Shades Marathon Training

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  • Ian5Ian5 ✭✭✭
    Bit of a poor run today,even though I felt fine I'm hoping it's still some of the bug remaining.Went out at the same pace as 6 weeks ago but it felt really hard and had nothing left for the tailwind,1:30:37 in the end so 3 mins slower than I thought.
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Ian - 3 minutes away from your target is not so bad.   You've only had a couple of days recovery after that nasty cough/cold.




  • Ian - Good effort. I’m sure that’s just the bug you’ve had.

    20 miles this morning. Included 4 at goal MP near the end at about 7:15min/mi. Felt pretty good considering I’ve done 65 miles this last week. Cyclist buddy of mine swears by Maurten gels and had kindly given me some to try as he has a long term injury at the minute. They’ve an odd texture (you kind of have to chew them) but do seem to sit better with my stomach and are also smaller to carry than my SIS despite packing more carbs. Will try them again on next run. The only issue is they are wildly, wildly expensive. 
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Rcouture - a good week's training and a good long run.

    If the Maurten gels agree with you then worth the expense to use them in your marathon.   You don't need to use them in every long run though.  A bit like race shoes, you try them out in a long run and then save them for race day.
  • Shades - Yes that’s what I was thinking. The only downside with them is that they don’t do an electrolyte version like SIS so I have to carry a salt/electrolyte tablet which I also tested today. Difficult to tell if it did anything but I didn’t feel sick so that’s a result 😀. You don’t use gels right? You use sweets?
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Rcouture - yes, I use sweets and electrolyte tablets.   I find the tablets never upset my stomach, usually I take 2 in a marathon, 3 if it's verging on a hot day.

    I can't get on with the consistency of gels.

    I often take a caffeine tablet in the latter stages too.
  • Ian5Ian5 ✭✭✭
    Yes I'm hoping it's the after effects still in my system a but,I think the part that annoyed me was the second half when I'm normally strong I had people streaming past me.
    Rcouture-I have heard great reviews about them,the reason I haven't tried them is I tried cliff bloks once and couldn't chew them while running so was wary of the same happening.
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Ian -You should be 100% by Barcelona.   But I can understand your annoyance that you couldn't do what you usually do in what is the strongest part of your race.   Now you know what it feels like for the other runners when you go past in the last few miles of a race.  ;)

    I couldn't get on with the Clif Bloks either, felt like I was trying to eat a toffee when running and couldn't swallow them.   What is easy to eat in normal life can become really difficult in a race.


    8 miles this morning, about 2 minutes into my run there was a torrential downpour and I got really wet through.   Luckily I was wearing one of my new SubSports tops and 10 minutes later I was completely dry again, except for my feet.   Very dark, had to do the whole run where the streets were lit.

    Gym later
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Shades, I did see something somewhere that Gidey's conversion would equate to something like a 2:11 marathon....

    Ian, sounds like you had a tough run in the final few miles, but that is still a good time.

    They have Clif Bloks at Loch Ness, and I couldn't get on with them either, on the one aid station I tried them.  I remember trying to take a bite and couldn't get it down, so put the rest in the bin.

    I have had an email from North Dorset Village Marathon saying my entry from 2020 is carried over to a May 1st 2022.  Trouble is, I was making very tentative plans for a different event that date, so I have asked them if I have an option to defer again, and if so I will mark it in the diary for 2023!
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Big G - as long as she finds the marathon to her liking then I can believe 2:11 is achievable by Gidey.

    I see the men's European record was broken yesterday at Rotterdam.


    I've had the same email from North Dorset, I've confirmed my entry and my hog roast 😋   
    I'm sure you'd be able to defer NDVM otherwise she wouldn't be asking us would she, it usually sells out and you can normally transfer or get a refund.

    Looking forward to hearing your tentative plans.....
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Shades, it is tentative at the moment as it depends on if OH can get enough time off work.  We were talking about going over to Northern Ireland on the ferry in the van, and Belfast Marathon is on 1st May, so we would combine it, and I was looking at ferries and campsites the other day.  We are both still a bit nervous about planning (and paying for) trips abroad at the moment, in case of changes to rules any way, but figured NI should be fine to plan with some level of certainty.  I do have a European marathon pencilled in (Rome) with refundable accommodation booked, but nothing firmed up with flights or entry fees paid as yet for this reason, and that would also depend on if OH could get the time off in any case.  
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Big G - that would be a lovely trip.   It's a good marathon, really interesting and you'll have a chance to drive around and see the area which is beautiful.   I've been around a fair bit of the countryside there, Giant's Causeway etc. 

