The Road to Paris - On a Plateau - Asics Target 26.2 Training

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  • Week 7 Training Schedule – w/c 28th January 2013

    This is my upcoming schedule for this week. Paces and training plan have been re-copied from Sam’s earlier post on this forum:

    PACE GUIDELINES
    Jog (Recovery) = 9.20 to 10 mins per mile

    Comfortable (Easy) = 8.10-9.10

    Steady = 7.35-8

    Fast (Tempo) = 7.20-7.35 (Or for intervals 7.05-7.15)

    Speedwork: pace depending on distance

    Week 7 w/c 28th January

    Monday REST
    Tuesday 2 MILE EASY then 3 x acceleration strides then 6 x 800M (or 3 mins) at 6.30-6.50 pace with 3 min jogs in between each. 1 MILE EASY (7 MILES)
    Wednesday 5 mile comfortable
    Thursday 6 MILE BUILD-UP (From 8.05-7.35) (GOOD TO DO THIS AS AN ‘OUT AND BACK’ RUN, COMPLETING SECOND HALF FASTER)
    Friday 4 mile jog
    Saturday REST or low impact cross training

    Sunday LONG RUN 17 MILES comfortable. Last 3 miles below 8.10 pace.

    MILEAGE 39

  • Week 6 Weight Loss Watch!

    Starting Weight: 162.8lbs (Target Weight: 148lbs)

    Weight After Week 1: 162.2lbs (-0.6lbs) (Xmas Parties!)

    Weight After Week 2: 161.9lbs (-0.3lbs) (Xmas!)

    Weight After Week 3: 160.7lbs (-1.2lbs) (New Year!)

    Weight After Week 4: 159.2lbs (-1.5lbs)

    Weight After Week 5: 158.0lbs (-1.2lbs)

    Weight After Week 6: 156.2lbs (-1.8lbs)

    Total Loss: 6.6lbs

    Not even I was expecting to lose as much weight as I did this week and it was such a shock when I stood on the scales, I took 3 readings just to be sure it was correct! The reason I didn’t think I was going to lose as much this week was down to the fact I haven’t felt as hungry at all. This has been especially true in the late afternoon. I think I have Ruth to thank for this. Now that my lunches have increased in size, it means I am less likely to graze and snack when I get home in the evenings before dinner is ready. So the fact I’m not feeling so hungry has been a positive thing!

    It could also be because my wife buys better food when she does the shopping, meaning there isn’t any bad food currently in the house. Whoever is responsible – Mrs. Shady Ady or Ruth, I can attribute my loss to the actions and words of women who know best! image

    I’m now also above my target of losing 1lb every week. A few more weeks like this and I’ll reach my goal with several weeks to spare!

  • Xyloid……..The holiday booking was a contentious affair. My poor suffering wife (she’ll be happy to see me writing this if she reads this forum!) has to put up with a vacation abroad on average once a year where I get to run a marathon as part of the trip.

    As she’s not a runner, there is a great deal of negotiating whenever this happens, so my wife gets a good deal out of the trip as much as I do. The only way I’m given the green light to run a race abroad somewhere is if there’s enough to keep my wife interested for the whole time away!

    Our main vacation this year is to South Africa. I entered to run Comrades Marathon the first day last year that entries opened. I’ll see how I feel after Paris if I’m to go through with doing this still as the race is in June, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to train for. If I don’t run it, then I’ll have to hide my miserable side so not to ruin my wife’s first time on safari!

  • Calorie Watch! Food & Drink Diary – Sunday 27th January 2013

    Just a day after being told I'm making good progress by Ruth, I go and let myself down slightly by forgetting to snack! It's weird to think only 2 months ago my problem was snacking too much and now it's the opposite. In my defence though, I did get carried away watching live sport on the box, and I managed to run right through normal lunch time as well!

    9:00am - Breakfast - Apple and Blueberry Porridge sachet with added honey. Cup of tea and pint of squash

    10:00am - Pint of squash and another cup of tea

    11:30am – A couple of lemon shortbread biscuits. One last glass of water before my run

    12:30pm - 17 mile run off-road (see earlier for full description). 250ml of water with Hi5 electrolyte tablet, 3 Hi5 energy gels, one every 35 minutes.

    3:15pm – Glass of chocolate milk, glass of water and a cup of tea.

