marathon - AnnaTheApple

June 17, 2015

Hanley parkrun and pre-Liverpool marathon recap

Ahh what a weekend!! I will be doing a full recap post on the Liverpool marathon very soon so bear with me.

What I will say for now is that it went really well and I enjoyed it a lot! I got a PB and my shin/calf niggle held out fabulously. In fact, and I absolutely have no understanding of this, it felt better the day after the marathon than it did leading up. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT!? I do have a slight sneaking suspicion that in my usual pre-marathon panic and general fear of injury that I might have foam rolled and ~~poked~~ self-massaged the area in question too much. I’m not one of those “sit tight and it will go away” type people…I have to prod, poke and foam roll. I’m wondering if the high mileage from the previous week made it slightly grumpy and then I pushed it over the edge in my panic? I suppose the real test will be when I get back to running again.

In overall terms though, I feel pretty good! I’m tired obviously and my muscles ached a lot afterwards but my quads, which for my previous two marathons have been SO achy and sore, are absolutely fine. Sitting down and walking afterwards and the day after were all fine. In fact, I even ran up some stairs on Tuesday. Apparently training properly seems to help with recovery…? 😉

Anyway I’ll roll back to the days before. On Friday after work my dad and me drove up to Stoke-On-Trent. This is around a 3.5 hours car journey. Though we stopped for some food half-way. I try and encourage my dad to eat healthily pretty much most of the time…some could describe me as a bit of a nag but I like to say “Health Coach” 😉 As he was driving all the way I thought a KFC treat would be alright so I turned off my nag alarm. I went for a Subway turkey salad which I added pre-cooked pesto chicken from Waitrose and some luminous beetroot dip.

This was SO good and chocka full of tasty toppings. I was stuffed!!

We got to my granddad’s around 8.30pm and he welcomed us in with a lovely cup of tea.

I love my granddad’s tea. I have no idea why it’s so good but it’s just so refreshing. He is one of those people who literally makes about 10 cups of tea throughout the day. He’d also prepared some meringue nests dipped in chocolate with some chocolate strawberries as well. Perfect! We caught up and then watched TFIF and I felt very relaxed and content. I even stayed up until 10.30pm! Madness eh?

The next morning I’d planned to do the local Hanley parkrun. It was literally a five minute drive from my granddad’s so it meant quite a nice lie-in. I was worried though as my shin/calf was still not right. It was feeling better, but still not 100%. I wanted to do the parkrun though as I had to know what I was in for on Sunday, good or bad.

After doing some investigation on Twitter I’d found that the course profile was ‘challenging’. Well I wasn’t going for a good time anyway as this was just supposed to be a nice shakeout run and testing the waters. My dad drove me down and stayed to support.

As I’ve said before, my dad loves to watch my races. He’s very proud of my running and he loves supporting. He ‘gets’ it. He understands my love for it and the intricacies involved in pacing, training, injuries etc. more than a lay person (probably because I talk so much about to him!). Before a race, he’ll talks ‘strategy’ with me and ask what paces I’m aiming for so he knows when I’ll come by and the goal I’m aiming for. He also, bless him, will always point out someone he thinks looks speedy or I should watch out for (even when I say I’m not racing!!). He’s a proud dad and loves being involved. And I love him being there of course! And it’s great because he’ll always tell me funny or interesting stories of what he’s seen while he’s been supporting – always interesting to hear the perspective of a supporter!

Back to parkrun…It was raining but it wasn’t cold. The Hanley parkrun guys were so friendly and welcoming. We all stood under the shelter of a bandstand and I chatted away to some other parkrunners. As a tourist we went off with the group of other tourists and first-timers to hear about the course. Yes it was fairly hilly.

There wasn’t a huge amount of people (140 people) so I started near the front. I just wanted to run comfortably and see how it went. As we started I got swept up in the race mentality but I looked at my watch and saw 6.30min/miles and thought “don’t be stupid”. As I slowed down four ladies pulled off ahead. I squashed any competitive need I had to try and follow them and reminded myself severely that I had a marathon the next day.The course was lovely and scenic, going round a pond with lots of ducks and geese walking around and it was a mix of tarmac and grass. It was very pleasant and the temperature was perfect. Yes there were hills but there were also down hills so actually it wasn’t bad at all.

