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My #asics262 journey to Paris: Sub-4.30 Isabel
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Hi Isabel
Thanks so much for the above information on your diet. I am interested to hear more about your anaemia – how long ago was this? Where you asked to take iron tables such as ferrous sulphate (if so how many tablets did the doctor suggest?) and do you take iron supplements at the moment? Do you take any other supplements?
I am also interested to hear how long you have been following this diet and how your diet was before? Have you lost weight on this diet?
My honest view is that this diet is too low in calories to support the marathon training (I really think carbs need to be increased although you could reduce these post marathon).However I wonder if the overall calories is actually higher than it looks from fat- how much olive oil do you use each meal? Teaspoon, tablespoon..wore or less than this?
When you eat out twice per week what type of meals do you have...are the portions bigger than usual.
The other area I see as potentially limiting achieving your best in the marathon is the long gaps between eating anything substantial for example; you have lunch at 12.30pm and then only a piece of fruit... effectively you go 8.5 hours without food during the day then do a further 8 at night. I also feel such a low calorie intake combined with marathon running might also make your period stop which is increasing risk of injury and longer term bone health problems if this continues for longer than 6 months. Although I am not asking for you to answer this question on the forum as I will see you face to face but something to consider.
My suggestion would be to increase you snacks: mid morning & mid afternoon initially. Suggested choices (choose two per day so that you have a different one in the morning than you do the afternoon) :
I could suggest more options to the above?
The only other thing I would change at the moment is at lunch and dinner; you should add more carbs to some meals (such as potato, sweet or regular, pasta, any variety or rice to all meals. You have some meals with very little carbs such as aubergine & eggs, lentils and fish, spinach and fish and even the soup without bread or oatcakes or even rice crackers.
What do you think??
Hi Angela! hehehe, yes they do
Congrats on your sister's wedding!! Hope you had a lovely day 
Mine got married in September and it was a really beautiful day. I am finally on garminconnect and you are my first connection 
It has taken me a while to get online because I was trying to connect on safari and seems like it works much better on other browsers like Firefox. The watch is amazing!!!
How was your weekend running? Mine was great, a bit drier on Saturday though
I am happy to be back to "normal" although I was almost blown away by the wind today and I think I achieved a new PB flying home after seeing a huge lightning bolt 
Hi Sam and all,
Here is my Week 3 report. Can't believe it's been three weeks already!
WEEK THREE w/c 30 Dec (approx 20M)
Mon Rest
Tue 5M of 1M jog, then 3 x 1 mile (or 1600m, 4 laps of track) at 10km pace (approx. 9 mins per rep) with 2 minute 30 second jog recoveries, then 1M jog
I am actually not sure what this means. Can I clarify this with you Sam? I ran 6 miles in 56:34 (9:26 min per mile)
Wed Rest or cross-train
Thu 5M progression run – starting at 10.30 pace and speeding up a little each mile.
49:38 min (9:56 min per mile)
Fri Rest
Sat Parkrun - or hill session as week 1 but with 8 x 20 second hill reps (approx. 4M)
I ran 4 miles in 37:56 min (9.29 min per mile)
Sun 6 miles steady
56:21 min (9:24 min per mile)
I am now back in London and this is the start of week 4 and I will finally be able to follow 100% Sam's guidelines. During the past few days I have tried my best at home in Spain to adjust to distance and pace. I have now uploaded all my results to myasics site and will continue to do so now on daily basis. During the holidays, I have been mostly recording my results in pen and paper By the way, my public profile and all my results up to yesterday can be seen in http://my.asics.co.uk/people/11c04f33 I also received a wonderful watch courtesy of Garmin and you can find me as isabelabos on Garmin connect (fingers crossed I use it properly tomorrow). This means that up to today my distances are not 100% accurate but from tomorrow on, I will become a GPS person! I am somehow relieved as in the past days it has been really a try and see.
This weekend, finally in London, I followed Sam's advice on not getting too hung up on my pace and I enjoyed more. This is not to say that I haven't enjoyed in the past three weeks, actually I have and a lot!!!! But this is the first time I run with a more structured running and guidelines so I was also focusing more on controlling other aspects of my running. It is great to run with this different approach and with a great goal in mind like the Paris marathon and with your support. I really hope that somehow my feedback can help others that may be in the same situation as me.