    4:00pm - Late Lunch - 2 Tortilla Wraps containing ham, cheese, cucumber, lettuce and sour cream.

    7:00pm - Dinner - Salmon with watercress sauce, leeks and potatoes. 2 pints of squash (probably a little dehydrated from my run still!)

    8:00pm - Cup of tea

    9:00pm - 2 slices of wholemeal bread with low fat spread.

    9:30pm - Pint of squash, cup of green tea.

  • Day 43 - Asics Target 26.2 Paris Marathon Training (28/01/13)

    Target: Rest Day
    Actual: 15 minute P90X Ab-Ripper-X Workout Video

    I know, I know, today should have been my rest day. Yesterday evening when I was falling asleep on my sofa I was glad I didn't have anything to do today as I felt shattered. Today was a different day though and while at work I felt like I had a lot of expendable energy.

    This extra energy carried on into this evening. Surprisingly I didn't ache at all from yesterday's run. So after cooking dinner for my wife and I (homemade sticky pork stir fry with wild rice, that I managed to cook all by myself!), and waiting for her to return home so we could eat together, I thought I'd sneak a quick abdominal workout in.

    This is only 15 minutes, but includes about 250 reps if you're on top form. For someone like me who still has a long way to go before their barrel becomes a six-pack, this means I only managed 180. The 250 reps come from a variety of different sit-up positions that are just pure ab-work. It's a perfect length of time as well, as it's over before it's really begun and it's not hard to fit in a normal working day.

    I'll definitely feel this workout in the morning. I hope the pain will be worth it and I'll have developed a much stronger core come race day. If I can squeeze this into a 15 minute slot later in the week, then I'll try and do this again.image

  • Evening. Dont worry about not getting chance to come on my thread, its so difficult when youve your own to maintain, run and go to work.



    I bought the chicken on sat to cook the thai green curry on sun but when I got home the eat by date for the chicken was saturday so it ended up going in the freezer instead of in to the wok. I had already started making the shepards pie before I had noticed. The plan is to defrost the chicken for wednesday and cook it then as I will be heading straight home from work to drive down to sheffield, so I will have a bit more time to cook.



    I cant wait for the jelly babies and smoothies, but i will have to give the Jaffa cakes a miss.



    Congratulations on your further weight loss this week and on your successful runs. 180 reps on your abdominal muscles..thats hard core!
  • Hi Ady

    A great week's training and you've still got energy to burn image

    After our chat at the weekend, week 7's long run is extended to 18 miles easy with last 4 below 8.10 pace. Bet that puts a smile on your face! Then there's a cutback week, with no 'long' long run, in the lead-up to the half marathon.

     

     

  • Ady,

    I take my hat off to you for entering the Comrades Marathon, which is a double marathon.

    Your wife will certainly enjoy Durban,

    Good Luck mate.

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    Ady - haven't posted much lately but been following you every day. Really pleased that it's going so well. It seems Sam has got the balance right and you are thriving on this training plan.

    Keep up the good work mate - I'm certain you are going to break 3:30 in Paris.

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    Forgot to say in respect of Comrades, KarenG who was at bootcamp was an age group winner at Comrades last year. I had a long chat with her about how she changed her training and I think it is definitely possible to run a good Comrades after an April marathon.

    The downside is that if you run Paris really hard - which I'm sure you intend to - then recovering probably takes 5 weeksto be fully rested and ready to go so it won't leave much time.

    I think Karen may lurk because she sometimes appears on other threads. If she does post  I'll see what she thinks and what training she suggests.

  • Day 44 - Asics Target 26.2 Paris Marathon Training (29/01/13)

    Target: 2 MILE EASY then 3 x acceleration strides then 6 x 800M (or 3 mins) at 6.30-6.50 pace with 3 min jogs in between each. 1 MILE EASY (7 MILES)

    Actual: 2 miles easy, 6 x 800m (or as I was using the non-metric system - 0.5 miles) at 6.30-6.50 pace with 3 min jogs between each, 1 mile easy and 3 x acceleration strides.

    Total: 7.95 miles in 1:06:00 @ 8:18m/m.

