Marathon Training

I need to follow my own advice as well, after my two races I had loads which I shouldn't but was good this week after my run. Alimming world is great for running as all the food you can eat to fuel and for after a run is free... well a lot of it ia anyway, loads of pasta and rice leading up to the run andbthe chicken bbeans ect after :)
 
donna88 said:
That's a fantastic time and well done on the PB.... don't be gutted, I was trying to say the same at our half marathon, she got 2 hours 29 seconds so was gutted it wasn't under 2 but she beat her PB. Looks like all 3 of us will be aiming for under 2 hours next time we do a half ;) (unless my next one is the one I'm doing straight after my marathon)



Try eating better things? Banana's straight after the run, have a little treat as well, like a bit of flapjack, then when your home have something like wholemeal toast with beans and poached egg (plenty of protein for after your run)? I see your on slimming world, make the syn free rice pud or syn free pancakes (sweet omelettes) with loads of fruit... save your syns and HEX for after the run so you can feel like your having a little pig out when actually your still on plan. Just think when you loose the weight you'll probably run better. Good luck hun, it is hard, I know I crave everything I shouldn't have since I've started running more
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Thank you for the advice. I think I just need to be more organised, and eat a lot more healthy food! What tends to happen is I'm never hungry after a very long run, but then later that day or the next I go crazy. I need to bulk up more on free food, to avoid this. I was pleased to stay the same this week after three days where I went a bit crazy.
 
What sort of weekly mileage do you do if you are not marathon training? I like to set a weekly mileage goal then divvy up the miles according to how I feel. I'm tapering now for Paris, and then I'll ease back for a couple of weeks, but I'm not sure where to set my weekly mileage after that. I'm thinking maybe 20 miles so I keep a base running fitness but have time for some cross training. That'd give me room to do 3 runs a week (intervals or hills, steady and longish). What do you all do?
 
zoerunsfaster said:
Thank you for the advice. I think I just need to be more organised, and eat a lot more healthy food! What tends to happen is I'm never hungry after a very long run, but then later that day or the next I go crazy. I need to bulk up more on free food, to avoid this. I was pleased to stay the same this week after three days where I went a bit crazy.
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You need to eat something at least a banana up to 20 minutes after a long run and something more substansal within the hour if possible.... always better to have loads of free food. Don't have a long run this week as will be doing about 6 miles as usual on Thursday and my race is only a 10k on Sunday... I should be doing some crosstraining this week as well really as I'm not doing the miles, but haven't done yet... will see if I feel like it tomorrow morning, if not I suppose I'm just having a bit of a rest week. But good Friday me and my mum are doing a long run, I'm thinking of suggesting jacket potatoes with egg and beans (but random I know) but that way I'll be saving my HEB for later on. but still getting the protein.

zoerunsfaster said:
What sort of weekly mileage do you do if you are not marathon training? I like to set a weekly mileage goal then divvy up the miles according to how I feel. I'm tapering now for Paris, and then I'll ease back for a couple of weeks, but I'm not sure where to set my weekly mileage after that. I'm thinking maybe 20 miles so I keep a base running fitness but have time for some cross training. That'd give me room to do 3 runs a week (intervals or hills, steady and longish). What do you all do?
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At the moment I tend to do at least 10 miles on a weekend and 6 on a Thursday, I don't measure my miles on a Tuesday as its training so its more about that then the miles, but someone measured it today and we'd done 4.75 miles... so I suppose I am averaging about 20 miles a week at the moment (my marathon isn't until October so I'm not marathon training at the moment)
 
I've reached my £1000 target for fundraising and now just have to run the 26.2 miles. I haven't quite stuck to my training plan because of the snow, but I have managed a few runs. I'm very excited now and just want to do it :) And I'm on school holidays for two weeks. :D
 
thats amazing sally! how did you raise so much?! last time i raised money i struggled to get past the £100 marker even with posting it on my facebook and asking friends/family/work people....
 
My target was £1000 and I'm at about £1100. I teach in an FE college and before I signed up I asked my colleagues and students to help me and they agreed. Students have had cake stalls, raffles and bucket collections. The college also donated the takings from a French-themed dinner in our student-run restaurant (I filled the restaurant with diners!). The other half of the money has come from online donations, a Sunday lunch for my in-laws and their friends, and two quiz nights with raffles. I pushed the online donations quite a bit on Facebook and told friends that I would name that day's training run after the next person to donate online. I got a donation every time and have some cool names for the runs - my favourites: "Sara Sweet 16" named after Sara Andrew, and my 20 mile long run was sponsored by Vicki Long, so it's the "Vicki Long Run" - perfect name!

I also had promotional materials made on Vistaprint - a set of business cards, post-its, with compliments slips, t-shirt and a banner. They all look cool and professional, and were all "free" (cost about £5 for postage). I've worn the t-shirt and displayed the banner at work, in the restaurant, at my Sunday lunch and quizzes. I put the details of my quizzes on the back of the business cards and handed them out. I've used the with compliments slips as certificates for first place at the quizzes. My favourite use of the business cards - when my students were collecting with the buckets and people said they had no cash on them, I got my students to hand them a business card and say "that's ok, you can donate online". No one did but it made me laugh!!
 