There was a young girl in front of me and as we passed a man he yelled at her “come on! There aren’t many more girls ahead!”. It wasn’t a supportive cheer, it was an instruction and I felt bad for the young girl (11-14 category). Come on, it’s parkrun for God’s sake!

In the end I overtook all but one girl and got 22:20. She was really fast (and another 11-14 category – speedy young ladies!!). I know I wasn’t supposed to be racing but it was nice to come second and I felt very comfortable and not massively out of breath.

Test driving my new running skirt from Fabletics

The shin/calf did niggle slightly during the run but, again, no pain, no gait change, just an awareness and tightness. It didn’t feel any worse after running. I felt a bit calmer. I vowed to not touch it the entire day and sleep in compression socks that evening.

After getting back to my granddad’s, showering and having breakfast we had the day to kill. My dad and me decided to do a bit of shopping and he wanted to show me some old haunts from his childhood. My granddad stayed at home, happy to see us later when we returned (he doesn’t go out a huge deal). Hilariously he gave us a map to take with us so we “wouldn’t get lost”. We took it with us but didn’t mention the fact that my dad’s car has a built-in Sat Nav or that my dad, having grown up there, knew the area quite well. Bless him!

After moseying about some shops we headed to Mow Cop Castle, which is right on the border between Cheshire and Staffordshire. It’s a ‘folly’ dating back to 1754. I didn’t know what a folly was but apparently it’s when people have too much money and build something pretty but fairly useless 😉

My dad and me joked somewhat wryly that it would be a bit of a disaster if I twisted my ankle or fell over on our little excursion! Thankfully we both made it up and down in one piece.

The views were magnificent! We also later learned (after Googling) that there were some pretty amazing runs people did around the area (and up to the castle itself) and there’s a Mow Cop running club!

Then we headed for lunch. We found a lovely little pub nearby that was just about to stop serving food but we managed to squeeze in just in time (it was after 2pm). I had an EPIC cold meats salad.

It came with roast beef, turkey and ham with stuffing. It was so tasty and filling!

Don’t worry I made sure my evening meal was carbtastic with a standard pizza. My granddad had these cheap (86p!) pizzas he gets from Sainsbury’s which he then tops with a whole host of different ingredients. This is definitely my style of cooking! He also made a great mini-salad for me as he knows my love of vegetables.

I made sure to drink lots of fluid (with nuun) throughout the day, especially as I was concerned of how warm it was going to be. It said 86% humidity on the weather forecast!

Then it was time to just relax. We weren’t going to see my granddad the next morning as we were driving to Liverpool ridiculously early and then going straight back to Southampton from the race, so we said our goodbyes before going to bed. My alarm was set for 5am…ouch. But the race began at 10am and it would take around an hour to get there. I would need a coffee stop and we needed to get to the parking area before the 8am road closures…so 5am it had to be!

…And the race recap will be along in another post I’m afraid!

What do you do the day before a big race?

Have you ever seen/heard some un-parkrun spirited behaviour from anyone before at a parkrun?

How far have you had to travel (within your country) to a race/event before?

June 11, 2015June 11, 2015

Almost there…

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you’ll be well acquainted with how injury prone I seem to be. My previous two marathons’ training have been fairly rubbish.

For both I never managed to get over 13 miles. I did a lot of cross-training to keep my fitness up (cycling, elliptical machine and pool running) but not enough running to go into the races feeling confident. That said, I did achieve relatively good times (3:41:18 and 3:36:26 respectively). The recovery time after was a nightmare though as my body just wasn’t used to that sort of mileage in one go and for Berlin I was subsequently injured.

I gently eased back into running in January after taking some time out (as I was fed up with constantly going from injury to injury). I properly started training in February. I didn’t really follow a plan per se but I did use other marathon training plans as a guide for the long runs.

What I did…

Initially I began running three days a week, supplementing this with cross training and strength-focused training in the gym (more about that in THIS post). I gradually built the long runs up while keeping the other two runs the same. I had one run focused on running hills and the other was parkrun for speed work.

