Spring marathon club

[Runningonempty84]

Anyone want to join?
There must be lots of us getting into the high mileage now, in prep for London/Manchester/Edinburgh...or any of the other spring marathons.

How's it going? Are you aiming for a time? And are you finding the long runs so tiring?!

17 tomorrow for me, I think I'll actually run into Central London and then get the train back, it's overall downhill though from here so hopefully not cheating myself! I am getting bored of the regular loop around here. I was thinking of running to parkrun and doing that as part of the run but the dog has a vaccination appointment at 9.15 🤷 good luck with your run! Weather looks atrocious on Sunday so imagine there'll be a lot of long runs done on Saturday this week.

Thanks! I'm going to do parkrun as the last 3 miles of my long run, which should hopefully keep me going.

A one-way run and the train back sounds great. Always good to mix the routes up a bit, I think. I get bored with the same old circuits!

Had a stepback week this week, should be running 12 miles tomorrow but went out for a long hilly hike so I'm calling it done, especially given the weather we're expecting tomorrow.

Should have been last week but I knew I couldn't do back to back runs on a weekend away so swapped them round.

My 17 went really well yesterday, one of the fastest long runs I've done weirdly (might get told off by coach but the effort level wasn't high)

I started taking an iron supplement about a week ago and wonder if that's making a difference - I read something which suggests quite a few female runners are prone to anaemia which can affect performance even if it's only slight.

Hope everyone is enjoying a rest day tucked away from the storm!

Hi!

Joining in as I have a charity place for London

Training got off to rather a bad start as I’d had a shoulder injury and it felt like everything hurt! Better now, but 3 early weeks lost. But I had a good mileage base before my Xmas base, so all is not lost

I’m about to brave the (not too bad here yet) storm and aim to be out for at least 10 slow/easy miles

Well done @ferretface! Bet you're glad you did it yesterday and not today. I did 20 yesterday and tested doing it without breakfast first; just taking gels as I needed them. Felt terrible by the end but hopefully a good training effect.

Hope your run goes well vampire, and that it isn't as stormy your way as it is here..

Be careful @iVampire and hope your 10 goes well 😃

@Runningonempty84 great! I know Greg McMillan recommends sometimes running fasted as a way of training your body to burn fat more efficiently, I'm sure it will help. I had a bacon sandwich to fuel mine 😂 also took some shot blox out although only used three of them as didn't really feel I needed anything.

I haven't experimented with shotblox yet, but I think I should. Gels have a horrible stomach-churning effect IME. Which is why I'm trying to get used to them. But a replacement would be better...!

11.5 miles done - slow/easy, but harder work when going into the wind

Very blowy, but got back in just before the horizontal rain started!

Well done iVampire :)

@Runningonempty84 yeah I can't get on well with gels at all. The shotblox seem to sit better, only difficult thing is chomping on them while running, I try to chomp as little as possible!

@ferretface what iron supplement are you taking? I tried to give blood the other week and got rejected due to low iron

Back on it this week, feeling rejuvenated after my rest week.

Spatone, I would highly recommend it. No side effects like normal iron supplements :)

I'll give that a try, thanks.

I used to use SIS gels and put up with the gut issues, but after Manchester last year when I had to go to the loo at mile 15 (and queue, and lose ten minutes) I've started to try out Torq instead. So far so good. All their pudding/sweet flavoured gels are spot on, creepily so. Got 18 miles to do this weekend so I'm going to test out four gels if I can as that was when it all starts to go wrong for me.

Manchester for me. My first and only
I'm a bit behind on my plan, sciatica was playing up last week, and the Half I was supposed to run was cancelled on Sunday. Probably a good thing, as I've given myself time to rest my back.

This week I'm going to sandwich a parkrun between 2 long runs to make up 16. My longest ever distance.

Feeling a bit daunted to be honest.

Welcome to the Manchester club, @Potplant! Is it the impending 16 miler that's daunting you, or the marathon itself?

And what are you aiming for, time-wise?

How's your Manchester training going, @SexIsAProtectedCharacteristic? I'm on track - I think - but finding the properly long runs v draining.

Thanks @Runningonempty84 all of it! I’ve never been past 14 before so there’s that. I missed the first week of my plan as I was I’ll and I didn’t run much last week so I feel like I’m behind. My training plan takes me to 20 miles and there’s still another hour of running to do and I dont know if I can.

I don’t know about nutrition. Hate gels.
My new trainers aren’t very comfy. And on and on.

It would be easier to list what I’m not worried about.

I haven’t got a time in mind as it’s my first but I’m Hoping to stick somewhere between 10/10.30 minute miles.

@Runningonempty84 I think it's going well? Last week was a bit of a bust, I missed two runs and did a long walk instead of the 12 miles I had scheduled due to weather/weird foot niggle. Tried to book a physio appt but apparently she has got super popular since last year and could only get one for next week. New super cushioned trainers/rest though seem to be doing the trick, no resurgence of the pain during the five miles tonight.

Bloody cold though! And I'm stressing a bit about only really knowing if I'm on track for the time I want in 4 weeks when I do a 20 mile race. None of the HMs I could find fit my schedule and at this stage I'm not sure it's worth trying to cram one in.

Having to trust the process. It's hard, psychologically. My previous marathons I knew I could run that pace without any issue. This one is a leap into the dark, I don't like it

Hi all, I'm doing London this year and have done a couple of 20 milers since Xmas. Finding it hard to fit shorter runs in the week, although do cycle lots.

I got a GFA place based on Bournemouth 2018 (first marathon). I've turned 50 since and definitely feel more achey and less strong. I'm only doing long runs every two weeks or so, as I need more than a week to properly recover without risking injury.

Only about 2,000 people run Bournemouth, so it was very relaxed. Think London will be a bit different!

Re: Gels. It took me a long time to be able to stomach them. Eating them really, really slowly over the course of a mile or so is tedious and sticky, but does seem to help.

Awww @Potplant I remember the first marathon fear. It is hard when you're trying to manage a potentially show stopping injury, are you seeing anyone to help with your sciatica?

Honestly don't worry about only training to 20 miles, you'll be ok I promise. What really helps me is long runs on slightly tired legs, so run Saturday and long run Sunday. Really helps with that last 6 miles (which feels like a lot more!)

I’m likely only training to 20 miles, well 3 hours or 20miles whichever comes first! Won’t be hitting that distance till end of March / start of April though.

I really like sis gels, a lot of people seem to struggle with them though. I’ve tried torq in the past which are often recommended for people with sensitive stomachs, I found them too sweet though (and I love sweet stuff normally!) they were also too small for the loops on my belt

I much prefer the taste of SIS gels. But I'd much rather not shit myself during a marathon so I've got my fingers crossed that Torq work. Glad to hear they're recommended for people with sensitive stomachs. Would never have thought that applied to me until I started running long distances

The things we learn eh sexisaprotectedcharacteristic 😂. I thought I was going to shat myself in a race once and remember thinking ‘ah well, hopefully the compression leggings will keep it in’ all dignity goes out the window with running!

‘ah well, hopefully the compression leggings will keep it in’

Too real