    Splits: 2 mile W/up @ 8:10m/m. 1st 0.50 @ 6:26m/m. 2nd 0.50 @ 6:31m/m. 3rd 0.50 @ 6:25m/m. 4th 0.50 @ 6:29m/m. 5th 0.50 @ 6:29m/m. 6th 0.50 @ 6:27m/m. 1 mile C/Down @ 8:05m/m

    Typical! It had been threatening to rain all morning before going out for this lunchtime session. Just when I was at the furthest point away from the warmth and dry of the office, the heaven's opened, with barrel loads of the wet stuff falling. Add in a gusty wind and the conditions could have been a lot better. Not that this affected the run in any way. After my mile winders last Saturday, I'd been focused on this session since yesterday, as it was the first time I'd ever attempted to run at this speed over such a distance.

    I've done 400m intervals fast during training before, but this was the first time at attempting 800m. I should have done a similar workout two weeks ago, but the snow caused this session to be abandoned.

    I'm use to doing a 2 mile w/up now before any speed session and I think I'll never go back to anything less than this. I feel it's a perfect amount to stretch my legs and get them warm and stretched enough to work them at speed.

    If you told me 6 weeks ago I would be able to maintain a speed of under 7 minutes per mile for decent periods of time I would have laughed. No way would I have expected to have come this far in such a short space of time. It's obvious the advice given by Sam, Ruth, Sarah and the rest of the Runnersworld/ Asics team is working well. I just hope I can repay their hard work with continued improvements over the next few weeks.

    The course I was running today was just a 0.75 mile stretch of straight pavement with no roads needed to cross. One direction is slightly more downhill than the other. The more uphill direction had the added benefit of the wind behind you, so this extra helping hand meant both directions required even effort.

    The first two 0.5 mile reps weren't too difficult at all and I found myself having to force myself to slow down as I was going too fast. Between these I was able to jog at a much better speed than previous workouts. I know Sam has said that speed during the recovery is not an issue, but I think I felt good as I recovered quickly after these first couple of intervals.

    As I progressed though through the 0.5 mile intervals, I quickly found my ability to recover after each one took more and more time. To start with I went straight from the interval into a jog. By the 6th 0.5 mile interval, I needed to walk for a good 30 seconds in order to get my breath back. There was no bent over double though after each one, which I thought I might have to do in order to maintain this speed. Maybe if I was having to run 10-15 seconds faster, then it would be a different story. I think the same could be said if I was having to do more than the 6 reps. 

    .............................

  • .......................

    This session has really helped in making me realise I can maintain speeds under 7m/m for prolonged periods. I want to put this into action in my next Parkrun. I've been told a 5km run is maybe too short to use any pacing tactics. I've also read research which has said that runners are more likely to get a faster time over 5km distance if they go out faster than what they normally would and then just try and hold on to the end. With this in mind, I'm tempted to try and stick as close to 6:30m/m for my next 5km for as long as possible and then just hold on in there.

    I don't know if it's a different mentality that I have now, or just the fact I'm stronger than before, but I feel for the first time in 5 years or so, I have a change of pace than I keep longer than a sprint finish! I have also tried to put in practice something Sam was showing me at Birmingham Training Day in regard to my running technique.

    I always thought that the secret to running faster, my stretching out your stride. When I've tried this, I've attempted to reach out too far with my leading leg. Before, I've tried to focus on lifting my knees and thighs up to increase my stride. This has just meant my leading leg is never in the right position to give enough 'kick' and has therefore meant I run much slower than what I should be able to. Since Saturday, I've actively tried to change this mentality. I've attempted to focus on how hard I'm pushing off with each foot and how well this foot then lifts up behind me. It's actually quite hard to explain this - Sam have I go this description correct?

    Although today's run should have only been 7 miles, with the distance covered in the 3 minute recovery jogs, this has pushed it up to nearer 8 miles. I also forgot to do the acceleration strides after the 2 mile w/up, so added these in to the end.

    Another satisfying run and definitely a session I can build on.

    Here's my run from today:

    http://connect.garmin.com/activity/267455737

  • Calorie Watch! Food & Drink Diary – Monday 28th January 2013

    I don't get time to cook as much as what I'd like, but with an earlier finish than normal, I surprised Mrs. Shady Ady with a home-cooked dinner tonight. I even washed up afterwards. That should keep me in her good books for the rest of the week!