As the mileage increased I dropped the strength training to two sessions a week and then eventually got rid of the cross-training completely as I moved to running four times a week and felt good.

My ‘training plan’

Against all previous expectations I managed to successfully run several long runs – proper long runs over 13 miles! I ran two 17 miles, two 18.5 miles and a 19.75 miler. This is gobsmacking for me. I still can’t believe it. I never thought my body would survive.

What worked…

I think the main reason it did survive is the addition of strength training. My legs, glutes and core are stronger. Regularly doing strength training really helped. And consistently upping my weights as things became easier. Eighteen weeks later and I still wake up aching from the day after strength training. Running feels smoother and I don’t feel quite so fragile anymore.

Also being sensible with my mileage was key. I gradually increased my long run mileage. I was so scared of injuring myself that this was a great motivator to not get greedy.

What I got wrong…

I’m pretty sure I got my nutrition wrong after long runs as I got some savage headaches that I never usually get. I didn’t refuel properly and then would spend the day treating myself to cake and other sugary foods. I’m sure it wasn’t to do with hydration because I drink a lot of water (with electrolytes) before and after running. After Sunday’s 5 mile race I drank lots before and after but I didn’t have lunch for a long time afterwards and then suffered from a headache later in the day. On days I did refuel properly I didn’t get a headache. No brainer really.

I’m used to running long runs without breakfast but 17 miles is definitely my limit on that I think, especially when I don’t refuel immediately afterwards (when I’m at a race for example). I know I run better with breakfast but I also prefer to run without to train my body so when I do fuel I get maximum benefits (I’m not a dietician or a sports-knowledgeable person – this is just what I’ve personally found).

I also think I overcooked things for the Cakeathon. I probably ran too fast and didn’t reduce my mileage on the subsequent week. The 14 miler I did that next Sunday was very draining and my body didn’t feel quite as strong as previously and, dare I even say, niggly.

I should have done a shorter long run and shorter runs the following week. I did two seven milers next to each other last week which were both meant to be lower mileage but for one reason or another became higher than I wanted (not planning a normal route and running with the club). Compounding this was the Beer race which was a hard effort (but I will say not 100% smashing myself to pieces).

This week I’ve made the sensible decision to not run until parkrun on Saturday. My shin has been niggling me slightly and I’m on a FULL ANNA PANIC MODE. It’s not painful but it is tight. I’m terrified it will blow up to something more serious. It’s highly ironic that all my training goes absolutely fine and then an old niggle begins to crop up the week before the marathon. I’m honestly trying not to have a major freak out. Wouldn’t it be ironic though that the race I’m best trained for is the worst one I do??

(On a side note: for Berlin I ran a total of 223 miles in 16 weeks worth of training. For Liverpool I will have run 424 miles in 16 weeks!)

The plan…

I’m driving up to Stoke-on-Trent with my dad straight from work which is a good 3.5 hours in the car (my mum can’t come as her back is still very bad). Then we’re staying with my granddad in Stoke Friday and Saturday and heading to Liverpool Sunday morning, which should be less than an hour’s drive.

I have my paces planned out as normal. The first 10 miles are going to be nice and easy (finger’s crossed) and then gradually increase that pace and maintain it for the next 10 miles. The last 10k I’ll let myself go a bit but not too much until 5k when I will attempt to hold on. Finishing strong is my ambition. But hey, I could be limping across the line, who knows…

*Deep breath* finger’s crossed eh?

Any pre-race day tips?

Any good car games to play in the car?

Will I survive this!?

June 3, 2015

Rants and Raves #13

My raves are far outweighing my rants at the moment, which is obviously very good! I just hope life continues along this pattern…

Rave: A while ago at parkrun there was a guy who noticed I was wearing a hairband to keep the hair off my face. He asked if I was a fan of the hairbands, I said I was (obviously) and he said he had a load he could give me for free if I wanted them. He’d bought them for himself to keep his hair out of his face but discovered they probably weren’t his style. Considering I spent around £7 for six I was quite keen to have some for free! OK they’re not the most expensive things in the world but they’re not cheap and I have limited colours.