My overall feeling is very good. I feel I am running more than I used to do but I feel comfortable and I don't feel tired. My feeling is that my pace is good, sometimes I feel like pushing myself out of my comfort zone and running a bit faster and then I remind myself not to do so because this time I am training to survive and enjoy running for 4h and 30min. Actually this happened more in week 1. Another interesting thing is that everyday my training is different and I get to run different distances and do some other things like hills, progression run, etc. Before this, my running was a bit flat and now it is much more interesting. This week I have 26 miles with 13 miles on Saturday so I will see how it goes.
Oh my!!!! 13 miles!!! That's a half marathon! Still slow on km to miles but much, much, much better Ok, so Saturday will be somehow my litmus test
On the other hand, I am also getting used to run with very bad weather. I guess as most of you!!!! This is good in many ways as it gives me more discipline, and whatever the weather on April 6th in Paris, I think we are all ready for it (yes, we had really bad weather in Spain too over Christmas). Having said that, I would also welcome some sun
Also, I think I have to change my diet as my current calorie intake may be too low. I will write about this in another post.
And here is my Week 4 schedule w/c 6 Jan (approx 26M)
Nice week!!!
Hi Ruth,
Thank you very much for your advice!!!
Regarding the anaemia, I am always a bit low on iron. Most of the times I am above the threshold but sometimes I go below, for example last year around March. The doctor advised me to take iron supplements at least one week per month (one sachet with lunch). I take "Kilor 80 mg granulado" (prescribed in Spain), each sachet containing 600 mg of Ferrimannitol-ovalbumin (80mg as Fe3). I don't take any other supplements. Last year I also had vitamins ("Centrum Complete From A To Zinc") for three months (March to May) as I was working and studying.
Regarding my meals, I have been following this on regular basis for over a year and a half but not sticking 100% to it . Sometimes I can't cook the day before or eat outside, so it really depends on the situation but I never have fast food. For example I may have a salad with greens, tomato, egg, tuna, olives, etc… or pasta, chicken… When I say on regular basis, I mean I take it as a reference to prepare my meals for lunch and dinner during the week. I try to follow it mostly because it is easy and I can cook the night before. Before this, my meals where very similar: salads, steaks, fish…. I always cook with olive oil. It really depends on what I'm cooking, but I would say three tablespoons per day (that's what I used yesterday). I am happy to change my diet if you think it is better for me to do so and I am also happy with any kind of diet as long as it is easy to cook and take it to the office
When I eat out, it really depends on where I go but I never have junk food. I can have for example a small pizza at a nice pizza place, or pasta, rice, steak, or treat myself with a nice cake. I wouldn't say portions are bigger than usual, I would say that I eat things that I usually don't eat during the week.
I have followed your advice and increased my mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. So for example yesterday I had bread and 1 piece of fruit for mid-morning snack and yogurt and banana in the afternoon. Can I substitute bananas for other fruits? And for example, for dinner, I added potato to the vegetable cream soup. I forgot to mention in my previous post that I always have bread with meals (either one slice of bread or crackers…)
Regarding the gaps between lunch and dinner, I can't change my lunch time but I can change my dinner to an earlier time. How would you suggest to combine earlier dinner and trainings in the evenings during the week?
I would also like your advice on a good breakfast for longer runs. For example, this Saturday I have a 13 miles run and next Sunday a 10k race. For this kind of runs I usually wake up earlier and have a heavier breakfast (yogurt and cereals + toast with butter and jam + raisins…) but I am happy to follow your advice.
Thanks so much!!!
Hi sub60just,
I have a Forerunner 620, very nice! Thanks for the advice. I think I have done something wrong but I tried it this morning on my way to the office and I think it should be fine. Will let you know tonight
How is it going with the preparation for the Edinburgh marathon? Ready to begin your training? Good luck!!!
Hi Isabel
One handy trick is to split your lunch: so you have half of it at your usual time and then save the rest for mid-afternoon. This works well for those who run home from, or straight after work...
Thanks Sam, I will try and see although I see it difficult at this moment with my office schedule. What I try to do is for example delay dessert (yogurt or fruit) much as possible, so for example I start having lunch at 12.30 and finish an hour later...
Good night all!!!