    6:50am - Breakfast - Fruit and Fibre cereal w/ semi-skimmed milk, glass of orange juice.

    9:00am - Cup of tea, glass of water

    11:00am – Clementine, bottle of water

    12:00pm - Lunch - Homemade salad - Bulgar wheat with chickpeas, feta cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, radish, spring onions and a honey/ lemon dressing. Bottle of water.

    1:30pm – Cup of tea

    4:00pm - Apple, bottle of water

    7:00pm - Dinner - Homemade Sticky pork stir-fry (made with honey, juice from one orange, Worcester sauce, sweet chilli sauce, white wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, salt, chilli flakes, cinnamon and crushed cloves) with chopped carrots, courgette, pepper and mushrooms, and rice. Pint of squash

    8:30pm - Cup of tea, Blueberry yoghurt.

    9:30pm - Pint of water.

  • Evening all! Just enough time left in the day to catch up with comments!

    Sarah..............How was the Shepherds Pie? Do you cook your own meals from scratch most nights? Does your OH take over responsibilities in the kitchen often? I don't think I offer my OH as much help as what I should!

    Are you not a jaffa cake person? Along with jelly babies, they've always formed the basis of my carb-loading antics.

    180 abdominal crunches might sound like a lot, but it's amazing how quickly it goes by knowing that you are trying to keep up with a video. I think if I was to try and do the same by myself, I'd manage much less than that.

    Sam.......Yay! You know how to keep your runners happy.......the extra mile on my long run has definitely put a smile on my face.

    No problem if this can't be done, but I was wondering if it was possible to swap Saturday and Sunday around this coming weekend, so my long run is on Saturday instead of Sunday? I'm got birthday drinks Saturday evening and although I'm confident almost all of them will be non-alcoholic, it might be a later night than normal.

    Something else I've been wondering about recently is the amount of warm-up you would recommend to do on the day of the marathon. I see on my 5km and half marathon runs, I have a good mile w/up and c/down. Would you want me to do something similar for a marathon w/up as well or possibly less due to the fact you can use the first few miles of a marathon to w/up?

    Really enjoyed my 800m intervals today.

    Allan..........Thanks for the comment! I hope I'll get the chance to enjoy Durban, but I'm not sure what state I'll be in. With possibilities of hearing the tiny patter of feet in the near future I was attempting to realise some of my biggest running goals before this happens. After a sub 3:30 marathon, then Comrades is 2nd of my list of things to do 3rd would probably be a sub 20 min 5km.

    It'd be lovely to achieve all three in the next few months, but currently my only focus is Paris. One goal at a time! Happy running!

    DS2.......Thanks as always! It's nice to know there are people reading what I'm writing. It makes all the more worthwhile doing this. Sam has come up with an excellent training plan. I love the variety and different speeds. Best of all though is the amount of what I would call 'speedwork'. Before I would only do one speed session a week. Now I'm doing at least two sessions faster than 8m/m. I think this could be the key to me reaching my sub 3:30 goal.

    Thanks for the info regarding Comrades. I'll see if Karen has any useful info she can share. I'm mightily impressed. Being an age group winner is a remarkable achievement. I'm already in awe!

    I met Slow Duck at the Guildford Parkrun recently as well. He's running Boston Marathon and also Comrades, so it does give me the confidence to do both.

    Although a good time for Comrades would be nice, I'm under no illusions. All I really want is to finish it in the allotted time. At the moment I'm not even thinking about this now as all my focus is on Paris. I'll be putting everything into Paris and giving it my all on race day and once it's over and I've given myself a few days recovery, I'll re-assess then to see what hopes I realistically have for Comrades. The only time I'd take it easy in Paris is if I'm 6 miles from the end and well in line for a Boston Marathon qualifying time........but I can safely say although I'm confident in going very close to 3:30, I don't think I'll be that far inside it to get the Boston qualifying time! image

    Great time on your Canterbury 10 at the weekend. You must be happy with that, especially over a windy hilly course. With that time obtained already, you must be very confident of a sub 3:15 in May?

  • Ady - perfectly possible to run a good April marathon and then switch your focus to Comrades - especially as Paris is early in April. But I think you're sensible in concentrating on the task in hand (Paris) and not worrying too much about what lies beyond.