Well done on the fundraising that's fantastic :)


I have signed up for two more half marathons, one in April and one in September, can't wait :)

Need to get back on my diet though, did a long run on Friday and haven't done anything since (which isn't bad as I did it on Friday instead of Saturday) but my diet has been awful for a full week. Hoping I haven't done too much damage as find it harder to run with a few extra lbs. Can't run tonight or Thursday night so planning on doing a mixture of running training and crosstraining inside (can't run outside as on my own with little one so obviously can't leave him lol)
 
good luck today sally!
 
Thanks! It went extremely well but the last few miles are killers. I finished dead on 4.30.00! Off to see more of Paris now :)
 
Wow well done! That's a brilliant time to get :D
Might not have done my marathon yesterday but took 21 minutes off my previous half time, only 6 weeks after my last half. Yay
 
Hi everyone.
I'm home from Paris now and want to share with you all how much I enjoyed my first marathon experience. Everything went exactly to plan (and I had planned everything!), taking on all sorts of advice from here and everywhere! Here is a list of my favourite things about running the Paris Marathon:

- sightseeing, crowds, music - there was always something to take my mind off things
- the first 16 miles were easy and the last 10 weren't as bad as I'd expected
- we were in Paris for nearly 5 days and marathon day was the only day the sun was shining
- the medal and the feeling of achievement as I walked down the Champs Elysee afterwards wearing the medal and blue plastic poncho
- I was only stiff and sore for two days afterwards, but nothing major - I still managed to walk around Paris on Monday (Montmartre to Notre Dame!)
- sharing the news with friends and family on Facebook
- setting a goal on GarminConnect to complete the marathon in 4:30:00 and getting this time exactly - freaky!!
- raising over £1000 for the British Red Cross (but I must admit I'm looking forward to running my next marathon without the added pressure of fundraising)
- running past all the walkers in the last 6 miles and passing people who had started in the earlier starting waves
- looking at the photos and videos of me on the marathon website - I was like a Duracell bunny (in ridiculous running clothes)

These feelings and memories will stay with me a long time and remind me how great my decision was to lose weight, get fit and be a healthier person.
 
Massive well done that is lovely to read.

I was training for The London Marathon and all was going well until an old hamstring injury has now left me unable to run more than a mile. I have deferred until next year. But reading of your experience I know I really cannot wait to experience that and say I did it... can I ask how long you have been running for? And how much training you did / pre marathon races? Sorry for all the questions just trying to work out where I went wrong and I am inspired by your post :)
 
gina_b said:
Wow well done! That's a brilliant time to get :D
Might not have done my marathon yesterday but took 21 minutes off my previous half time, only 6 weeks after my last half. Yay
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well done that's a massive chunk to shave off your PB :D

slimmersally said:
Hi everyone.
I'm home from Paris now and want to share with you all how much I enjoyed my first marathon experience. Everything went exactly to plan (and I had planned everything!), taking on all sorts of advice from here and everywhere! Here is a list of my favourite things about running the Paris Marathon:

- sightseeing, crowds, music - there was always something to take my mind off things
- the first 16 miles were easy and the last 10 weren't as bad as I'd expected
- we were in Paris for nearly 5 days and marathon day was the only day the sun was shining
- the medal and the feeling of achievement as I walked down the Champs Elysee afterwards wearing the medal and blue plastic poncho
- I was only stiff and sore for two days afterwards, but nothing major - I still managed to walk around Paris on Monday (Montmartre to Notre Dame!)
- sharing the news with friends and family on Facebook
- setting a goal on GarminConnect to complete the marathon in 4:30:00 and getting this time exactly - freaky!!
- raising over £1000 for the British Red Cross (but I must admit I'm looking forward to running my next marathon without the added pressure of fundraising)
- running past all the walkers in the last 6 miles and passing people who had started in the earlier starting waves
- looking at the photos and videos of me on the marathon website - I was like a Duracell bunny (in ridiculous running clothes)

These feelings and memories will stay with me a long time and remind me how great my decision was to lose weight, get fit and be a healthier person.
Click to expand...

Sounds fantastic and well done on a great time.

Do you know when your planning your next marathon? Can't wait for October and York now.
 
