Manchester Marathon 2023

I ran Manchester Marathon 2023 because I love running, because I was ready, and I also ran it for the medal.  I was both externally and intrinsically motivated to complete, but not really to to compete. 

My taper went not very well.  All other aspects of the training, in the four months up to the taper, went very well.  But I lost most of my fitness in those last two weeks, despite going to the gym to 'maintain' in the first week of the two week taper. 

The crowds were amazing, and the first few miles through Manchester city centre were wonderful.  Even up to halfway, this was a great run.  The whole thing was excellent and great fun.

After mile 14 I did a speed walk, and by the last few miles I was walking as fast as many of the runners. I had a definite momentum.  This made a great ultra-training run. 

I got around the course in a speedy 5 hours and 14 minutes, a bit quicker than anticipated.  There were loads of people around me the whole time, and lots of interaction. This made the whole thing much more fulfilling and satisfying than yet another long training run.  

Manchester Marathon is unforgettable for the people, the music, and the surroundings.  Around Altrincham the crowd roar was like what I remember hearing around Cutty in London. 

My big challenge now is to figure out how to recover well, and it means resting. I did a recovery run today, and will rest tomorrow, and maybe even for the rest of the week.  My A race is Race to the Stones 8-9 July, so I've got to save myself for that.  

I would recommend Manchester to anyone who likes to do this distance though. 

 

On Running Marathons

 I've finished six marathons. I also started six marathons, so the going has been good. Have I learned anything from those six? What wisdom, if any, can I pass on to those who've never run a marathon before? 

1. My first marathon was Southampton in 2018. It's not that long ago! Before I got to the start line I developed a pain on the outside of my right knee (I think it was the right, because it's my stronger leg, so it ended up doing more work).  I had no idea what the pain meant.  All I do know is that at the end of my first-ever 20 mile run, the Thames 20 in Richmond, I had this funny pain in the knee that somehow seemed connected to the hip.  I was pretty sure it would go away quickly.  It didn't.  Later on, I went to the launch of Brewer's book "Run Smart", a double launch with Hobrough launching his own "Running Free of Injuries".  Hobrough has an eagle eye. He told us we need to do single-leg squats and hip stretches. I started that very evening and have rarely missed a day of single leg squats.

ADVICE 1: DO SINGLE LEG SQUATS.  Do not let your knee go over your toe.  It has to be a squat, with your bum sticking out, and you want alignment of the knee with the outside of the foot.  This is the best single exercise for runners, for strengthening your glutes, and for keeping your alignment.  It is not a cure-all, but it is a fundamental base exercise.

I went away with my two books, which you should get, and read through them, taking notes and scribbling in the margins.

Brewer discusses the discrepancy between how much glycogen you can store in your body, and how much is needed to finish a marathon. It varies by individual, but is also quite large. You most likely need at least 500 calories to bridge the gap.

ADVICE 2: EAT. You need to carry some kind of food with you, whether in liquid or solid form. You need to eat it BEFORE YOU GET HUNGRY. If you wait until you get hungry to eat, it's too late, and you will hit the wall. THIS APPLIES TO TRAINING RUNS AND THE RACE.

Brewer notes that when you hit 20 miles you still have a very long way to go. Think of it this way (he says): You still, at 20 miles, have 6.2 miles to go. 6.2/20 is 31% of the distance you've already run.  That's almost a third! 

ADVICE 3: DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE DIFFICULTY OF THE FINAL SIX MILES. THEY ARE, IN ESSENCE, THE RACE ITSELF.  

For this reason many marathon plans go further than 20 miles as the max distance run.

I finished my first marathon at Southampton, running injured with ITB syndrome, in 5 hours and 51 minutes.  Immediately after the race my injury cleared up and I was fine running again.  I had walked the last six miles.  

2. My second marathon was an event organised by Phoenix running events, and it took place on the banks of the Thames near Kingston in 2018. You ran back and forth along the river in 10+km chunks, completed the set four times. My father's wake had been earlier that year, and I had spent some time training in Canada, on Vancouver Island, completing one 21+ mile run after reading McDougall's "Born to Run".

Advice he was given (mind you, for ultra-running) was, if it feels hard, then you're running too hard. The only way to sustain yourself is to make your easy running truly easy.