  • Shady-Ady

    I have worked out what a carb loading day will look like for you - menu done and will post tomorrow. I used your ideal body weight of 148pounds (67kg) and used 10grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of your body weight so your menu has around the 650-670gramsof carbs. You should trial this before the half in a couple of weeks. For most whole class marathon runners they do not tend to "carb load” partly because it takes them less time to load up on carbs (the more highly trained you are the less time it takes), these guys are also super efficient in how they use their fuel so they just rest/taper and eat high carb foods and job done! You are well trained but it will take longer to carb load so suggest before Paris it will be 2-3 days of a high carb diet but I will see how you go with the trial day as may only suggest 2days for you depending on your feedback.

    Part of the reason I have not posted you sample menu is because I  did not write down clearly  how often you are going to be taking your gels (SIS GO - 22g of carbs) and I wanted to get the whole plan up together. You did tell me this! I know you are going to use the caffeine gels but at 50mg per gel, 4 of these likely to be enough, to avoid any adverse problems. My thoughts would be 2 per hour starting with the first 2 being non-caffeine?

    Ruth

  • Ady- very impressive 800m reps. You are getting quite speedy and if you back it up with endurance 3.30 should be very much within your reach. Good work on the diet front as well, keep it up!image

    Ruth- very interested in your thoughts on carbo loading. I've never really paid much attention to it for my marathons, just tried to eat some extra carbs 2-3 days before but without really knowing how much/ what types of food I should be consuming. So are you saying that the general rule is 10g of carbs/ 1kg of body?  Is it over 2-3 days and is it the total carbs you should be eating or extra (on top of what you would normally have)? What sort of foods would you recommend?

  • Day 45 - Asics Target 26.2 Paris Marathon Training (30/01/13)

    Target: 5 mile comfortable (8:10-9:10m/m)

    Actual: 5.25 miles comfortable @8:06m/m in 42:35

    Again, I have forgotten to update my lap measurement on my phone from 0.75 to 1mile. Maybe tomorrow I'll remember!

    Splits: 1st 0.75 @ 8:34m/m. 2nd 0.75 @ 7:49m/m. 3rd 0.75 @ 8:01m/m. 4th 0.75 @ 8:02m/m. 5th 0.75 @ 8:08m/m. 6th 0.75 @ 8:08m/m. 7th 0.75 @ 8:00m/m

    There's a few things that make me angry. Strangely, one of these is running in windy weather. I suppose it's no stranger than how angry Mrs. Shady Ady gets when I accidentally leave the toilet seat up! image I'd happily run in torrential rain or blizzards over Spring gales. I'm not entirely sure what riles me up. Maybe it's the amount of effort put in and feeling like you're getting nowhere. Or that you feel like you have no control of yourself as you're blown from side to side or even to a standstill.

    Today wasn't bad enough to get into such a mood from the weather, but it did make the training session a little more strenuous than I was expecting. I don't think it helped either that my legs felt heavy and tired from yesterday's speed session.

    The first mile I really struggled to get into any stable routine, as I ran head on into the wind and uphill. I was feeling like I was pushing almost as hard as I did yesterday and not even breaking 8:30m/m. I carried on like this into the 2nd mile at what I thought was the same intensity. It was only when I looked at my watch near the end of the 2nd split that I noticed that I was actually running much faster than what was needed. I think because the wind wasn't so much head-on and I was now running continuously downhill on  a slight gradient.

    One reason why I struggled with pacing myself in the first two splits could be because I still hadn't warmed up and found my stride. After this normal service resumed and I was able to comfortably match the lowest end of my set pacing target.   

    Apart from the initial troubles of finding the correct pace, there's little else of noteworthiness to add. It was windy and much milder than previous days. Temperature doesn't normally bother me. When living in Poland and China I regularly ran in sub zero temperatures outside (sometimes in shorts too, which I always lived to regret!). The lowest temperature I ran in was -21 degrees Celsius and that didn't last very long, even though I was wrapped up with multiple layers and a big coat! If it remains this warm for the weekend I'll be interested to see what differences I find with the amount of liquids needed to hydrate.

    Is it wrong to already be excited about tomorrow's session? 6 mile build-up from 8:05-7:35m/m, so the inward part of the run is faster than the outward part.

