Rotary Shakespeare MARATHON

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  • Devoted2Distance - I had some trouble with night cramps and took magnesium, calcium and vitamin e. The dosage of Mg and Ca was 100% RDA but vitamin e was 2500% (yes, no typo 25 times the RDA) see http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/10/77.cfm and http://chronicfatigueandnutrition.com/minerals/magnesium-muscle-cramps/

    This week will be short but Sunday will be long: 15 at least. I am not really ramping up too quickly as my base running has 13 mile runs in most weeks and sometimes mod week as well.

    What races are you doing as warm up, I plan to do MKhalf, I see you did that last year. I hope to do about 1:25 if all goes well. Your training times seem very fast compared to your PBs: 12.68 miles at 7.2 is 91 minutes, 1:31, for 12.68 miles and your PB for a half is 1:39 so you have 8 minutes for the last 0.5 miles and you have beaten your PB in training.
  • D2D  http://www.athletesinaction.co.uk/photo8363696.html

    I always look in so much pain, like I'm about to lay an egg, weird thing is I was feeling completely fine, hate to see a pic when I'm struggling...image

  • TenjisoTenjiso ✭✭✭

    I really REALLY was NOT going to run in this race in 2011.  I had a bad end to 2010 with injury and I didn't run at all for the best part of two months in November and December.  I gingerly restarted running in the new year, and have just three short weeks under my belt.  My longest run is seven miles so far, but I've noticed that I'm actually running the shorter distances as fast as I was at this time last year (going by my heart rate).  This got me thinking...

    I looked at the Runner's World Marathon schedule for 4:30 marathon.  According to that, my current mileage should be enough to be able to make it in time for the Shakespeare.  I'm already booked for the Milton Keynes half-marathon, which looks nicely timed for the half-way stage in the training.  The clincher was the fact that it takes place the day after I turn fifty, which makes it a kind-of landmark marathon image

    So, for better or worse, I've booked my place in the Marathon.  If nothing else, it will give me something positive to focus on through the drab winter months, and it's the only way I will actually look-forward to being 50!

  • TenjisoTenjiso ✭✭✭

    Thanks D2D image.  I'll be chuffed to finish in under 4:30.

    I've just seen a message on the RSM website saying that they are down to 200 places left in the Marathon.  Looks like it will fill-up early again.

    I see that the cheaper rooms are gone in the Travelodge.  I don't fancy paying over-the-odds for a room, so I may be travelling up on the morning of the race.  Is it pretty easy to find parking spaces on the morning of the race?  The nearer to the finish line the better.

    I'm finding it hard work slotting in appropriate warm-up races.  It seems like they all target the time of the London Marathon - which normally fits in with the RSM.  It'll be pushing it a bit for me to be ready, but I've booked for the Oakley 20 on 27th March and I'm considering the Sandy 10 a week later to chill out a bit.  I could really do with a twenty miler on 9th or 16th April, but haven't found anything suitable.  

    Thanks, whoever it was, for pointing out the Marathon Talk podcasts in this thread.  I've started downloading them to listen to on my long runs.  I'm assuming that they consist of positive marathon talk, and not the kind of things I normally think like "WTF am I doing?  God this hurts!" etc.

  • TenjisoTenjiso ✭✭✭

    Not wishing to cast apersions.....but I've just had a look down the RW list of the top marathons of 2010.

    RSM is in 14th position, which may well be fair enough.  However, in 15th position is the Luton Marathon - which was cancelled! image  Go figure.

  • I did the Half last year and really enjoyed it. Going for the full this year which will be my 1st full marathon.

     Just hoping they are giving out water in bottles and not in cups again. The last few miles in the heat with no water in hand was not the best.

  • Just entered the full marathon, did this one 3 years ago and ready to tackle the Greenway again.
    Stayed in the Holiday Inn last time which was right on the start line a bit more expensive but the jacuzzi afterwards made up for it!
    Good luck all
  • With regard to the water situation, I remember a couple of the water stations did have bottles.  Given the problems later on with the cups and my inability to swallow the water, on the second circuit I cunningly held onto one of the bottles and poored the water into it.  Not ideal though !!
  • "Not wishing to cast apersions.....but I've just had a look down the RW list of the top marathons of 2010.