    I can't see travel to NI will be restricted in any way so you should be safe to book that up, but I agree with you not so comfortable about mainland Europe yet.
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Shades, I think if OH can get about 10 days off we may book it, but much less time than that, then probably not.  Part of the problem is that there may be a change of her rota for next year so we need to wait for that to be resolved before booking ferries, as the exact day of travel would depend on when her days off are.   Neither of us have been over before, but we'd like to go.  Yeah, I agree, I would be incredibly surprised if there were any restrictions going in/out of NI.
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Well if you were going for a week+ you could have done Connemara the week before ;)   I think there are places only in the half available now, waiting lists for the marathon and ultra.


  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Shades, I do not fully know the rules as OH would take care of it (being a vet) but she did say we probably wouldn't go over the border into RofI as I think there are now more paperwork requirements if we have Tigg with us.  I.E., we would have to get a vet on both sides (one for each crossing) to sign some paperwork to be able to legally take him over the border.  Whether this paperwork would ever be checked on the roads I don't know, but legally I think that is what would be required.  In September this year, it was announced that pet checks between the mainland and NI would be suspended indefinitely, so that side is okay.  When we used to go to NL with Hiske, I think the rules were different as Hiske had a EU Pet Passport (which Tigg hasn't got), and OH got a vet friend in NL to sign any paperwork, and administer whatever drug was needed, before travelling back to England.  Certainly, that paperwork was always checked thoroughly before boarding the ferry in France.  
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Big G - NI used to have the same rules for pets as RofI, good that those rules have been relaxed.
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    More complicated, difficult and costly to take a pet to the EU though.
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Yes, I believe so.   No overseas marathons for Tigg then.
  • mamafoxmamafox ✭✭✭
    edited October 2021
    Hellooooo Shadies!

    Believe it or not I have actually been lurking all this time but have not posted as I have not runned still because of my manky knee.

    All very depressing but after a summer of stop start trial runs all finishing in a hobble and two lots of injections - one into the tendon and one into the articulation itself followed each time by a waiting period then a running attempt ending in crushing disappointment I am now due to have knee surgery on the 3rd November.
    My doctor ended up referring me to a specialist who seems to know what he's talking about and is planning to remove my damaged meniscus. As to whether I can run again he remains vague. Even if I can't do any more marathons with the mileage and training that involves at least I want to be able to run in the forest with my dogs but he is refusing to commit himself, saying he'll know more when he operates.
    It has given me quite a blow mentally to be honest,  I just can't begin to get my head around not running ever again but I haven't given up and will just take it step by step. Anything will be an improvement as at the moment my knee is horribly swollen and I can't even walk now without limping.
     This is also the best time of year for running for me.. the crisp Autumn weather, the fresh blue skies and the colour of the leaves. Things are compounded by the fact that it is my beloved Cognac marathon in  a few weeks and I am not going to be there.

    Anyway, pointless wallowing in it, it is what it is.

    The only thing of note to have happened to me over the past few months is that my Jack Russell Charlie disappeared off hunting one Saturday morning mid June and didn't come back until mid July.. over THREE WEEKS later! He was a complete skeleton and couldn't have gone on much longer but he has completely recovered and is now something of a legend around here. I think I'm going to get him one of those fancy watches that Big G has to try and keeps tabs on the little bugger. Won't let him out of my sight now.

    There you go, that's my news. I'm still loving hearing abouty all your running and it's fab to see the Shadies marathon list taking form again.
    I'll keep lurking away and let you know the outcome of my operation.

    Enjoy your running everyone.. :)


  • mamafox, good to see you. Mimi Anderson pretty much destroyed her knee with all her ultra running and had a similar diagnosis but was able to get back to running shorter distances and she took up triathlon. (If you want inspiration, it's all covered in her second book, Limitless. But the first book, Beyond Impossible, is definitely worth a read first). never say never.
    Maybe Charlie got stuck in a rabbit hole or something?

    Rcouture - I can never run as fast in the dark. Battersea's also a bit dodgy for GPS thanks to the trees. You'll get your sub-20, just keep plugging away.

    Very well done Keith and congrats on the job.