    Here's my run from today:

    http://connect.garmin.com/activity/267769726

  • Calorie Watch! Food & Drink Diary – Monday 28th January 2013

    Neither my wife or I fancied putting any time into cooking our dinner tonight, so after a very late finish at work, we both took the easy option and went for my old favourite from my student days.

    6:50am - Breakfast - Fruit and Fibre cereal w/ semi-skimmed milk, small glass of orange juice.

    8:30am - Cup of tea, bottle of water

    11:10am – Banana, bottle of water

    12:00pm - Run - 7.95 miles including intervals (see earlier for full description)

    1:15pm - Lunch - Ham, Cheese, Cucumber, Lettuce and Pickle Sandwich on Wholemeal bread. Bottle of water

    2:30pm – Cup of tea, bottle of water.

    3:30pm - Clementine, bottle of water.

    5:30pm - Cup of tea

    7:00pm - Apple.

    8:15pm - Dinner - 2 slices of toast (wholemeal bread), beans, 2 eggs, 1 rasher of bacon and a sprinkling of cheese. Pint of squash

    9:00pm  - Raspberry yoghurt, cup of tea.

    10:00pm - Pint of squash.

  • Hi Ruth.......I'm waiting with baited breath to see what you have planned for my carb-loading antics. Fingers crossed jelly babies and jaffa cakes play a big part!

    Recently I have been using Hi5 energy gels. I used the SIS Go gels when I ran the Royal Parks Ultra last October and I really struggled with stomach problems. I'm not entirely sure whether this was due to the gels not agreeing with me, or a poor hydration plan in the lead up to the race. I do have a couple of these SIS Go energy gels leftover, so do you think it would be best to practice using these on my long run this coming weekend?

    I'm also curious to what problems those with caffeine can cause you? I've always thought that caffeine is a good thing to have when running long distance. Is it just the notion of having too much caffeine that is bad?

    I'm also a little worried that I will soon start to plateau with my intended weight loss. I really don't want to cut down on my food intake if I'm running this many miles, as then I think it would start to effect my training. Are there any foods that you can recommend eating that will promote weight loss on top of what I'm currently eating? I've tried already to make my portion sizes more equal throughout the day?

    I'm looking forward to giving the carb-loading a good try before the Dorney Lake half marathon. Like I said at Training Day, don't hold back....I'm willing to try anything you recommend! image

  • Hi Slow Duck.......Good to hear from you and very happy to read your words regarding the possibility of switching focus to another race straight after Paris. I really do think that to give Paris everything I have, I need to concentrate solely on this. That way I'll have given it my all, my best shot, and followed everything I'm told down to a tee. I'm really enjoying this structured side to the training and feel I'm thriving on being told what to do.

    I hope your training is going well for Boston. Maybe catch you at a Parkrun in the near future!

    Brolish.....Nice to hear from you. Thanks for your comment regarding the 800m reps. Even I was surprised with this. I've never ran at these speeds before over such a distance, so it's definitely a confident sign. Maybe I've had this speed in me before, but never pushed myself enough to achieve it!

    It'll be interesting to see if I can replicate these speeds for my Parkrun in 2 weeks time!

  • Brolish wrote (see)

    Ady- very impressive 800m reps. You are getting quite speedy and if you back it up with endurance 3.30 should be very much within your reach. Good work on the diet front as well, keep it up!image

    Ruth- very interested in your thoughts on carbo loading. I've never really paid much attention to it for my marathons, just tried to eat some extra carbs 2-3 days before but without really knowing how much/ what types of food I should be consuming. So are you saying that the general rule is 10g of carbs/ 1kg of body?  Is it over 2-3 days and is it the total carbs you should be eating or extra (on top of what you would normally have)? What sort of foods would you recommend?

    Not everyone will need to carb load, some don't like to do it (makes then feel bloated, do not feel any benefit etc) or for those that eat a very high carb intake will probably carb load without knowing (if they rest and continue to eat a high carb diet in lead up to race). Elites or very well trained athletes can load up in carbs in as little as 24 hours, but for most 2-3 days is probably a safe bet if tried and tested before. I think 2 days is enough for many. The rule of thumb is the 10g per kilogram body mass for men but if carry a lot of excess weight I base this on what I think is an ideal weight or somewhere between this. For females I use around 8grams per kilogram body mass.