Anyway that was a while ago and I sort of forgot about it. A couple of parkruns ago he tapped me on the shoulder and said “remember me? The hairband guy!” and he gave me the unwanted hairbands.

Amazing! Now I have more colours to choose from – hurrah! I like wearing the hairbands to the gym and running because I get wispy hair stuck on my face and it can be very annoying. I’m not sure yet if I’ll wear one at the marathon though as they can slip down from time to time (I think I have a small head) and I can’t bear to be adjusting it for miles on end.

Rant: After the Cakeathon and driving home I had some serious runger, as you can imagine. My parents thankfully had looked after Alfie over the weekend but had dropped him off a few hours before so when I got in I needed to walk him…food had to wait a few more minutes. By the time I got back and started preparing said food I was really hungry and rushing around to make myself something. I went into the freezer and picked up a bag of mini veg and didn’t realise it was upside down.

Oh how I wish it had been sprouts or big bits of broccoli, not teeny tiny bits of veg. It was then a race between Alfie and me to see who could pick up the most veg. What it is about frozen vegetables that appeals to my dog I’m not entirely sure. This was not a fun process I can assure you, especially in the raging stages of runger.

[Edit to add: this morning I had a similar incident with frozen berries. It’s amazing I can get through life so well…]

Rave: OK this is quite old news now but I had a bit of fun (and torture) seeing how old the Internet thought I was.

Obviously I’ve cherry picked a ‘good’ photo here haha! I tried a few photos and let’s just say it can make your day or ruin it 😉 But seriously though, I wouldn’t want to be 19 again. I’m actually quite happy being almost 27, despite my life taking a huge twist of events recently.

Rant: Back to the little furry monster, he’s so similar to me in that he has his own ingrained habits and routine in an evening. As soon as I’ve finished dinner and washing up I’ll hear the dreaded sound of a tennis ball dropping at my feet. I turn around and this little face is looking up at me.

“Oh have you finished, can we play now please?” is what that face is saying. Every single night. So I stand on one side of the house and throw the ball to the other side of the house until he is panting and I’m bored. I just can’t say no to that face.

Rave: It’s arrived! My bib for my impending marathon has arrived. It’s funny because this whole marathon process is so different from my other two in every way.

Unlike Paris and Berlin, I don’t have to go to the expo the day before, I don’t have to worry about what I’ll be eating for my pre-race dinner or breakfast and most people will speak English in and around the race! And obviously the whole training process has been so different. I plan on writing a marathon training recap post soon. I just don’t want to jinx anything just yet!!

Rant: OK not a real rant… The Cakeathon for next year has sold out already! I know a few of my club wanted to do it but didn’t get round to entering in time and some other people expressed interest as well who have now missed out. But the race only has 100 or so spaces and it is clearly a big hit. I’m so thankful that I entered straight away. There is a waiting list and I think they host the event twice a year (as I know there’s one in August this year – also sold out) so there could still be a chance for anyone keen.

Rave: Alpro’s new Coconut Almond milk. It tastes really good. Though it is definitely sweeter than the almond milk (though conversely slightly less calories per 100ml than the unsweetened almond milk). It’s a nice change I must say! I bought mine in Tesco.

Have you missed out on entering a race before?

What are you latest rants and raves?

How do you keep your hair back when you’re exercising?

April 28, 2015

A lot of running and a lot of ribs

What a weekend! If you’re a British runner then this weekend gone was bloody fantastic. Nothing makes me smile like the London marathon. Truly love being part of such an awesome community.

But winding back first to Saturday morning and my usual parkrun fun at Netley Abbey. I’d decided to take it somewhat easier (medium effort I’d say) as I knew I had a lot going on the next day with the Southampton Half Marathon and running there to make it a total of 18.5 miles (more on that later). This meant I was quite chilled beforehand.

The handy tree where everyone hangs their stuff

That was until I headed off for a warm-up with my running club friend, Mike, and his daughter, Kelci who was running her first ever parkrun at nine years old, and we didn’t realise the time until we saw everyone heading over to the start. But we were still all the way across the other side of the park! We had to properly sprint over, ripping off our jackets as we went and tossing them under a random tree to meet the line-up just in time for the start. My heart was thumping before we’d even begun!