    I've had some slight improvement since the last attempt at a run. I volunteered at Brockwell juniors again yesterday (that's three weeks in a row - got to do something if I can't run on a Sunday!) and had the tail walker role. As with last week, the kid at the back decided they'd had enough after one lap so I ended up jogging a bit of the remaining lap as I had to tell the marshals to stand down. It didn't feel too bad so decided I would try a bit of jeffing today. I did 5K (so just over 3 miles) - 2 mins jog to 1 walk. Didn't feel too bad. I do have some soreness now but it's around the SI joint and not the hamstring.
    Tomorrow will be a rest/gym day but if all is well I can up the run intervals on Wednesday. I'm hopeful I can manage a slow parkrun on Saturday (just my local one, which I've not done for a couple of years).
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Mamafox - so good to hear from you but I'm saddened to hear that your knee has got so much worse.   Sounds like surgery (next week eek 😮) is the right option for you.   Just be grateful you're not in the UK you'd probably have to wait months/years for any surgical procedures like that.   You need to be able to live a normal life and walk/run with the dogs in the forest pain free, any more running than that would be a bonus.

    Charlie is indeed a legend, what a pity he can't tell you what he was up to.  I'm sure you can get trackers for dogs, Big G will know.

    Hope all the family are well.

    Please don't stay away so long and update us on your op and recovery.


    Cal - good to hear you are making definite progress. 
    I've read Mimi's first book, must look out for the second.

    Big G - Davey has just offered me a place in his Merry Xmas marathon, I've declined.
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Shades, that’s interesting. I asked to be put on the wait list yesterday!

    MF, sorry to hear you’ve had a bad time of it, but it sounds like the op is the best way forward. I’ve got everything crossed for you, hoping you can get back to what you love after a good recovery. 
  • Ian great effort yesterday, that’s not a bad run all things considering you weren’t committing to be on the startline.  

    Rcouture heard positive things about Maurten gels, as said before try them to make sure they work and no gut issues then just use them in races.  Marginal gains as well if they weight less  ;) I use raspberry high 5 caffeine gels for road races about 40g each, I’ve tried the clif blocs and couldn’t get on with them either, going to try a few GU gels at stort see how they go.  Tend to use precision hydration tablets on all races.

    Big G Belfast sounds good, you’d hope it makes safe to book that one! 

    MF sorry to see you’re problems, been a tough few years! Hopefully the op will be a success and recovery goes well and leaves you pain free.  Can only imagine your joy when Charlie came back, hopefully he doesn’t wander again!  

    Cal sounds like you’re making progress! Hope you continue to do so and able to make JF! You can plod round at my slow pace 

    A couple of niggles for me, my ankle that I twisted last year is a bit tender and after a day doing housework yesterday my calves have tightened again.  Seems something not quite right as that’s happened a bit recently.  Took it easy on 5 miles today.
  • Ian5Ian5 ✭✭✭
    Mama-Bad news on having to have surgery,but hopefully it's what will fix you long term.
    Cal-Sounds like some progress for you at last.
    Rob-Hope that turns into nothing.
    Big G-Good plans forming there.
    I came 147/4077 yesterday so not a bad placing and 8/316 in my age group.I am planning my plan for Cyprus tomorrow,I really need a few smooth months as I'd love to get in to the shape I was last year again.
  • MF - So sorry to hear about your troubles. Wish you all the best for the op. 

    Rob - I bought the precision hydration tablets too. Dumb question but have you taken them neat without water during a race before? How many do you take for a mara?

    Cal - Great news, hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel 

    Ian - You must have been in sub 3 shape last year no?

    6 miles this evening. Legs feel ok post 20 miler yesterday. Double-double day again tomorrow and Wednesday as in the office. Home alone until the weekend as OH and the girls are in Wales with the grandparents for half term. Will miss them of course it but does mean less pressure for running time. 
  • Morning folks. Hope you are all well.
     I had a very restless night last night and at 4am gave up trying to sleep but because everyone was still sleeping, there wasn't much I could do so I sat down at the new pc and opened up the browser and saw a bookmarked tab for the page and realised that I hadn't popped in to say hi in a very long time. (slaps wrist)

    For most of last year, as with many others, my mental health took a serious dive and I found myself heading down a road I promised id never go down again. thankfully I was able to identify the main causes and removed/changed the things that were sending me on a downward spiral. I've since picked myself back up and slowly rebuilt myself back to where I'm happy being me.

    As for my running, this year has been an incredibly insane year and I've pushed my boundaries and body to the limit. My first event this year was on the 24/04 and my last one was 03/10 (VLM) I've done 13 ultras and 4 marathons which include my first 100 mile (22:23), first 50 mile which was 1 mile loops of a vineyard (8:55) my first full ironman distance tri (12:47)  my first track 50k a week after the tri (5:53) then my first 12 in 12 multi-day event where I ran 8 x 50k's and then had a quad strain so reduced the distance and speed and did 3 x 10k's and on the last day i did a slow marathon. I then gave myself a bit of time to heal and then finished the year off with a 2:58 at london marathon.