Today was day 2 of my week 4, time flies! Monday was my rest day so today was in fact my first training day of the week.
So my running plan for today was 6 miles= first 1M jog, then 5 reps of 1km each at between 5-10km speed (approx 5:20-5.30 per rep) with 3 min jog recoveries, then 1M jog.
This was my first day running with the Garmin effectively working and what a difference!!!! The watch is great and it was really useful in today's running with different reps and pace goals. So finally I forgot about Google maps and just focused on running!
I ran 6 miles in 55:52, which is 9:17 min per mile. I have to say that sometimes I felt my legs a bit heavy. I don't know if any of you are experience the same feeling and if so, what do you do. I did some additional stretching on top of the regular one. This reminds me I have to do a post on the exercises Sam gave me when we met at the Asics store. Tomorrow is rest day again so it should be fine (going to see Cirque du Soleil!!).
And today was my first day running in good weather conditions in London since I joined the Asics 26.2 team! But as Mara Yamauchi says in Twitter: "Think all this rain & wind makes training tough? At least it's not -25° outside! Always think positive
!" Anyway, I didn't miss the rain 
Good night!
Hi
what were the 5 split times for your reps......
Glad you got the Garmin sorted. Think i would be a bit lost without mine!
Training for Edinburgh starts in earnest shortly so at the moment I'm basically repeating the first week of the programme just to keep my legs moving. Plus I am doing the Reading Half Marathon at the start of March and secretly hoping it will be my first Sub-2hr.
I find that extra stretching has helped keep the heavy legs away but sometimes you just have a run that feels awkward. I used to get a bit freaked out by these thinking I was ill but actually they just seem to happen and the next one can feel great.
Hi Seren nos,
These are the splits I can see in Garmin connect but I don't know how to get the 5 split times for my reps. I think these splits include the 3 min jogs after each 1km. Is there any way I can set up the watch to do so? Is it the lap time function you mentioned? Thanks
Summary: time 55:52 - miles 6.02 - min per mile 9:17
1 / 8:48.1
2 / 9:12.4
3/ 9:00.2
4/ 9:00.8
5/ 9:21.3
6/ 10:15.1
7/ :14.4
Hi sub60just,
Almost there, but I think I still need to practice a bit more with the watch. I have obviously improved from preparing my first 3 weeks runs checking the distances in Google maps and doing maths with the km to miles conversion to forgetting about that, which is a big relief
Good! So you have semi-officially started!!The Reading HM may be a good test. I am also doing 2 half marathons before Paris, one in February (Garmin Race Your Pace Half Marathon at Dorney Lake) and Monaco in March. Plus 13 miles on Saturday
Thanks, I feel much better now. I usually walk to the office everyday (almost one hour walk) and I skipped it today (which also allowed me to sleep a bit more
So! Time for a question and ask the experts a very novice one
I think I may have to enter the unknown territory: gels
I have never had any and before this I was not very fond of them but I think I may have to give them a go before the marathon. What would you recommend?
In my first HM I followed a DIY nutrition during the race which actually worked very well for me: a bottle of water with I think 3 spoons of sugar and raisins. I had a few sips of water and one raisin every 3 miles and it worked well. I wasn't bothered by carrying the bottle with me. But I reckon a marathon is completely different and I would like to try out a few options during the next weeks.
So any advice is very much appreciated!
I think its time you read the instructions on the garmin Isabel or it doesn't tell us anything about the splits to see if you kept the pace or what the pace is.
the garmins have facilities so that you can set up intervals and they will record the running and the recovery separately.........otherwise the basic way is to reset after the warm up and reset after every interval and recovery./very fiddly.better to learn the functions of the watch
On my garmin you can do manual laps which i think is the same as on the 610. I tend to just press it when i start/stop an interval which means its easier to see when i get home
mine you can load in the length or time of the interval and the recovery.......
it then beeps at you when to stop one phase and it gives you a warning 5 beeps when your next interval is due.......
Absolutely right Seren nos
I noticed yesterday that it beeped after each mile and also noticed the lap function on the fourth button but I didn't touch it as I didn't set properly the watch during the weekend. But I am sure it must have something to set up the intervals and I will read it carefully.
Thanks for the advise sub60just, I also think I can do manual laps but I will learn how to set it up properly.