    If diabetic and not 100% sure how  to control/adjust insulin or not got good blood sugar control generally, I would not carb load.

    The type of foods I suggest are ones that are not  so bulky so I actually suggest white bread, pasta etc when carb loading (rather than wholegrain versions) and easy on veg & fruit as these can fill you up more. This is the only time I generally suggest to athletes to include their favourite soft drinks (full sugar) or sweets etc

     I will post Adrian plan below but this is a draft he may like to change things around.

  • Ruth- thanks for this. Just to clarify- are we talking about adding additional calories to your diet during this time or simply changing the proportions (so that more calories come from carbs)?

  • Hi Shady- Ady

    Here is what a day could look like for you.

    I have used tesco's online site to get nutritional value of foods in this plan, as well as food packages here in my kitchen to show others that they could do this themselves and work out roughly what grams of carbs they eat  or  wish to have a go at carb loading themselves based on information from last couple of my posts.

    Breakfast: Large bowl of cereal /porridge (60g of dried cereal) with milk & 1 full bagel with generous spread of honey & jam & 200ml glass of orange juice (approx. 130g)

    Mid- morning: Nibble on half pack of jelly babies (100g of sweets) and 500ml of low fat milkshake (approx. 120g of carbohydrates)

    Lunch:  100g pasta (dried weight) salad, low fat fruit yogurt & large banana & 20ml glass of fruit juice (approx. 120g of carbohydrates)

    Mid afternoon:  banana sandwich and 400ml of fruit juice & 3 jaffa cakes (approx.110g).

    Dinner: 100g of pasta or rice or large jacket potato with usual foods but keep vegetables and meat/fish to small portions.  Large glass of fruit juice (300ml) or full sugar diluting juice and low fat fruit yogurt (approx.115g)

    Before bed: large bowl of cereal or 3 slices of toast & jam (approx. 60-70g of carbohydrates).

    Let me know what you think to the above.

  • Hi  again Shady-Ady

    Shady_Ady wrote (see)

    Hi Ruth.......I'm waiting with baited breath to see what you have planned for my carb-loading antics. Fingers crossed jelly babies and jaffa cakes play a big part!

    Recently I have been using Hi5 energy gels. I used the SIS Go gels when I ran the Royal Parks Ultra last October and I really struggled with stomach problems. I'm not entirely sure whether this was due to the gels not agreeing with me, or a poor hydration plan in the lead up to the race. I do have a couple of these SIS Go energy gels leftover, so do you think it would be best to practice using these on my long run this coming weekend?

    I'm also curious to what problems those with caffeine can cause you? I've always thought that caffeine is a good thing to have when running long distance. Is it just the notion of having too much caffeine that is bad?

    I'm also a little worried that I will soon start to plateau with my intended weight loss. I really don't want to cut down on my food intake if I'm running this many miles, as then I think it would start to effect my training. Are there any foods that you can recommend eating that will promote weight loss on top of what I'm currently eating? I've tried already to make my portion sizes more equal throughout the day?

    I'm looking forward to giving the carb-loading a good try before the Dorney Lake half marathon. Like I said at Training Day, don't hold back....I'm willing to try anything you recommend! image


    Need to get the gels sorted! Have you had any issues with the High Five ones at all? If not perhaps try these for race but you could use up the SIS GO ones this weekend and if stomach problems again with these perhaps they are not for you.

    Too much caffeine is not safe, up to 400mg per day is max you should have on a day to day basis (200mg if pregnant) but in a race situation less is suggested  as there appears to be little added benefit to using more than what I have suggested for performance  (200mg for you). Too much caffeine can make you feel a bit "weird", heart beats faster, shaky etc and at very high levels could be dangerous to your health. It could even cause stomach problems - did the SIS GO have the caffeine?

    Let's worry when the weight loss stops entirely, it is only natural to slow down but as yet it has not come to a stand still and even if this did I would suggest you wait a further week before making too many changes. If it comes to that I will help you decide the best way to go about this (no bacon or cheese with the beans...)  please do not worry and just keep focus on eating well, you are doing great.

     

  • Hi Ady

    I love how much you are enjoying your training image - it's great to see. Good work on the 800m reps, and hope today's build up run lived up to your thrilled anticipation image

    No probs moving the long run to Saturday - perhaps take a rest day tomorrow (Friday) and do the 4 mile recovery run on Sunday - otherwise it'll be 5 days in a row.