I decided to rock out my new Adidas Boosts that I’d won as being parkrunner of the month for Netley (saving myself an incredible £130!!)

They are so pretty! They’re slightly less cushioned than my regular Mizunos and Brooks so I’ll only be wearing these for short runs and ideally when I’m not running on concrete roads – so parkrun is ideal.

This also handily meant I was matching!

Small things, eh!

What was funny about the parkrun was how many volunteers we had. Because obviously it was the London marathon the next day and we had the Southampton half and 10k it meant lots of people were saving their legs. This also helped with a very quick clear down!

Anyway, my parkrun time was 22:05 which I was happy with. My running this week has gone really well. Honestly, who the hell am I!? The only hard things I’m finding are my gym sessions which are a) boring and b) hard. Running seems to be the easy part funnily enough. The gym sessions I truly believe are keeping me in good shape and injury-free so stay they must, though I might drop to one session a week as the weeks continue and mileage climbs. I can always pick it back up again full throttle post-marathon.

Mike’s daughter did very well but was pretty shattered after her first ever three mile run. She had a great finish though and the look in her face was one of sheer determination. Well done Kelci!

The rest of the day was same old same old, apart from having a little trip to West Quay shopping centre with my dad. My mum is away so I was suspicious when he invited me out shopping with him. What? Shopping? You don’t like shopping? Is how I responded. Ahh yes, the new Apple Watch was out…he wanted to have a look and feel.

Personally, I’m not won over by the Apple Watch. I have far too many watches now to need another one (my Vivofit, my Garmin, Polar watch and normal watches!) Plus my iPhone does everything I want it to and the Apple Watch doesn’t have GPS so I couldn’t even swap it for my Garmin (assuming of course I could even afford one of these – ha!) But my dad loves his gadgets so was in his element.

As it was the Southampton Half the next day a few of us from my club had arranged to go out for some carb loading that evening but due to several reasons it just ended up being Mike and me. It was lovely and chilled and a far better way to get a good dinner in than me being on my own at home (and let’s be honest, I’d have probably just gotten an Indian take away…).I went for the chicken Caesar flatbread which was perfect. I didn’t feel overstuffed (which is always the temptation) and it was delicious (Caesar never lets me down!).

I was feeling very relaxed about the half marathon the next day because I wasn’t racing it. I’d planned to make it into a long run after discovering it was 5.5 miles from my house. This was perfect considering I ran 17 miles last weekend and all the roads were going to be closed anyway to get into Southampton. Mike (yep, him again!) graciously offered to take my bag with him the day before so I had a spare set of running clothes, warm clothes, my bib, food and drink when I got there. He also works at Southampton Solent university which is all of five minutes from the start and said I could use their facilities to get changed in. I mean, seriously how perfect! He was doing the race too and I had planned to run with him and some other friends from my running club so it worked out very well.

Except I did get stressed the night before because I was running a route that I’d never run before (and I’m notoriously bad at navigating anywhere), it was a hilly route and I had a set time to get there. This meant a rubbish night sleep. I gave myself plenty of time and left at 7.30am on Sunday morning having checked my route a zillion times, but felt very ‘naked’ without any of my race things.

But the route went perfectly, the hills weren’t half as bad as I’d imagined and I got there in plenty of time to meet Mike and co. I was instantly de-stressed and got myself ready in real toilets in Solent University. It was a cold morning so I was grateful to have somewhere warm to get sorted. I’ve never felt so relaxed before a half!

I hadn’t had breakfast before I left but had decided that because I had an hour and a half to wait until the half began that I’d need something easy beforehand. I found I had a High5 Energy Bar and went with that. It was chocolate orange flavour, which isn’t a flavour I’m big on, but it went down well and I felt good. I also had some water with a nuun tablet in.

I’ll do a full race recap in another post so I’ll leave it there. After the race I got a lift back, got myself into a lovely hot shower and ready to meet my dad for lunch. Both of us are meat-lovers so the obvious choice was Ranchos Steak House which would cater to his love of steak and my ~~obsession~~ love of ribs.