Lara and Donna:

I had never run before December 2011, when I managed to run half way down the street on my way to the gym as it was raining. I had started Slimming World at the start of October and the gym at the end of October, and it was all going well, so I came home and googled "beginners running" and found the NHS Couch to 5k podcasts. I downloaded them and followed them religiously for 9 weeks and by February I could run 5k and more. I kept running and a new friend from Slimming World asked me to join her for runs. I was nervous about this but loved it and she was really encouraging, and planted the seed to run in the Paris marathon. I had never wanted to be a runner and could never understand why people would want to run marathons. I broke my hand in May and wasn't able to run for the next six weeks, but I returned to run in the Race for Life at the end of June. I then got back into a routine of a few runs a week, but I was also training for a 26 mile walk along Offa's Dyke at the end of September, so I was doing lots of long walks as well. Once I had completed the walk I decided that I could run a marathon and would enter Paris for 2013. I picked up my running mileage after that and did my first 10 mile run in October. I started a 22 week marathon training schedule at the end of October. The plan I chose had only 3 runs per week with 2 days of cross training. I was still doing 2-3 sessions at the gym each week I also did an 8 week bootcamp - this was brilliant for strength training and I want to go back to this. My other cross training was a long dog walk on Sundays that included some hills. I also joined a local running club in August and I try to make it to Thursday night training. I find this pushes me with speed, distance and hills. I've also met loads of people through the club and can usually find a partner or group for a weekend long run.

I had been recording my runs on runkeeper and I went from 50 miles in October to 65 in November and 100 in December. I stuck to my plan over Christmas and in to January but then three things happened all at once - it snowed, my car was old and didn't cope in cold weather (the door mechanism would freeze and I got locked inside!!) so my husband sold it and I was without a car and having to spend weekends car shopping instead of running, and finally, my grandmother died in Australia, which meant lots of long phone calls late at night and early mornings for a couple of weeks. So I was upset, helping plan a funeral, car shopping, organising lifts to work and when I did have time to run I was slipping all over the pavement in the freezing cold!! I was back on it in February though and stuck to my schedule to the end.

I subscribed to Women's Running and Runners World, but another great place for advice was a Facebook page I found: Mojo for Running by Debbie Voiles. She is a running coach from Florida and has created podcasts about all sorts of different topics. I downloaded loads of these to my phone and would listen to her on my long runs (before I met training partners through the running club). She has loads of good advice and I tried all sorts of things that she recommended, including getting a massage, doing yoga (I did this in Nov-Dec, but was too busy with running by January), increasing cadence, posture, breathing, etc etc.

I changed gyms in January too, and instead of doing weights I changed to Aquafit. I found this really helpful after long runs. My longest runs were 20 miles and I did this twice. I was meant to do a third but I cut this short to 18 miles as I had my fat dog with me. I often took a gym bag with running gear with me to work and if the weather was good I would run near my work before driving home. I knew that if I waited until I got home it would be dark and I might put it off.

As for pre-marathon races - I've listed them on my signature below. I also entered a half marathon on 24/3 - two weeks before Paris but they postponed it by a week because of snow, but that was too close to my big day so I've transferred my entry to next year. So as it stands the only races I've ever done are a 10k, a 21k cross country and one marathon! (plus a 5k Race for Life and a parkrun). I have loads more to come in the next few months - two 10k races in May, the Shrewsbury marathon, and a six race series starting next week - one per month on a Wednesday evening - all different lengths ranging from 5k to 10k.

I've already entered my next marathon - Shrewsbury at end of June. I was a bit unsure about entering this as it's only 12 weeks after my first ever one, but it's near to home and the first ever one, and my students egged me on! I'm quite looking forward to it now that Paris is out of the way. That will be me done for the year and I have promised my family I'll visit them in Australia next Easter, so I won't be entering any spring marathons, unless I find one in Australia at Easter . . . now there's an idea!!

I think that is your questions answered, but if I've missed anything I'll be happy to blab on a bit more! (It gives my husband a break from it!!)
 
Hah loved that ending line to that post!!! Thanks so much what brilliant info and a great story. I think I slipped up on cross training and speed work when I compare our marathon stories. Very grateful for all that info. I have been talking marathon and running so much, which makes it worse when you have to tell everyone you're out. But information is power. Did you do core work and squats and lunges at all? My sports physio recommends this. I did the plank daily but no squats and lunges. I suppose they'd do all that in bootcamp which woulda helped you a lot. Massive well done :)
 
My gym routine and the bootcamp included squats, lunges and plank; but I swapped gyms and routines in January and I now don't feel as strong as I was in my core. I'm going to revamp my gym routine in the next week to include these again.
 
i still reget backing out of the marathon now, and watching the london one just made me feel worse.

theres one in april 2014 in blackpool. the route is flat and easy. getting a tshirt printed for it, and i will do it.
no wimping out :)
 
You have a whole year to prepare so you can easily do it. I read some of your posts on the Les Mills thread - you are hardcore and a marathon will be a great challenge, but easily achievable. It is all in the mind . . .
 
gina_b said:
i still reget backing out of the marathon now, and watching the london one just made me feel worse.

theres one in april 2014 in blackpool. the route is flat and easy. getting a tshirt printed for it, and i will do it.
no wimping out :)
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I felt so regretful giving up running whilst watching people today too!

I have another Doc appoint on may 8th to ask about my knees, I have up running on docs advice and they are no better,in fact getting worse and I miss running so so much :-(
 
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