ADVICE 4: RUN LONG AT A TRULY EASY PACE OF 10MM OR SLOWER. If you don't do this, as your race gets closer, you run the risk of leaving your race performance behind on a fast training run.  You only have one race run in you, not two, so don't overdo it.

One reason my second marathon in Kingston was so good, and why I finished a full hour+ faster than my first marathon, was that I ran my training runs easy, and because I didn't overdo it in the race itself.  It was 30C on the day, with most of the run in direct sunlight.  I actually stopped to walk a couple of times.  You need to judge the conditions on the day. I finished very comfortably in around 4hours and 30 minutes in this second attempt.

3. On my third marathon attempt I did sub-4 hours, hitting in around 3h56 I think. I was also injured very close to the race date, mostly because I didn't eat during my long runs (see ADVICE 1 above). But I got back to my long runs by doing Jeffing initially, which is a run-walk algorithm of 4mins run, 1min walk, over and over. Before that, I had been doing long walks of 16 miles.  All of this just to get back to being able to run.  On race day itself, because I was pretty fit after being a runner for three years now (I only started running in 2016), it was no problem to keep with the 4hour pacers, on a 9minute mile pace.  I cruised around.  It also helped a lot that it was a very cool 6C. 

ADVICE 5: USE PACERS TO ENSURE THAT YOU DON'T GO OFF TOO FAST. This is crucial in a marathon.  I'll illustrate why using my experience from the half marathon to contrast the difference in strategy that is involved, and is related to the glycogen deficit issue noted above.  In a half marathon, you can just gun it from the start and go all out, and make it to the end.  I did this when I ran 1h31mins in Wokingham Half in 2020.  I didn't eat or drink during Wokingham Half 2020 because there was no deficit, so going off too fast had fewer consequences.  By contrast, if you go off too fast at the start of a marathon, relying on adrenaline to power you, you are almost guaranteed to hit the wall. THE WALL IS A RELATIVE LACK OF SPEED TO HOW FAST YOU WERE GOING BEFORE. IT IS A SLUGGISH FEELING THAT MIGHT STILL BE FAIRLY FAST, BUT IT IS NOT YOUR GOAL PACE, AND YOU END UP SLOWING DOWN, WITH POSITIVE SPLITS.

Just keep this in mind. The wall is also called, 'the wheels fell off at mile 20' or 'I just couldn't keep the pace anymore', and it is related to lack of energy.  If you eat enough, you are unlikely to hit the wall.

4. On my fourth attempt at a marathon, Brighton 2021, I went back to around 4hours 25minutes, coming off shin splint injuries and a less fit body. I hadn't been to the gym because it was closed during COVID.  It was hot, etc.  but it was still a great day.  The only thing I learned from this one was that you need to be patient.

ADVICE 6: BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF. This is meant to be fun, so have fun! If you don't like this marathon performance, you can always do another one!

5. On my fifth attempt at Southampton in 2022, I got another PB, at 3h 50mins.  It was a positive split race, but I ran the first half brilliantly.  I hit the wall. It was hot, I was hungry, and despite eating 20 or so mini-soreens and a lot of Lucozade, I got low blood sugar towards the end.  I was excreting whole mini-soreens that evening after the race. Still, it was a PB, and a very great day.  The course has over 1000ft elevation gain.

6. My sixth marathon was my most fun, and I actually set out to make the distance as long as possible by weaving back and forth from side to side to gather high-five energy the whole way. I was injured from six weeks out until the start line, so wasn't that fit, and finished in 4hours 20mins.  

ADVICE 7: HAVE FUN. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

7. My seventh marathon attempt will be on 16 April 2023 in Manchester, a route I've chosen because it's flat.  My training is going better than it has ever gone, mostly because I have three rest days per week, and average close to 50 miles per week.  My goal is to go sub-3:30.

ADVICE 8: TAKE MANY REST DAYS. When your legs get tired, you need to let them recover. As your training proceeds, there is an accumulation of tiredness that takes longer to recover from. 

I have also run 5 ultra-marathons in addition to the 6 marathons.  One of those ultras I didn't finish.  It's called a DNF, and I'm proud of it, because it was a good call.  I seriously hope you finish your marathon though, so to summarise: SLS, EAT, THINK OF THE FINAL SIX, RUN EASY, BE PATIENT, HAVE FUN, AND REST!  

