London Marathon 2015 – Taper final days and the Expo

I have been so busy running, eating and sleeping that the writing has gone out the window and nearly two months late am I finally getting round to these posts! And there are a fair few other posts I’d like to do too!

The taper final days

I managed to stay sane during the taper – it wasn’t easy! I had to go away for five days with work and there was some awkward explaining (more than once) as to why four lettuce leaves and a tomato did not constitute a suitable vegan alternative for a chicken wrap. In the end I had the venue cooking me up risottos and all sorts specially – great, but the effort to get to that stage was monumental.

But the taper did not thwart me, I was a good girl. The week before I ran a local 10k and was thrilled to nab a 3rd place (and a spot in the local rag too).

The Expo

I travelled down to London on the Thursday before the Big Race, eager to get my number in my hands and have a good look and the Expo without worrying about being on my feet too much the day before the BR. I went with Craig and two fellow club mates who were also running, which was great – sharing in the excitement.

The Expo was great fun, full of running brands and event promoters and very excited runners. I was like a kid in a candy shop (Craig too, but more because he sampled a few too many caffeine gels!). I picked up my number and timing tag with no queueing at all(!) and spent a great couple of hours enjoying the stands.

Oh yes and I might have come away with a couple of souvenirs…. Including the limited edition London themed Saucony Ravenna 6s…. Too beautiful to ignore!

The Expo was well ran, full of goodies and a fantastic way to kick start my VMLM experience (back at work the next day I was a useless jittery wreck!).

Your Simple Marathon Part 1 – It doesn’t have to be hard…

…Okay, well the running will be but the planning shouldn’t be!

With just over three months to go until M-day (marathon day!) I am a little over a month into  training for my second marathon. As are SO many others! My club is full of them, my Twitter feed, the streets around my house. Marathon fever has well and truly hit! And, if they’re anything like me, it’s all they bloody talk about too.

Unfortunately for those poor souls, there are still a good 2-4 months of this to go before peak Spring marathon season is over. And if you are one of those people, you might want to Sri reading about now ;-).

I ran my first marathon last year in Edinburgh and I was lucky enough to come in under 3:45 and secure myself a place in this year’s London marathon. Since then, I have also become an active member of a running club, and improved my shorter distance times greatly, even getting the odd podium in smaller races. I have decided to run for Mind Charity, see why here. Add this all together with my own high expectations, a full time job, part time Masters degree and the pressure is on!

I’ve come to believe that the logistics around marathon training needn’t be stressful – So, second time round and with all this pressure, how am I approaching London Marathon training?

The plan

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked ‘what plan are you following?’  One of Higdon’s many? Asics? London Marathon’s own? Honestly, I have not subscribed to any one plan, for three reasons:

1. I got put off by any plans that talked in minutes rather than miles, had over complicated speed sessions (e.g. 4 min 65% MP, 3 min 75% MP, 2 min 5k-15%, 1 min WYH (with your hands) – okay, I am exaggerating but any plan that needs me to have the mental arithmetic of a Maths PhD is an immediate turn off!), heart rate training etc. I like my plans simple! Running is not supposed to be difficult)
2. I like racing. The typical marathon training plan usually allows for one or two half marathons but not a lot more. That will not satisfy my competitive juices. Off the top of my head, I am signed up for at least one 5k, 10k, and two 20 mile races, with my eye on one or two others….
3. Flexibiltiy. This is key. I see so many runners stressing over missing a session or working in a weekend away and beating themselves up when they have an injury. Perhaps this is more about how you treat a marathon plan, they should be for guidance not gospel.

As someone who runs distance (up to 14 miles) regularly, my plan, loosely goes something like this:

Mon: rest/x-train/recovery run (depending how I feel after the Sunday run)

Tues: Hill session at club, e.g. 3 x 10min loop –

Weds: medium steady run, starting at 5 miles and increasing every few weeks to 9 miles.

Thurs: speed session at club, e.g. 4 x 1 mile repeats; 10 x 400m repeats. On real paths, no tracks!

Fri: as Monday.

Sat: Changeable, maybe parkrun, maybe a 3 mile or 5 mile tempo, maybe rest if a heavy race the next day.

Sun: long run or race. At the moment I am up to 16 miles. This week I have a 12 mile trail race, then a 5k, then 10k, then back in with a ~18 miler. I am planning on doing two 20s (both races) and  22 on Easter weekend. Pace wise, I am still experimenting, but I sm aiming for somewhere between steady and race pace.

