Some musings on marathon training
As I write this, it is pouring with rain outside and therefore "preventing" me from going from the 5 mile run which was in my schedule for this morning. I'm sure it says something for me that I'm happy to ramble on at some length about marathon training rather than actually do any just because it's raining but I can't quite work out what that something is. Of course, that was last week and I've only just realised that this never actually posted.
I am currently training for my first marathon (Edinburgh, 27th May 2012) and now seems like a reasonable opportunity to reflect on how the training has been going and, in all honesty, whether I'm really cut out for this type of exercise.
I applied for entry to the marathon in around October last year shortly after entries opened and on a bit of a high having completed the Glasgow half-marathon. I hadn't done any reading on marathons and I just assumed that it would be like a half-marathon but perhaps 50% more difficult - surely the most difficult part is starting running in the first place. Having completed the half in two hours and felt that I had significantly underperformed, I thought that the classic four hour target was probably achieveable and therefore I could hold my head high among runners if I completed it.
Given that the running only started because I pulled a muscle in my back in March 2011 while rowing, there is perhaps some validity in saying that I have no idea what I'm doing or what I'm getting myself into. However, I have found that I quite enjoy the endurance test of running and it's a very efficient way of keeping fit. My day-to-day free time is extremely limited due to work and family and therefore the ability to get up at 5:45am, run for five miles and be back, showered, changed, breakfasted and on a bus to the office by 7:15am is really valuable. The fact that I can vary the length of the run to suit the bus I want to catch means that I can fit most types of training into my schedule without cutting back on time in the office or with family - just sleep.
The ultimate goal behind the running, however, is to get fit enough to manage the Kindrochit Quadrathlon which is in my schedule for July 2013. This looks like a serious challenge with a one mile swim, 15 mile run (including seven munros), seven mile kayak and 34 mile cycle. My assumption has been that the swim will be the main problem with this as I can ride a bike and therefore, if I'm fit enough, should only need a couple of months practice to be able to cover 34 miles, the kayak will be difficult but training for that will be next to impossible so just tough it out and I will be an experienced runner so 15 miles should be do-able.
The swim looks like a nightmare though - I've never swum in open water at all and haven't swum more than two lengths of a pool since I was 18. However, my theory is really that I should get generally fit, master the running and then hit the swimming hard in the latter part of 2012.
On this basis, a marathon seems like a good way of proving to myself that I have mastered the running bit and can move on to the other sections of the quadrathlon and this may have been one of the major flaws in my plan - by viewing the marathon as training for a further goal, I perhaps under-estimated how seriously difficult it would be.
The simple fact is that running 13 miles and running 26 miles are not connected; the first is something you can do with little training, no nutrition, no fluids and sheer willpower; the latter requires a lot of all of these things. This is something that I have really only discovered in the last few weeks as my training runs have moved out to 15, 17 and 18 miles; it's not that I have hit the infamous wall yet (apparently that's around 20 miles) but that the sheer time and number of steps as you get to these distances take a different toll on your body.
I'm very much familiar with the aches and pains you get the day after exercising beyond your normal limit from muscles that have been stretched too far and are re-building themselves. I was less familiar though, with the bruised joints and strained muscles that you feel during a long run as you push through the normal limits - it is as though your body is telling you right there and then that you're being stupid rather than waiting until the next day.
More at a later date on this
I am currently training for my first marathon (Edinburgh, 27th May 2012) and now seems like a reasonable opportunity to reflect on how the training has been going and, in all honesty, whether I'm really cut out for this type of exercise.
I applied for entry to the marathon in around October last year shortly after entries opened and on a bit of a high having completed the Glasgow half-marathon. I hadn't done any reading on marathons and I just assumed that it would be like a half-marathon but perhaps 50% more difficult - surely the most difficult part is starting running in the first place. Having completed the half in two hours and felt that I had significantly underperformed, I thought that the classic four hour target was probably achieveable and therefore I could hold my head high among runners if I completed it.
Given that the running only started because I pulled a muscle in my back in March 2011 while rowing, there is perhaps some validity in saying that I have no idea what I'm doing or what I'm getting myself into. However, I have found that I quite enjoy the endurance test of running and it's a very efficient way of keeping fit. My day-to-day free time is extremely limited due to work and family and therefore the ability to get up at 5:45am, run for five miles and be back, showered, changed, breakfasted and on a bus to the office by 7:15am is really valuable. The fact that I can vary the length of the run to suit the bus I want to catch means that I can fit most types of training into my schedule without cutting back on time in the office or with family - just sleep.
The ultimate goal behind the running, however, is to get fit enough to manage the Kindrochit Quadrathlon which is in my schedule for July 2013. This looks like a serious challenge with a one mile swim, 15 mile run (including seven munros), seven mile kayak and 34 mile cycle. My assumption has been that the swim will be the main problem with this as I can ride a bike and therefore, if I'm fit enough, should only need a couple of months practice to be able to cover 34 miles, the kayak will be difficult but training for that will be next to impossible so just tough it out and I will be an experienced runner so 15 miles should be do-able.
The swim looks like a nightmare though - I've never swum in open water at all and haven't swum more than two lengths of a pool since I was 18. However, my theory is really that I should get generally fit, master the running and then hit the swimming hard in the latter part of 2012.
On this basis, a marathon seems like a good way of proving to myself that I have mastered the running bit and can move on to the other sections of the quadrathlon and this may have been one of the major flaws in my plan - by viewing the marathon as training for a further goal, I perhaps under-estimated how seriously difficult it would be.
The simple fact is that running 13 miles and running 26 miles are not connected; the first is something you can do with little training, no nutrition, no fluids and sheer willpower; the latter requires a lot of all of these things. This is something that I have really only discovered in the last few weeks as my training runs have moved out to 15, 17 and 18 miles; it's not that I have hit the infamous wall yet (apparently that's around 20 miles) but that the sheer time and number of steps as you get to these distances take a different toll on your body.
I'm very much familiar with the aches and pains you get the day after exercising beyond your normal limit from muscles that have been stretched too far and are re-building themselves. I was less familiar though, with the bruised joints and strained muscles that you feel during a long run as you push through the normal limits - it is as though your body is telling you right there and then that you're being stupid rather than waiting until the next day.
More at a later date on this