Follow all of these simple rules and you'll be fine, I promise!

Camelbak Quick Grip Chill Bottle Holder (and Ultra Running Belt) Review

 

Normally I wouldn't have given this bit of kit a second glance. But a few factors came together during my marathon training that led me to acquire the Camelbak Quick Grip Chill bottle holder.  I will, specifically, really only be using this holder for the lead-up to Manchester Marathon 2023, or for the final few weeks of marathon training in any given plan, more generally.

What drove this was practicing nutrition during long marathon training runs. I used to run with a belt that held a water bottle, but those didn't hold enough food. For my own particular metabolism I need to get a lot of calories in during marathon or longer distance runs.  I've come to see equivalence to ultra-marathon distances, actually, and the marathon is, for me, just the beginning of an ultra-length run.

What I need for an ultra-length run (and therefore for a marathon), is 250 calories per hour.  I start within 30minute max, loading up on calories. Jason Koop has a recipe for rice-balls that have about 120 calories per ball, so I try to eat a couple of these per hour, one every 5-6 km.  On a four hour run that's a few rice balls, plus I'll eat gel (home made, with dates), and Kendal's mint blocks, either one about once per hour or so, in good amounts. 

Koop recommends (in his book Training Essentials for Ultrarunning) keeping water separate from electrolytes so that you can measure your intake. It's better to be slightly under-hydrated, and slightly over-electrolyted, which I found out the hard way during my first 100k Race to the Stones when I got overhydrated, making my electrolyte levels drop badly.

To fit all the food in, and to avoid carrying a running vest during a marathon run (and this is the difference from my ultra-training, in which I always wear a vest), I started running with a bottle in my hand.  Now the problem becomes how to get all that food out of my Camelbak Ultra Running Belt (which it holds easily) while carrying a water bottle. 

The answer is: not very easily.  I ended up having to hold the bottle under one arm while grappling to get the food out from around back, and sometimes I dropped the bottle, and I also tended to slow down a lot during this whole procedure, which you don't want to do when you're practicing marathon pace during a session.  

My front pocket of the Ultra Running Belt was, in addition, holding my phone.  I needed to get that phone somewhere else too.  So I got the Quick Grip Chill Bottle Holder to hold the bottle and, as a bonus, it also holds my phone.

Now I can use the Ultra Running Belt to hold the sugar and gel up front where the phone used to be, continuing to use the back for the rice balls.  With the strap handle around my hand, I can push the bottle up my arm, freeing up both hands, and keeping the bottle from dropping to the ground.  During yesterday's long run I was able to keep a pretty good pace, and get down the rice ball I needed, while keeping everything I'm carrying controlled and in position.

On the day of the marathon, I probably won't need to bring the hand held bottle holder, and my phone can move to an arm strap if needed.  

I am learning that how I treat the marathon affects how I treat the ultra-marathon, and that they are related.  I don't see the ultra as a long marathon, because they are very differently paced, but I do see the marathon as a short ultra, in a way, because of how I fuel the marathon. Without fuel I always hit the wall.

I have consistent half marathon times I'm really happy with at the sub-1:35 pace, but my marathon times are all over the place! I'd like to get them more consistent, and with training to kit and nutrition I'm beginning to feel confident I might finally be able to hit my sub-3:30 goal when I run Manchester on 16 April 2023.

New Year's Running Revolutions for 2023

 

The week from Boxing Day to New Year's Day was very good. Boxing Day I managed 20 miles with Bracknell Forest Runners, including a whole new section of paths and trails paralelling London Road, taking in Ascot Racecourse and some other areas.

Overall, I got in 56 miles for the week. After the 20 miler on Monday, I took a rest day, and the day after that I went to the gym. Thursday I got back to running in a big way, with a 13.5 mile run following my course called "Trailrunners 8:30s" which 'satnaved' a run that I'd done with the BFRs a couple of years ago.  It is the most 'traily' course I have on my watch. Actually I'd like to figure out a way to code all the trails, tracks, and roads in Swinley and then put together a scale of trailiness. But when I think about it, there's so much variation, that it's nice to have different kinds of trails put together to mix things up.  All winding rocky single-track might get tiresome after a while. You'd want some springy pine-needly double (or triple) track roads thrown in just to make things interesting.  Still I can dream of my 'master map' that's probably only exists in the minds of the veteran runners of Swinley that I follow around each week.