After 18.5 miles I was sooo ready for food! Because I’m that obsessed I went for a half a rack of ribs to start and then ribs for my main. Go big or go home 😉 It’s just what I really fancied so I went with it.

And chocolate fudge cake for dessert. I was stuffed, but hugely satisfied. My dad enjoyed his meal too and it was a lovely dad-daughter lunch outing.

When I got home and I just immersed myself into my recorded London marathon coverage and two separate Paula Radcliffe programmes. One from ITV and one from the BBC. The BBC was more of a celebration and was a lot happier, but the ITV was gritty at times and more of an unblinking look into Paula’s ups and downs. I had no idea about the relationship with her husband being under such scrutiny and the media attention surrounding it.

I also didn’t realise they’d show that unfortunate moment in the London marathon where she had to stop at the side of the course because of tummy issues. Despite those tummy issues though she still finished the marathon in a time that tops all the latest female times today (2:17:42). Seriously, that is hardcore. What I admired most was how she spoke about that unfortunate incident. She was so down to earth about it and not fazed at all. It was just one of those things that happened and she had to deal with it. Massive respect.

I’m very sad I didn’t get to run it this year but honestly 2016 I am ready for you!!!

Have you ever run the London marathon?

Who’s your sporting idol?

What do you love about being British (or whatever nationality you are!)

April 22, 2015

Don’t fear the fear

It’s funny, I’ve run two marathons but I still don’t really feel part of the elusive marathon club. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true.

I just don’t feel like I went through the same process that other marathoners went through. The long training runs, the high mileage, the aching legs, the insatiable runger…I didn’t really have that. With both marathons I’d been hit with injuries and my mileage had to drop consequently. I did lots of cross-training for Paris with intermittent running (and failed runs plagued with niggles), and for Berlin I did lots of cycling and some pool running but it wasn’t the same.

Now obviously I’m over the moon that both marathons went well (beyond my expectation and I’m in no way unhappy with my times). But it meant lining up at the start I felt a little but like a fraud compared to the runners around me and I had huge doubts that I’d survive the whole 26.2 miles. In fact I seriously doubted I’d get past 10 miles for Paris.

Oddly it does mean that this time around I’m feeling a little bit more pressure because my training is actually going well (*TOUCH WOOD*) so surely that means I’ll do better? Well, I don’t know about that! There’s a huge danger of self-sabotage here: “Oh I’m far better trained this time so I’ll just take off like a rocket at the start and be fine”.

I think what really helped me in my previous marathons was the fact that I had so much uncertainty and fear. It kept me cautious all the way to 20 miles, and even then when I got past the “half way” point I still kept reminding myself I wasn’t out of the woods yet and still thought I could fail. I literally monitored my watch and pace the entire time, never letting myself go too much faster than I had planned.

If anything this fear is the most important thing I learnt and as good as my training seems to be going (*touch wood again*) I mustn’t forget that. Start slow, keep slow, and constantly reassess how I feel. The only difference is that “slow” has a different meaning this time around as I’m better trained.

For Liverpool I’ll do exactly as I did for my previous marathons. I’ll have a pacing band that will have my paces dictated for each mile. I’ll make sure I keep close to those times as much as possible (meaning no “oh mile one feels great, I’ll just run 30 seconds faster”), but let myself go a bit if I feel confident at the end. I’m a control freak perfectionist so find this strategy works perfectly. I just need to work out the correct pacing beforehand and I can’t really do that until closer to the time (hey, I’ve also got enough time to get injured and go back to square one!)

For anyone training for a marathon or about to do their first marathon, my biggest piece of advice is keep the fear. Don’t let it consume you or hinder you obviously, but let it hold you back a bit and keep you squarely on the path you’ve been training for. You cannot bank time but you can bank energy. Start slow and you’ll be surprised at how much oomph you have in the end. There’s nothing better than finishing a marathon strong.

What would be your most important marathon advice?

How do you conquer your nerves before a big event?

Do you depend a lot upon your watch/running app when racing? One day I want to run a marathon WITHOUT my Garmin (or at least keep it hidden from me). That would be a true test of pacing.