    RSM is in 14th position, which may well be fair enough. However, in 15th position is the Luton Marathon - which was cancelled! Go figure."

    If you look at the list, the ranking is somewhat arbitrary. The London Marathon is 11 and as you say, Luton was cancelled. It really depends what you mean by best, and it seems that scenery is more important to some people rather than flat and fast.

    Actually, RW says "we looked at races that took place in the 12 months between December 1, 2009 and December 1, 2010. " so it is Luton 2009 and not Luton 2010
  • TenjisoTenjiso ✭✭✭
    Philip_M_Jones wrote (see
     
    "Actually, RW says "we looked at races that took place in the 12 months between December 1, 2009 and December 1, 2010. " so it is Luton 2009 and not Luton 2010

    That makes more sense, though they don't make it obvious when you look at the list.

    Scenery is more important to me too, because I spend a loooong time going around a marathon image

  • 1st time for this race. What's everyone think of it? Anything that I should be aware of?
  • Matt, the most talked about section is the Greenway which is around 4 miles on the first lap but 6 on the 2nd from about mile 19 to 25, it does seem to go on forever second lap round but it is deep into a marathon so no scenery in the world will hide the pain if your struggling at that point.

  • I've entered and am on week 2 of training.  I'm following the Runners World Sub 3.45 plan. My long run this weekend is 9miles which seems so far at the moment, although I remember from last years marathon training that the "long 9 miles" will soon be a distant memory and I will only be able to dream of doing such short distances on a Sunday!
  • TenjisoTenjiso ✭✭✭

    I'm doing nine miles too Sarah.

    It soon ramps up.

  • I've entered this and have my accomm all sorted. The Greenway sounds like it's going to be a real dancefloor the second time around - always good to know about it in advance though.

    Is it a big marathon in the scheme of UK marathons? The Greenway aside, what is the rest of the scenery like?

  • 18-20 miles this weekend, never done a 20 before, so'll be interesting.  Wish the freezing weather'd go though

  • TenjisoTenjiso ✭✭✭

    Typically, I've got a bit of the sniffles and a cough image.  Not enough to affect the running at the moment and hopefully it won't get worse.

    I listened to episode one and some of episode two of "Marathon Talk" during my nine mile run today.  The time flew past!  I'm pleased with the run as I'm well on a par with previous years in spite of my long layoff.  It's early days, but I'm feeling upbeat about my progress so far.

  • Did this last year and fell victim to the heat so did an appalling time, but as a race, I enjoyed it.   There was lots of support; the marshalls were great and the scenery took your mind off the worst bits!! Don't worry about the Greenway - there'll be some shelter from the trees in May and it beats running on a busy road any day!

    Re: RW best marathons.   IMHO, Snowdonia is the best marathon in the UK, but didn't even feature in RW's list because there was no link to it on RW website!  ( As the Snowdonia mara race fills up quickly, I don't think the organisers need to advertise it on RW and the forum relating to the race didn't have a "review link" attached).   So read the RW ratings with care!   I also reckon that the people who tend to run the older, more established, "clubby" races (rather than the races which appeal to everyone, have much larger fields, appeal to charity runners etc etc) are probably less likely to "rate" their races on the website and, consequently, these races will not get listed in RW!!!    Just a thought    image   

  • How has everyone' long run' gone this weekend?

    Managed to get through 12 miles in 1.49 - marathon target is under 4 hours so at this early stage am quite happy with that

    John Richards - how did your 18-20 miles go? if your up to that sort of distance already you should be cruising round in 16 weeks time?!