One of the best runs I did over the holidays was my Christmas Eve run, that followed a course of the first run I ever did with Bracknell Forest Runners. It's called "My First Forest Run" on my watch, and it's from 19 May 2019. It's in a tie for my favourite forest run, with the one noted above that I did on the 29th of Dec.  Overall I think I did a pretty good job of pacing myself.

The long run on Boxing Day was at a brisk pace of sub 8:30 from Mercedes to Blacknest Gate, and then it settled down into some easy to moderate pacing, depending on who I'd latched onto going around Virginia Water Lake. I got going with a couple of people who are doing preliminary base training for their upcoming spring marathon efforts, and finished off with the north-of-Ascot section at another good brisk sub-9 pace.  Overall the run came out at sub 10mm, and this included a little bit of walking I'd thrown in just to give it a kind of 'ultra' feeling.

I had also, on the 20 miler, tested out my recipe from Jason Koop's Training Essentials for Ultrarunning: his bacon-egg rice balls.  I at five of these balls on the Boxing Day run, and they were excellent. Washed down with water they went down nicely, and provided a nice salty snack and some mid-run carbs to keep me going.  Koop recommends water with food so that you can keep track of hydration and electrolyte consumption separately.  I think I agree with this approach now that I've tested it.  So the Boxing Day run was beneficial on many levels. It was an ultra training run of 3.5 hours, in which I tested both walking and eating along the way.  I finished feeling quite fresh.  This is a very auspicious start to my ultra-training plan for my Race to the Stones 100km run on 8 July 2023.

The two trailruns I did were of quite different pacing, but both were very beneficial in a way the long 20 miler hadn't been: they were trailruns (as opposed to the mostly road 20 miler). The Christmas Eve one was deliberately slow: 11mm+ pace because it was a day after a hard session I'd done to re-introduce tempo runs into my regimen. On the Eve of Christmas Eve I'd done a 'tempo/tempo/hills' run around South Hill Park, with 12/6/6 at tempo pace (7:30mm or faster) and four 90 second hill efforts up to Hilton.  The day after that, any trail run was going to be easy, and I'm proud of myself for how evenly I paced Christmas Eve after that, all 11mm, with not a single mile under 10mm, and this for a 12 mile run.

The last run of the 56 mile week that just ended yesterday, was yesterday's group trail run at 10mm pace, and it was just so relaxing.  We did selfies (see www.instagram.com/gwilymeades ) at Hut Hill and elsewhere, and I actually chatted a bit (or at least it felt chatty to me).  On the Boxing Day 20 miler too, I had managed to keep up the flow of chat fairly well (for me anyway), and I think it contributed to an overall sense of flow for the run.

So, as I head forward into the new year, my priority is on recovering well, which, today, I've done. Sorely tempted to do back-to-back social trailruns, I held back today, and stayed inside, and read Aschwanden's Good to Go: How to Eat, Sleep and Rest Like a Champion. I can only compare it to other iconic, scientific, and easy to read books like Hutchinson's Endure and Epstein's Range. Good to Go deserves only the highest praise. I'm polishing it off in a day. You get all the scientific studies you could need, but wrapped up in excellent science writing narratives and participatory exploration of the the recovery techniques discussed.  It's great, and all runners should read it.  It's perfect for a recovery day.

The other one I've been reading, which I treated myself to as a feel-good (but not necessarily rigourous) read, is McDougall and Orton's Born to Run 2. One of the first things they recommend doing is taking a week off to explore various small 'exercise snacks' of various squats, deadbugs, and quick feet mini-drills to wake up and reconnect the bodies and brains of long-distance runners. It's a really different book from the first one, to which it constantly alludes, but the really nice thing about it is that it follows up with some of the 'characters' from the original Born To Run, and it gives you hands-on information, including crucially several recipes from Pinole Bars to Posole, energy gels and bars, special recovery drinks and meals, and all kinds of inspiring food ideas.  It's also a training plan.