Mileage matters 

The other thing I am keeping my eye on is weekly mileage. I know some runners who are more particular on this – they have heavy volume weeks interspersed with lighter volume weeks. A good way to keep a track of this is using an app such as Strava. No adding up required to see how your mileage has been trending!

Pop along to Strava.com to see how it might work for you. I recently joined after learning you can upload your Garmin and other GPS watch data, so you don’t have to lug your phone on speed sessions or worry about draining its juice on long runs.

Keeping it simple (And interesting!)

Marathon training is tricky enough without wrapping yourself up in numbers and slavishly following training plans. A few other tips I have gleaned/learned so far to help things along:

– Run your long runs with other people. For one thing, setting a date and time means you. will turn up, for another, the miles roll by more easily when chatting and, finally, if you pick the right people to run with you can keep your pacing under control or push yourself a little harder.

– Rotate your shoes. I have three pairs, all slightly different and I have just settled on which I want to run in for the marathon (I will re-buy the same pair in a few weeks). Read this Runner’s World article for the reasoning.

– Book in a couple of races of different distances/types. Motivation can wane night after night of mile after mile on the road. Some other races dotted in shakes things up, gives some mini-milestones and keeps the ‘art of racing’ fresh (getting used to race day nervy belly etc).

– Go off road and up hills (both at the same time too!). Firstly, this will help with the motivation thing, secondly it’s awesome for leg strength and thirdly your joints and core will thank you for it.

– If something does hurt, don’t ignore it. A week off resting will do far less damage to your plan than continuing to run.

– Set some mini goals for motivation – Races, a run before or to work, master a negative split, a fundraising target, etc.

and remember….

 

And finally, try not to bore your friends and family too much. Get online where there are loads of interested runners happy to offer tips and advice. I for one will never tire of talking marathon/running/etc, so send me a message or follow me on Twitter 😄. Disclaimer: I am no coach or qualified running anything. This is stuff that works for me and might or might not work for you. Happy running!

*****I am running the Virgin Money London a Marathon 2015 for Mind Charity. Read my story here and please support me with a donation here, for all the fantastic work they do. Running and mental well being are a perfect pairing****

 

 

 

Running Through the Ages

With less than 600m to go there were still two strong women ahead of her, battling for the top podium position. A bronze would have been a fantastic achievement, but it wasn’t enough today. Just feet shy of the beginning of the last lap, the bell ringing them home, she kicked it up another notch and took the lead. The commentators ask, does she have another gear? Can she hold on to this gold medal position? Third place drops off, but second is still determined. With 240 metres to go she continues to eat up the ground with her lean strong legs, pumping her arms and, most probably, gritting her teeth. This is hers. Today is her day. She rounds the corner and, from somewhere deep in her soul, she finds yet another gear and makes certain that that medal, the first major championship gold of her career, will be coming home with her tonight.

On an August evening this year, Jo Pavey made history by storming home to take gold in the women’s 10,000 metres at the European Athletics Championships. Not only was it the first major gold of her career, she became the first athlete over 40 to claim a gold medal in the history of the Championships. I still get tearful when I watch the last couple of laps of Jo’s magnificent run. She gave it absolutely everything and got exactly what she deserved. That it came to her so far into her career can only have made it sweeter. Watch her gutsy finish here.

Long distance running is an unusual sport for a fantastic reason: its longevity in the lives of its devotees. In so many other sports, on a professional and amateur level, youth is almost always a massive advantage. A quick peruse of some of the more recent literature found:

• A study of over 300,000 German marathon and half marathon finishing times from runners aged 20 to 79 were accrued and analysed. Significant age-related declines in performance did not occur before the age of 50, with mean marathon and half marathon times for each age group practically identical (Leyk et al. 2007)

