Runners
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@bryaneidins70 nice one, I did my first marathon this year at Brighton. Was an amazing experience and one I hope to repeat in the near future.
I can’t recommend any specific plan as the one I followed led to injury. If I were training again, however, I would be careful about increasing mileage (weekly increase limited to 20%), and I’d start earlier. Also, avoid skipping the midweek “junk miles” which is easier said than done when you’re juggling kids/work etc.
I also found rewarding myself at milestones in the training a good way to keep motivated. New shoes/clothes always helps
.Also when you say you’re no runner, have you ever done a half/10k or are you brand new? I found training for a half marathon pre-xmas meant that I was used to a solid weekly mileage, and the increase needed for the marathon didn’t come as too much of a shock.
I have done running in the past....couch to 5k, some 15k spartan events but not a consistent runner. With the junk miles..can these be substituted with bike rides? i was reading a bit yesterday about cross training and didn't know if the junk miles fall into the cross part.
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All workouts in a training plan are important but the long workout and interval sessions are most important so it’s possible to alter the easy runs to cross training but running is the best workout to prepare for running, unless that’s going to cause you injury. Strength training also helps a lot with that.
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@Nik mentioned strength which is really important and take care of recovery and nutrition.
Try to prioritise sleep to allow your body to recover properly.
Nutrition wise, my best advise is to fuel your runs properly. If you train for performance it’s not a good time to focus on weight loss or body composition. Do this, if needed, before. I have been there and broke down completely because i was eating too little trying to loose every single remaining gram of body fat.
I still am mentally challenged with this, but on a good way now, although I would need to gain some weight for better performance. -
All registered for South Downs Way 100 mile race 8 June 2024. After running 100k under 11 hours I’m going to train hard and see if I can get a reasonably good time. I guess that would be under 18 hours. Will still need a head torch for the night running.
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Drink lots, fuel more than when it isn’t hot, include more electrolytes in fuel esp. if you have salty sweat, and be patient because heat acclimation takes time. You can wrap ice in a bandana and wear it around your neck too, I haven’t tried it but pros do it.
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My times were just about the same as always but the perceived effort was maxed, and my heart rate showed it. I don’t normally carry water on anything under 10km but I now will in that kind of humidity. Clothes were absolutely soaked when I got home.
Appreciate the advice!
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I'll go slightly off topic as is my specialty; high humidity training certainly brings on dehydration and exhaustion concerns but on the positive side, high humidity stretching is the bees knees.
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Well done. No shame in taking breaks. A run is still a run when it includes walking and stopping.
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@Nik I love it!! I’ve been binge watching the Barkley marathons
Ha! I may have mentioned it, but my neighbor is a 1x Barkley and 3x fun run finisher. Also held the AT thru hike record for a decade and still holds a few FKT, incl. White Mountain 4000 footers. A beast to say the least. Apart from the athletic side of things, the mental toughness is mind blowing. He can just keep going when miserable, hallucinating etc.
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Wow that is extremely impressive.
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@Nik Humbling community here in a town of 10,000. Countless Olympians, a current 2:10 marathoner, this years female winner of Ironman Europe and so on. While I am running intervals they jog past me in their zone 2. Perspective can be a bitch.
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Funny you mention zone 2…tried my first zone 2 training run today and it was such an odd experience. Ran for 70 minutes and felt like I could run another 70. The problem was staying in the zone and not bumping up to zone 3. The walking part was frustrating to get my heart rate back in zone as my heart rate recovered quickly, ran for another minute or two and I was back in zone 3, then brisk walking to get back to where I should be.
Pacing is definitely a bit weird and will take some time to get used to.
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It is also worth experimenting with zones. 220 minus your age or percentages of max HR will give you lower zone values than finding your lactate threshold HR and working it out that way. The best is to have zones that feel right, and there is a lot of information out there about how each zone should feel.
Keep us up to date with your training so that we can follow along.