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?!

BusterTheBulldog lol. I felt something running down the back of my leg during my marathon and thought 'well it's either a gel that's burst or my period' and just carried on.

It turned out to be sweat but honestly I wouldn't have cared.

What's everyone's training plans for the weekend with this lovely weather we're having?

I attempted to run to the only parkrun not cancelled locally this morning. Got halfway and had to abort with a couple of laps round the park. Did just about enough distance with a run back home. Dripping wet when I got back and had to take all my sopping gear off on the doormat to take to the washer.

I have to do 19 miles tomorrow. Roped in a couple of mates but I really don't want three hours in that weather. I'm hoping the rain ends mid morning.

Oh do be careful. Last weekend, there were so many branches and things flying around.

Hope the rain eases off tomorrow.

I'm staying put this weekend.

16 miles done with a Parkrun in the middle. I got Absolutely soaking wet. I stopped halfway to go the loo and I struggled to get my leggings back up because they were so wet!

Last 3 miles were tough, but the wind had started to pick up so I was running into the wind for quite a lot of it.

@sex I’ve got some friends running tomorrow, I much prefer running with other people. but it’s forecasting 50mph winds tomorrow so I thought I’d get it over with today.

Fast parkrun today; then 3 hilly hours planned for tomorrow, which will work out at 20ish miles. Not looking too appealing right now!

18 miles in torrential rain today

Bit shorter than planned, but conditions were tough, standing water everywhere, footpaths turned to rivers and the wind....

Felt good though, good pace and comfortable till the end. Finished up at a nice coffee shop to dry out a bit and eat cake

Well done sexisaprotectedcharacteristic.

I don't envy you, it was grim out there!

Well done @SexIsAProtectedCharacteristic - it was tough out there today. I did 20 miles in rain, floods and hailstones, and I still feel completely wrecked by it!

Cheers both!

Yes running I've done nothing but eat since I got back home. Ate half my husband's dinner as well as my own. Can't wait to go to bed, been wanting sleep since 5pm

So bored of the rain now.

Two days after my 20-miler and I'm still hungry and knackered. I find pace makes such a huge difference. If I do my long runs at 9 min miles or over then I'm tired the next day, but basically ok.
Whereas when I do the long ones closer to 8:30 pace, as I did on Sunday, I feel completely drained and so, so hungry. All good prep for the real thing though, right?

Yeah, those seconds make a big difference.

I've did a Chi running course last year and am trying nasal breathing. I like it, I get less dehydrated and feel very calm, but I do need to carry a LOT of tissues.

It slows you down, so my long runs have been slower than when I trained before, and yes much less tired the next day or so.

@Runningonempty84 8.30 mm for 20 miles! My legs would fall off.

They just about did, tbh!!
I've got to be a fair bit faster on the day, too. Which is daunting!

I just read back, you're going for GFA. Good luck!

A couple of girls in my runnning club lost out of the time change for London last year. It's so unfair.

Aw, thank you. I know that to be sure of GFA I'll have to come in under 3:40 this time, which should be doable - but you never know on the day. Marathons are vicious beasts!

I’ve just read the thread. I’m signed up for a marathon in mid May but I’ve developed shin splints in the last couple of weeks and my planned HM was cancelled because of the storm which hit. So I’ve lost all confidence I’ll get upto the distance now which is a bummer as I’d been on track hitting a 14mile run in mid-Jan. I’m taking a 2wk break completely from running to see if it will help but making myself go on the turbo cycle trainer every other day to try keep some fitness up. Anyone else come back from shin splints in 2-3wks?

You’ve got loads of time triskirun! Do turbo trainer and also I find spin classes really help me keep fit when I can’t run! The trick will be maintaining fitness when you’re back first running, so probs a mix of bike and run at first.

Oh no, @TriSkiRun99 - that must be so frustrating. IMO, coming back from shin splints in a couple of weeks - maybe. Coming back from shin splints and going straight into the high mileage weeks of marathon training - not ideal.
I think it'll be tight to be marathon fit by May, but it depends what you want. If you just want to get round then it might be doable but, realistically, you won't be able to get the training in to give it your best
attempt.

Say you're hypothetically running again within 10 days, so by first week of March. And then back up to where you were in Jan by two weeks after that. All optimistic, but potentially doable. Still that would only leave you eight weeks out from a marathon having done a max of 14 miles, and with a high risk of injuring yourself again if you try and step it up to 18 or 20 too quickly. Might it be safer to do an autumn marathon instead, and spend the summer building your base back up?

Thanks for comments, yes I’d agree runningineempty84 I do not want to risk injury especially with a ski holiday end of March I don’t think I can get confidently marathon fit by mid May. I’ve got the option of doing a Triathlon on the same day which I can still enter and I think would be easier especially as my DD is already doing it and it was going to make our family logistics tight! Uuugghh I SO wanted to do a marathon this year but my golden rule was don’t get injured trying to got in the pool tonight and did 50L which included 10L of kicking which was really good cross training as I was puffing and legs muscle screaming but didn’t aggravate the shins at all which was good. I think I’ll tentatively try to get back upto HM once I’ve had a running rest, and try for 20m but only go for it if pain
free by end April.

Good luck with all your training and I hope it continues to go well. I’m in ore of those doing 3.40 marathons that’s incredible I watched my DH do a 3.42last year (his first M) and he was broken at the end. Said never again and yet is now training for a trail 30m! Mad sod.

I feel for you @TriSkiRun99 best laid plans and all. Good luck with recovery, I think you've got the right idea. Don't push it and risk being injured for longer, there's always another race.

Just planned out a 20 mile route for this weekend and dragging some mates along to join me a few miles in. Thank God for them, I honestly don't know how I'd get through these long runs otherwise.

Going to try and enter Warwick half next weekend. That will be a big test. Six months since I've run one and I need a pb to feel confident about Manchester. No pressure

How about this weather?! Cancelled my planned run after work, no way was I running in sleet. The pavements were really slippery when I left work.

Sorry to hear that TriSkiRun but yes you're right - injury just isn't worth it. I've never had skin splints, but do know from friends that you really do need to let them heal.

Haven't done much running as weather so off-putting. Really must do a long run - last one was nearly two weeks ago. Think I'll have to do one on Friday as weather looks rough again over the weekend (I'm self-employed, so can catch up with work at the weekend btw!)

I’m am heeding advice and done zero running for 14d so far which is really impacting my mental health I think more than my physical. I’ve parked the spring marathon completely now and entered the short distance triathlon instead to give me something to aim for. Just full of cold now as kids had it HT so I’m just not gonna get running this week either. Finger crossed the next big storm doesn’t bring lots more disruption for everyone’s long run training. My DH is also training for a trail Half this wend and then a trail 30m coastal ultra in April. He has been known to do 1.5hr HM early morning and still get to his desk by 9.30am I’d be flipping knackered the rest of the day if I did that!

18 miles for me last weekend. This week I'm flying, did 6 miles tempo in a pace that's pretty much my 10k PB pace 19 planned for Sunday, I haven't decided on a route yet though.

Is there another big storm this weekend then?! I've given up looking at the weather as it always seems shite!