•  An investigation into performance trends of duathletes (run-bike-run) analysed the finishing times of over 2,000 participants in the Powerman Zofingen long-distance duathlon from 2002 to 2011. There was a significant age effect, but the fastest times were achieved in the age range 25 to 39. Particularly interesting (for women, anyhow) were indications that female gender and increasing age were positively associated to performance. Cycling beat running however, with the overall decline with age much less pronounced (Rust et al. 2012).
• Another study focussing on marathon performances sought to investigate the trends in participation and performance of veteran runners (aged 40 plus) and the effect of gender differences. They collated the finishing times of the best male and female runners aged between 20 and 65 in the New York Marathon from 1980 to 2009. Participation of veteran runners has increased, particularly for women. The researchers concluded that males (over 65) and females (over 45) have probably not yet reached their limits in marathon performance, another encouraging finding (Lepers and Cattagni, 2012).
• And finally, a study of the performance of triathletes participating in the Hawaii Ironman triathlon between 1986 and 2010 analysed leg and total times for men and women aged 18 to 69. Again, participation of veterans increased over the time period, and statistical analyses found that men over 44 and women over 40 significantly improved their leg and total times. Interestingly, the gap between male and females between the ages of 40 and 59 also decreased.

Certainly in my running club, a large town-based club that welcomes members from across the ability and age spectrum, many of the top tier are in the V40+ age group. What might contribute to this? Is it only the best who carry on into later years? Other theories include:

• Conventional wisdom and many a training guide tell us that the first marathon (or half or 10k or whatever) is just about finishing. No amount of training and reading can equal the experience of actually racing, what it feels like to hit the wall at mile 20 of your marathon or spew at the end of a half. The more you race, in theory, the more you get better at racing, so long as you learn from your experiences. Naturally, that takes time.
• This is linked in with experience. How many green keen newbies (usually youngsters) have you seen pelt away from start line only to be pulled up with a stitch or similar half a mile later? Patience with training, as well as with pacing and racing, increase with experience.
• Marathoner Meb Keflezighi, in his late 30s, told Runner’s World of his strict routine and how he pays a lot more attention to diet than in his younger days.
• Late starters. Some, such as Tim Noakes, author of the Lore of Running, observe that most of the best older runners they know did not start running until their late 20s or early 30s. He speculates this may be something to do with not subjecting your body to high-intensity training at a younger age.

I’d be leading you astray if I suggested that it’s all good news as you get older. Quinn et al (2011) tackled the question that will plague all runners at some point if they continue to run into old – why am I getting slower? They found that, whilst running economy (how efficiently the body uses oxygen at a certain pace) in older runners was the same as younger runners, there were other factors acting against them. Keeping that running economy up there comes at a cost – VO2 max (the body’s capacity to transport and use oxygen during exercise) and maximum heart rate were both much lower.

The good news is that this was when comparing over 60s with under 40s, still meaning that runners have the capacity to keep performance high well into their 50s. Which keeps running up there in terms of longevity as a sport.

An inspiration – Ed Whitlock completes Toronto marathon in 3:42, aged 82 (http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/ed-whitlock-runs-341-marathon-at-age-82)

When the news of Jo missing out on funding from British Athletics’ World Class Performance Programme broke earlier this month, I had decidedly mixed feelings. Jo was not surprised. She told the BBC that she was “probably too old” for funding. Granted, the funding is targeted at athletes who British Athletics deem to have potential for success at the next Olympic and Paralympic games. By the time of the 2016, Jo will be 43 and there is many a rising and current star to challenge her on the world stage. Nonetheless, she is planning on a fifth Olympic Games.

Whatever the reasons and the finer details, the overall message is one of inclusivity and longevity. Good clubs welcome runners of all ages, and younger ones have a long career to look forward to, provided they take care of themselves. At 26, for most sports I would too old to even entertain the idea of having any kind of success or even progress. But as a runner, I look to people like Jo Pavey and Paula Radcliffe, and older runners at my club achieving their best in their 30s, 40s and 50s and I am dually inspired and relaxed. Inspired to keep going for my goals, but nabbing a bit of their wisdom and not fretting that my age will be the defining factor as to whether I do or not.

References

Lepers and Cattagni (2012) Do older athletes reach limits in their performance during marathon running? Age, 34(3), 773-781

Lepers et al. (2013) Relative improvements in endurance performance with age: evidence from 25 years of Hawaii Ironman racing. Age, 35(3), 953-962.

Leyk et al. (2007) Age-related Changes in Marathon and Half-Marathon Performances. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 28(6), 513-7.

Rust et al. (2013) Gender difference and age-related changes in performance at the long-distance duathlon. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27(2), 293-201.

Quinn et al. (2011). Aging and Factors Related to Running Economy. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(11), 2971-2979.