    Whats next? Well I've been looking at a couple of hundreds and even some similar events to the backyard ultras. I might try chase one more sub 3 at edinburgh next year and have looked at a brutal double Ironman and of course i want to do another multi-day. still got plenty of time to sort these events out. but for now I'm just doing enough to keep the fitness up but no more racing this year.

    I'll hopefully try keep up with the page now that I've popped in to say hi. 
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Iain - lovely to hear from you, it's been a while  ;)

    Sorry to hear you had such a tough time last year but good that you have got through it and life is better for you now.

    Congratulations on an outstanding year for your running, first 100 miler, first IM plus all the other stuff and to then top it off with a sub 3 at London, brilliant.

    Big_G said:
    Shades, that’s interesting. I asked to be put on the wait list yesterday!


    Whoops, maybe he's just trying to keep his marshals sweet.  ;)  He seemed a bit put out that I declined his offer.

    Robert - intriguing that your calves are tight after the housework.  You said that it's happened a few times recently, do you think it's to do with back into the office, different chair at work perhaps?

    Ian - so you have 4 months and a bit for your training for Cyprus.   I'm sure you can get back to where you want to be fitness wise.   I think while we had the uncertainty of whether a race will go ahead took away a big chunk of that motivation we need to focus on our training.

    Rcouture - your recovery is so good now from your long runs and races. 


    5 miles this morning.   Nice morning.    Did my first leg/glutes only session in the gym yesterday, I'm aching a bit especially adductors but not too bad and didn't affect my run but I have to survive Pilates this morning, that might not be so easy.   I can't pull the ' I've just done a marathon' excuse today.
  • Ian5Ian5 ✭✭✭
    Rcouture-I would be very surprised if I wasn't in sub 3 shape last year,I had an amazing 4 month training block,but as we all know,being and shape doesn't mean it's guaranteed.
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Good to hear from you, Iain.  I did notice you were racking up the events over the last few months! 

    Shades, I also messaged the RED organisers the other day asking about parking for their winter events, and they said it will not be in a field this time.  I haven't entered any yet though. 
  • mamafoxmamafox ✭✭✭
    Iain - I need to go and lie down for a bit after reading what you've ben up to. Well done seems a bit of a feeble thing to say in the face of all that.. but.. well done!

    Thank you for all your lovely comments, I will keep updating things and try not to bring a downer on the thread.

    Shades - I have actually been following the thread, my stubbornness bordering on obsessiveness (Both useful traits for marathon running I feel!) not letting me miss a post even if that involved a couple of monster catch ups, but due to absolutely no running I've been flailing around for something to say. I mean, I could witter on about other stuff but at the end of the day this is a running forum and not about, I don't know, dogs or anything.
    Regarding dogs(!) I have actually bought a GPS tracker for Charlie. It's called "Weenect" and I think you can get them in the UK as well. It's not great, I think the coverage is 2G or something and when we are in the forest the feedback is very intermittent indeed. However, if he did go AWOL again then I'm hoping it would at least give us some idea of the general direction he'd gone in as we really didn't have a clue where to start looking when he disappeared. 
    To cement his legend status, he'd only been back 4 days when he attacked a ragondin (Bit like a beaver I think, translates as coypu but that doesn't mean anything to me either) who had dared to stray onto the path behind us. There was an awful fight which ended up in me going back down to the vets for staples into bites on his side and treatment for a ripped ear. Honestly.
    Yes, the family are all well thank you. Youngest son is in his last year of primary school now, next up is doing his Bac next year (Allegedly.. I have seen no evidence of any work whatsoever mind you), eldest son seems to be doing enough to hang on in with his apprenticeship and my daughter has finished her degree and decided to stay in Spain. She is now living and working in Alicante. I actually had a flight from Paris on Saturday to go and see her but there was a problem with my passport.. don't ask.. I'm already going wildly off subject here.

    I know this is a bit of a large question but how have you stayed pretty much injury free after all your years of marathon running?  Do you think it has something to do with your shoe habit and the fact that you keep changing them? Cross training? But then I seem to remember when you were working you didn't/couldn't do that much gym work.. Or maybe it's your genes? You just keep on going! I can't believe it will be your 400th marathon next year, what an achievement.

    Big G - I think I am going to be doing more cycling when I eventually recover and you've really got me interested in Zwift. I am going to Google it all (School holidays now so I've got a bit of time) but on a basic note have you got two proper racing bikes, one which you use on the road and the other which you set up with your computer at home? Or do you have to buy a special Zwift bike?

    Cal - Thank you so much for that Mimi Anderson info. I am ashamed to admit I had never even heard of her. Her story looks amazing and I am going to buy those two books when I get paid at the end of the month.
    I need some inspiration!

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