OK. Instructions for setting up an interval session your Garmin 610:
Swipe screen so you get the 4 squares. Select TRAINING
From the available choices select WORKOUTS
From the available choices select INTERVALS
Select CREATE (or Edit) WORKOUT
Under 'Type' choose whether you want to do it by TIME or DISTANCE
Then edit the boxes below to select the relevant duration or distance of each rep.
Select either TIME or DISTANCE under Rest Type.
Edit the box below to put in the right duration/distance of the recovery/rest
Next, CHOOSE how many reps you want to do.
Next, say YES or NO to warm up. (I always say yes. Then it'll just have you warming up until you press the LAP key' The bottom right. And then it starts recording your first interval.
SIMPLES!!
So going back to week 3 and the session on the Tuesday:
5M of 1M jog, then 3 x 1 mile (or 1600m, 4 laps of track) at 10km pace (approx 9 mins per rep) with 2 minute 30 second jog recoveries, then 1M
How this should have worked is that you start off with 1 mile of jogging. Then you run for 1 mile (or 1600m, same thing) at your 10km pace, which is approx 9 mins per mile. Then you take 2 mins and 30 seconds to recover by jogging slowly. Then you do two more of these mile reps (hence, 3 x 1 mile at 10k pace).
Does that help?
I just wanted to unlurk & say hi, because sub60just mentioned running sub 2hrs Reading Half.
This year will be my 4th attempt to get sub 2 hours ???? at Reading a Half, but this time I'm determined to stick with a plan which I have never really managed before for various reasons. Last year the race was on such a miserable wet & cold day, I hadn't trained enough but still managed to run 2:00:30 ???? I was so fed up at the end though, that I was walking with about 300m to go, so probably could have broken 2hrs then, but lost it mentally!
I have been toying with the idea of running Edinburgh, because that's where I grew up & it would be easy accommodation wise! I also have friends already signed up too, But the idea of running twice my furthest ever distance happily is still a mental block for me ????
isabelabos - I found that sitting down with my garmin instructions one evening and having a play helped me work out what I needed to do. But I have had it for 2 years and have only just worked out how to upload a training program from Garmin Connect!
Seems you are stalking me MacFinbob ( or the other way around) Do you have a plan in mind for your training this time round? Im doing the Hal Higdon Intermediate 1 plan and Reading fitted in nicely.
The advantage of my plan is there is pretty much only one pace to run each session so I just use the virtual partner as over time I can be pretty certai of the length of my routes. Saves me needing to read instructions
Isabel - really well done on your training so far. Thanks for posting on my thread earlier. I answered your question on gels there (well sort of didn't answer actually) I'll copy my reply below.
You are completely right, a marathon is totally different compared with a half. To be honest, you shouldn't really need anything on a half marathon.
Best of luck!
Isabel
have read through all the posts but have run out of time tonight so will answer all tomorrow evening!
Hi all,
Just a quick post to thank you for your posts today. I will reply tomorrow as I just arrived home and it is time to go to bed
So, talk to you tomorrow!
Hi Isobel
Thanks for all the info.
I would continue to take the iron as doctor prescribed until after April 6th if only using it one week in four. I would not suggest you take this 80mg every day without blood results and doctor to suggest this (if a person has iron-deficiency anaemia in this country, usual/typical prescription is 65mg of ferrous iron but this is based on blood results so 80mg is high if to take this every day. Iron at high levels when body does not need it is toxic & therefore dangerous. I agree you certainly do not need multi vitamin & mineral, supplement your diet is high in these due to all the healthy and coloured food you eat.
Olive oil (& others such as rapeseed) are so healthy & would certainly would not stop this but can I suggest you reduce this no more than a tablespoon during the day (each tablespoon is around 125kcal and if you take 3 this is around 372kcal). I would rather you “move” these calories to the increased snacking (as mentioned before when not training for a marathon you can increase oil back up again) but as you eat fish and would still have some oil most days you gave sufficient healthy fat in your diet at this reduced level anyway.
Mover than happy to substitute banana for other fruits!
Is there any way you can snack mid-afternoon a couple of hours before evening runs? then dinner after run? Or is the office environment not able to provide that opportunity (we can work around this if we have to).
