers up and looks at how you stand, particularly how your feet and ankles look.

* My local shop has a treadmill and vid camera so the assistant offered to check my gait so brought me a pair of neutral shoes which I ran on the treadmill in (only for about 1min just to get me upto my normal speed and relax into my normal running style) whilst the camera videoed my feet and ankles.

* He played the video back and showed me that I overpronated a bit (I strike on the outside of the heel and then my foot rolls inward which causes the ankles to collapse in a bit, which is apprently very common) so he suggests that motion control shoes would be best for me.

* He asks me at this point if theres a specific brand that I have used in the past and would prefer to which I say Ive always liked the fit of Asics so he brings me a pair of those plus 3 different brands of shoe in the price range that I said earlier that are all designed for motion control which is what he says my foot needs.

* I try all 4 pairs on and then run on the treadmill for a bit in a pair of Asics and a pair of Brooks, he says I can also have a run outside in them as the treadmill feels different so I do just a couple of hundred metres outside in both pair and opt for the Brooks which feel great.

Its a bit of a different experience to buying shoes from a spotty teenager in JD Sports and although you may get away with buying shoes from JD sports and not suffer any adverse consequences I dont see the point when theres plenty of specialist shops out there that can supply ou with something more suitable and at no extra cost.

Regards everything after shoes it comes down to personal choice m8 but I like my Nike dri fit stuff, I have short sleeved zip top and lightweight shorts and some nike running tights for when its cold as I like to keep my knees covered when its a few degrees close to zero.

Mucho waffle from me as usual but hopefully some of its useful :)

[tIMor`]

Very interesting read on the site matey, seems like a lot of hard work, sounds like you're sticking to it though. Nice work!

[Zee]

Thanks for the info Dilb, I will have to check where my nearest running shop is. tbh i would have gone to JD sports or something like that. What was the name of the shop you bought yours from? Do they have other stores?

[Zee]

Hmmm cant get your site to load now ;( i was going to check your diary and see how many miles you were running at the start?

[Dilbert]

Hmmm .. working for me now m8, only time its ever been down so far that ive noticed is when theres been a problem with the server which means that the hlccl forums dont work either cos they are hosted at the same place, did yah come here straight after trying http://www.nickruns.org/ ??

Right at the very start when I was losing my weight and just starting to run I couldnt even manage a mile without stopping :)

[greytop1]

Hi m8 , we in cheshire have a challenge called the sandstone trail. This involves a 34 mile trek across the so called "flat" cheshire plain (flat my arse). This is going to be my 3rd year of doing this and some training tips wouldn't go amiss.
B.T.W this is not a running race although there are around 15 people who enter to run (last years time was around 4.5 hours)

any advice on intakes during the race eg. fluids.

blisters and sprains are a real problem aswell . There are approximately 200 styles to climb and a lot of the challenge is through farmers fields!!!

greytop

[Dilbert]

Greytop, that race sounded like fun, until you mentioned all those stiles, sounds like a nightmare, I get peeved off when I have to stop for traffic when I am out on a run never mind having to clamber over stiles..... some of which can be quite tricky from past experience.

Regards training for somert like that its pretty much same as most of these endurance events, ie. look at what sort of distance your currently doing at the moment, then make a plan that builds you up to doing close to the distance that you will go during the event with a couple of weeks taper before the event to let your body recover from the training and prepare for the event.

Regards fluid, for an event like that its very important to drink and eat plenty during the event as 34 miles is gonna burn a ton of calories and your gonna lose a lot of liquid in sweat, doubley so if its hot when you do it. Water is good but sports drinks (orange lucozade sport is what I use on my long runs as thats whats provided for the marathon as well as water) would also be good as they give you energy and top up your electrolytes as well as replacing lost fluids. Its best to sip drinks often rather than guzzling down half a litre inermitently and thats where having a hydration system with a pipe really helps as your not stopping and rooting round in your bag for a bottle when you want a drink.

I bought a hrdration system that goes round my waist and holds 1.5ltrs of liquid and also has pockets for carbo gels and other food I take with me and after wearing it for the first time yesterday on a 23mile run I am very pleased with it. For the sort of trek your doing a day pack with built in hydration system would be a good call I reckon, camelback were one of the original makers of these but theres lots of brands out there now.

Just going back to the amount of calories you will burn theres a useful link here that will give you an idea of how many calories your body will use for different activities. Just enter your body weight in pounds and then the duration in minutes (or 60 to show how many alories per hour you will burn) and it will show a list of activies that you can print out and keep showing how many calories your body weight will burn for many different actvities.

http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calculat.htm


ps. Updated my training diary, ive had a bad couple of weeks (due to a calf injury and stag do) but yesterdays long run has left me feeling much more positive about how its going, although my trainng is about to be interupted again as I fly to the states on Wednesday for a weeks snowboarding but I still hope to do a few runs whilst I am there .... if were not completely snowed in like it looks we may be atm :)

http://www.nickruns.org/wordpress/