I’m in the last week before the marathon training starts in earnest. I’m slowly increasing my mileage. I did 41 miles last week, and I’m planning 46 for this week, which will lead nicely to the 50 miles planned for next week. This week I’m also switching to running 6 times a week, something that’s new to me. Of course this means that this week’s run are no longer than last week.
I did 5 easy miles on Monday, and 8 today. I felt a bit dead on my legs today, but managed to get round ok. One thing I’ve been thinking about is nutrition before and while running. I always used to eat a cereal before my run, and if the run was 15 miles or more, I’d take a gel at 10 miles. Now Mike has at least twice talked about not using gels during the training to get the body used to running low on carbs, and I had been thinking about that anyway. The next stage would be not to eat breakfast before the run. I’m all set to try and run without gels – I’m confident that I should manage that reasonably well. But I’m definitely balking at the idea of running on an empty stomach. I’ll have to think about that more. There’s only so much suffering I’m prepared to take.
I had a look through my running diary and found a run of 8 miles in 1:06 for Dec 7th, about 2 or 3 weeks into my marathon training for Connemara. My average HR had been 163. Today I covered the same distance, on the same road, at the same pace with a HR of 150. Good.
8 May: 5 miles, 46:59, 9:23 pace
9 May: 8 miles, 1:06, 8:15 pace
It is because I am new? For me everything is exciting about the training.
ReplyDeleteDon't think for me it could be a good idea to run low in carbs, still you will use it and deplete your reserves from muscles. That's what I've read... I'll check Mike's site to say why he says it works.
great on the HR!
ReplyDeletei can see training the body to run sans gels, but without breakfast first?! Yowza!
I never eat before I run unless I'm doing 15+ miles. Maybe a little Gatorade, but I think it's good for your body to learn to function on reserves. Unless you have a severely low body fat percentage, there's plenty of resources for your body to run on, it just needs to learn to do that. Look at Duncan's blog...I grant you he's insane, but he's talking about fasting for 24 hours and then running 24 miles!
ReplyDeleteNot that I am competing with you in terms of mileage, but I thought it interesting that I outran you by 2 miles last week and the plan this week calls for 47 versus your 46. You will crush me the following week though. I think we will be taking a similar build up approach over the summer although for slightly different goals.
ReplyDeleteI will try to deliver in at least one of the three marathons/ultras I am doing, but I liked the term one of my friends used coining them catered training runs.
Hey Thomas,
ReplyDeleteAs for running without gels, it works for me to run without them only for runs of less than about 1/2 marathon. Much farther than that and I am outta gas!
Good Luck on your training!
Curtai
Thomas - I can't eat within 3 hours of a run of any distance. It makes life hard when in a US based Marathon where the start can be as early as 6 am, but works OK for our races over here.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm training I take very little in the way of "extras" - The only time I have ever taken a gel is on a 20 mile plus training run when it was very warm, otherwise I play it by ear.
I drink a half cup of tea and eat a graham cracker before the morning run. In the afternoon I try not to eat the last hour before a run. I prefer not to eat or drink during a run, but did try both during the half marathons I've done. Seemed okay.
ReplyDeleteSomething I haven't tried too, running on an empty stomach. It seems like you always should eat something for fuel not just drink...hmmm interesting thought.
ReplyDeleteThat's massive mileage there.
I never get hungry until an hour or so after I wake so I never have anything to eat if I'm going for a morning run.
ReplyDeleteThomas,
ReplyDeleteJust to let u know. Will send you the shoes this weekend. :0
I find I can't run if I've eaten within oh, 90 minutes to two hours of the start of the run.
ReplyDeleteI almost never eat before a weekday morning run, since that would involve eating two hours before my 5am start.
Since you haven't post again I will say thanks here I'm now checking your blog from the beggining to see if you were posting at that stage.
ReplyDeleteNice new header!! Is it where you live??