This weekend would be a good time to start trying breakfast out before long runs, your breakfast above sounds fine but let’s refine this so you know exactly what this pre-race breakfast will be (however generally long weekend runs you can reduce this to only cereal but will need to practice bigger breakfast for marathon):
Pre race breakfast examples:
Good example are 40-60g bowl of cereal, porridge is good option but really any cereal as long as not too heavy on the fibre – a huge bowl of all bran may be too much for the bowels! Add glass of fruit juice (dilute with water if wish) and a couple slices of toast/bread with jam, honey or banana. How much of these you take will vary on each person and this must be practised! The other option which works well for some on race morning is that they have cereal & fruit juice say 3 hours before start of race then 1-2 hours before race they take the second half of breakfast (as this is more mobile to carry) so for example may have a bagel/bread with jam, honey or ripe banana on this as the pre race snack . This is not exhaustive but the more common breakfast. There is some who have pasta at 6am on race morning and this is perfectly acceptable. My advice is practise the breakfast at least 3-4 times and the timing of these (and make sure you practice this before races (before main target race) as training runs and race are different as nerves play a part so April the 6th breakfast should be tried out on as many races between now and then.
This weekend would be a good time to try some sweets or gels in training- if using gels (taste and type will be personal choice) but if struggle with very sweet things go for an isotonic gel (will state “iso” or “isotonic” on gel package) or you may go an energy gel (more concentrated in sugar as no water in it). It may perhaps be best if I write up a summary on gels to help, I will do this by tonight and suggest the timings to use these.
Have a good day
Thank you Sam, clear on Tuesday's run
Thanks for the advice on the Garmin. Let's see how it goes tonight and hopefully I will be ready to give more detailed information 
Hi MacFinbob, welcome to my thread and good luck with your goal. I think that if your time was 2:00:30 with very bad weather and not enough training, with a proper plan I am sure you will do great, and you still have almost two months to go! Which plan are you following? Maybe with the adrenaline rush after Reading HM you can sign up for Edinburgh
I think it is at the end of May, so you would have plenty of time for training. Go for it! I am sure you and sub60just will do a great job.
Malcs, thank you very much for your advice! I didn't even know that gels for races existed until a friend of mine who does Ironman told me about them a couple of years ago. My first reaction was that of a child having to eat spinach
I have also heard very mixed reviews on gels, from people loving them to people absolutely avoiding them but I think there is plenty of time to try and I am determined to do so. I understand you have then tried several times, right? I like your choice of a mix of gels and jelly babies. I don't know how gels taste but I like jelly babies and it will be good to also have something nice during the race. I have to run 13 miles on Saturday so this may be a good time to try one gel (maybe SIS?) and see. I'll check where to buy them. I will keep you posted! And of course I will also wait for Ruth's review on gels and see what she recommends!
Many thanks for your post Ruth.
OK, I will go ahead with the iron as you say. I think I have a blood test scheduled for February so I will let you know the results.
Thanks for the advice on the olive oil. I will then go down to 1 tablespoon per day and increase snacks. Happy to substitute bananas because I feel a bit heavy when I have them so I will substitute them for apricot, plums, etc.
Regarding my mid-afternoon snack, I usually have it around 4.30-5 pm so that's great because it fits well with my runs, I usually go around 7pm but if for any reason I have to go later, is it ok if I have raisins just before running ?
This weekend I am running 13 miles on Saturday so I think it is a great opportunity to experiment with breakfast. The example you provide of cereal, juice and toast looks great so I will try this out. I prefer the first option, one time breakfast, as I run early in the morning.
Following your advice, I will use one gel on Saturday. I have done a bit of research and I think this one sounds good: SIS Go Isotonic Energy Gel 60ml Blackcurrant but also looking forward to your post
Nice day!!!
Hi Isabel,
just want to quickly jump on the back of an earlier conversation. Setting up Garmin workouts for intervals is easily done through Garmin Connect online. Set your specific workout up under the workout tab on the top menu bar. Then, when your watch is connected, click send to device. I tend to do this the evening before my session and just check it is work properly. It makes life so much easier when you are out. The vibration that lets you know when to change pace etc. is enough to wake the dead. So no more tripping over trees roots when running and fiddling with the watch
I'm happy to go through it again with you on our training day later this month, if you still need a hand.
Hope all is going well, sounds like it is!