  • i managed 11 miles at a very easy pace, my target is to get to the end hopefully running all the way so im not going to set myself a target time as stratfords my first full marathon i dont want to put myself under to much pressure.
  • Hey Richard, great run this morning, good going. I managed 20 miles (or just over) in about 2 hours 58.  Reason It's a bit vague is that I stopped for a pee at around 14 miles , stopping the watch, and forgot to start it again.  Even more daft than that is that for the next 10 minutes I kept looking at my garmin thinking "bloody hell I'm still stuck on 13.7"  Took at least 15 minutes for me to realise that my pace wasn’t that slow and started the watch again !  Really annoyed with myself as I’d have liked to have seen exactly what time I had.  I do know that it was at least 20 though as it was an “out and back” course down a trailish type run, with 2 nasty hills at the end.  First time I’d listened to Marathon Talk on my IPOD whilst running, fantastic.  Only on episode 4, but Tony’s Trials are superb (love the fact he keeps bigging up my club Stockport Harriers) telling us how he had wanted to lose weight for last year’s London marathon but having run two 70 plus weeks had put on a ½ pound….He then said that he’d had at least 8 pints, a pizza and a curry during The Manc Derby.   Also Martin Yelling was trying to help this lady lose weight but she was obsessed with cheese.  He gave her a choice to lose weight or choose cheese…..She chose cheese.Great stuff.  Certainly made the miles tick away, did get some strange looks from people passing as a chortled away to myself.Another good tip they gave re gel packs is to take them after certain miles (7,14,20)  as opposed to time (I used to take them after 45, 90 minutes etc)  Certainly helped today and gave you something to aim for. 
  • TenjisoTenjiso ✭✭✭

    You all look light years ahead of me.  I'm not likely to be running twenty miles for around another eight weeks - if all goes well!

    I've lost three pounds in weight this week, which is a bonus as I work my way back down to a decent running weight!  Touchwood, my sniffles and cough are subsiding, so it's all good.  Ideally, I'd like to lose another twenty pounds before the marathon (and my birthday).  It's roughly 1.5 pounds a week, which should be achievable as I ramp up the mileage and get stuck into speed work.

    Imagine starting a run carrying 23 pounds of sugar, but then being allowed to ditch it all as the run progresses.  That's how much better I hope to be feeling in May!  

  • Week went OKish for me but not brilliant. I had a lot of meetings at work so this upset my normal training of lunchtime runs so I only got in 5 runs and not 6. As one of these was also a 3 mile race (with 1 mile warm up and 1 mile warm down) my total distance was down at 44.63 miles for the week. The race went well, either a PB by 1 second or equalled PB.

    Long run was today and I set out to do over 14 and did 14.08 so that was good but pace was really too fast: I did the 14 in just 20 seconds more than I did 12.63 last Sunday. My aim is to do 3:15 which is about 7:30 and I averaged 7:19 today. I need to slow down and get the time on my feet up, I am only up to 1:43 and was looking for 2 hours: I am fearful that I will leave my race in training. I also need to sort out my long routes: I live at the top of a hill so the last miles are always an uphill haul and this means I am fast out and slow back in and shoudl be vice versa. As much as I like running from home (=finish and then immedaite carbs and shower) I may have to drive to a suitable start to get either a flat or downhill finish.

     Next week should be much more straightforward so 6 runs and no race and hopefully 2 hours on Sunday. I then have a shorter week with The Bridges Handicap on Wednesday and then the last cross country of the year at Wing before I get back to a long week.

  • Due to setting up a business funds are a bit low at the moment. Do you know if this race fills up. I deffinately want to do it but with a never ending list of equipment I need for the business I have to get my priorities right.
  • Tenjiso wrote (see)

    I've lost three pounds in weight this week, which is a bonus as I work my way back down to a decent running weight!  Touchwood, my sniffles and cough are subsiding, so it's all good.  Ideally, I'd like to lose another twenty pounds before the marathon (and my birthday).  It's roughly 1.5 pounds a week, which should be achievable as I ramp up the mileage and get stuck into speed work.

    There is an interesting article and calculator on weight loss and running here. The basic assumption is that you need to work out what calories you need and then you have to have at least 85% of this. So your average person using 2500 calories a day can cut back by 2625 calories over a week and at 3500 calories per pound this is 0.75 pounds a week.

    If you use more calories by running then this 15% becomes bigger but the numbers creep up very slowly. If you assume that running is about 100 calories a mile then you need to run 25 miles a day to make your total calorie need 5000 calories a day and then over a week this is 1.5 pounds.

    The article suggest a maximum rate of 1 pound a week. Of course everything is personal (and in fact  I am trying to loose about 7 pounds before the marathon for exactly the same reason about carrying weight) but if you try to loose weight too fast you will not do a good run nor loose weight well.

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