As we head into the new year, I'm looking forward to my second run of the year, a 'Fatigue Efforts' session of 5 * 90sec with 30 sec recoveries, and also my first marathon training run on the 8th of Jan.  As mentioned in an earlier post, my training plan this year consists solely of club runs, with the addition of a Friday tempo or hill run, alternating by week.  Sunday runs will be beefed up, and I'll have up to 3 recovery days per week (Tues, Thurs, and Sat). Back to back running will be Sunday/Monday, to give that all important 'tired legs' approach for my ultra on 8 July.  With that said, the marathon is also a training run, and it takes place on the 16th of April in Manchester.  My next race, however, is Wokingham Half Marathon. If you're running it, I'll see you there, but also at the 'training' runs, by which I mean track, MNCR, and Sunday runs at the lookout.

On NOT using a training plan

2023 is shaping up to be a lot of fun. I've decided not to use a training plan (based on some discussions with two of my fast running friends at BFR) for two reasons:

1. training plans are usually not written for you, the runner

2. they become too obsessive

What will I use in place of a training plan? Well, my training plan will be to USE MY RUNNING CLUB AS MY TRAINING PLAN! This means doing ALL THE CLUB RUNS: MNCR, Track, and Sundays at the Lookout.  Add in Friyay/Hillyay and a couple of recovery runs and I'll easily get 40 miles a week.  No obsessing: just show up and run!

WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE? (oh wait, I did...I just tried some other stuff that didn't work as well).

The only modification I'll make is to add more mileage on the long runs on Sunday as needed.

The only written running plan I'll use is later in the year for my 100km RTTS all in one go run, in which they provide a low-mileage plan that actually looks ok.

The races I'll do this year include: 

-Wokingham Half

-Manchester Marathon

-Race to the Stones 100km non-stop

-Windsor Half Marathon

And the plan is:

1. MNCR 7-8 miles (plus w/u & c/d)

2. Tuesday/rest day

3. Wed. Track 5mi + 3mi w/u + 1mi c/d

4. Th recovery 2mi + GYM squats 

5. Fr hillyay

6. Sat recover 2mi

7. Sun 2.5 w/u + 8mi + 2.5c/d (HERE IS WHERE YOU ADD IN MILEAGE FOR THE MARATHON TRAINING)

I'm also considering doing Run to the Sea again, 50kms in Bournemouth.  Should I do it?

London Marathon 2022

It was both my hardest effort (481 acc. to Strava) and my best run of all time, by which I mean, in the time I've been a runner, which is the last six years, I enjoyed the run more than any other I've ever done.  I achieved what I'd call a 'flow' state during this run, a state of mindful conscious reaching out to the crowds and the course that made the whole thing incredibly enjoyable and effortless-feeling.  

I ended up running 27.7 miles in part because of the above strategy, the honing in on faces in the crowd, to make eye contact, and to, above all, smile to take away the hurt. It worked! When I'd key in on the people flowing past, their outstretched hands, and their voices calling my name, I found myself running faster. I was amazed, and stunned when my splits starting coming up closer to 5min/km instead of my target of 5:50.  I had to slow myself down several times.

The result was an even or possibly even negative split race for me. There were two points where my emotions dipped a bit, one early on, and then one around 17miles.  The first one was easily overcome because I was still relatively fresh. The second was was overcome by seeing my wife Diane who miraculously appeared at 17.5 miles, giving me a big boost. Also by the sheer amazingness of the supporting crowds who seemed genuinely invested in pumping up the volume and the positivity.

This was my favourite run of all time. Check out the photos, map, and medal on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7899929845

Thanks also to everyone who donated and supported my charity of choice, Treloar's!

Are you really an ultra-runner if you've never DNF'd?

 

Today I ran some of the copses of Bracknell as a way of starting my training for the London Marathon 2022. The weather has cooled a bit, but it's still nice and sunny, and heating towards mid-day. It's still July but the marathon date (2 Oct) is surprisingly only 10 weeks off.

Having completed a PB marathon and 10k in the last few weeks, and also having 'completed' my first-ever DNF at Snowdon, I'm being careful to recover properly before taking on new challenges or races. I've been taking it easy since Snowdon, but also just revelling in the fact that despite the DNF it was such a fun run and great day. 

Besides which, are you really an ultra-runner if you've never DNF'd?  I would say NO!  Now I'm an ultra-runner!

And I'm going to shoot for a PB at London, which I've left as a fairly easy mark having finished in 3:50 at Southampton back in April.

I'm running for charity (Treloar's), so please donate if you can: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gwilymeades