    You asked about warm up for the marathon. The key thing is to mobilise joints - so I'd be focusing on dynamic flexibility work at low intensity, then a jog of about a mile followed by a few strides. Given that you are not setting off - or even building up to - top speed, it's not necessary to expend energy on a longer warm up.

     

  • Day 46 - Asics Target 26.2 Paris Marathon Training (31/01/13)

    Target: 6 MILE BUILD-UP (From 8.05-7.35) (GOOD TO DO THIS AS AN ‘OUT AND BACK’ RUN, COMPLETING SECOND HALF FASTER) 

    Actual: 6.04 Mile Build Up in 46:39 @ 7:43m/m

    Splits: 1st mile @ 8:03m/m. 2nd mile @ 7:53m/m. 3rd mile @ 7:50m/m. 4th mile @ 7:43m/m. 5th mile @ 7:36m/m. 6th mile @ 7:18m/m.

    I had a feeling today was going to be a tough run, and as soon as I ventured outside at lunch and felt the full force of the wind again. I knew I was correct. I also knew that all I had to was get through the first three miles and the rest would be a piece of cake.

    Yesterday I struggled in the first couple of miles to maintain a steady speed. Knowing that I'd be running relentlessly straight in to a head wind for the first three miles, I made sure to run harder than normal. I felt a little out of breath to start with doing this, but I soon acclimatised to the increase effort needed to match my pacing targets.

    The third mile was the hardest of this session and it was a relief to turn around and feel myself being pushed forward by the gusts. From here onwards I knew there would be no issue matching my targets and running became very comfortable now there was a tail wind. It got me thinking how much faster someone could go if they ran a point to point marathon with a tail wind the whole way?

    The tail wind came in very handy as I sprinted past the training footballers of Aldershot Town and this would explain why my fourth mile split was slightly faster than what I needed to do. By the sixth mile, I stretched out my legs slightly as my finish was in sight.

    I was happy with my overall average pace for today's run. It was only 6 seconds slower than my marathon PB time per mile and as I felt in the last few miles (thanks to the wind's help) I was having no problem increasing my speed, it got me thinking towards my half marathon.

    As long as I can get through the first few miles at Dorney Lake and maintain a speed close to 7:20 or 7:30m/m, then I'm confident I can slowly crank up the speed as I progress. This should hopefully allow me to know for sure if I'll be hitting my target time by mile 10. I can then either relax and enjoy the last 3 miles, or push myself even harder and focus beating my target by a greater margin.

    Rest day tomorrow now as I'm moving my long run to Saturday form Sunday. My four mile jog will now be done on Sunday. I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow as the last few days have left me feeling a little more lethargic than normal when starting each run. It's probably good practice feeling like this!

    Here's my run from today:

    http://connect.garmin.com/activity/268122424

  • Ruth...........Thanks for your posts and answers. I have to say from reading your gourmet menu, the first words that sprang to mind were 'formidable' and 'intimidating'. I can safely say that from seeing the little day of luxury you have lined up for me that I have never ever carb-loaded properly in the past.

    My idea of carb-loading was eating a few jelly babies and half a pack of jaffa cakes the day before the race, followed by an evening meal of pasta. This is taking my normal carb-loading to a whole new level.

    Saying this though, I'm very excited to give it a go and see how I feel with it. Already I'm thinking positively about it.  The quantity seems far higher than what I would normally eat in a day, so I do wonder if I'll struggle to eat that quantity.

    I remember before a marathon I ran in Poland a few years ago. On the Saturday before the race I used the day to visit some old friends. Each friend I visited insisted on eating with them. I visited five groups of friends and ended up eating five lunches. That evening I was staying with the family of one of my old English students. Their father had regularly figured highly in this marathon in the past and had come first in his age category several times (the year before winning a pig!).

    He had spent the afternoon in the kitchen preparing his favourite pre-marathon meal for me, consisting of chicken, potatoes and pasta, which he piled on my plate and then piled even more on my plate after I'd somehow finished the first! If I can run a marathon after eating this much food the day before, then there should be no reason to doubt I'll manage what you have planned!

    With the banana sandwich, how many slices of bread constitute a sandwich? I take it it's two? I'll give everything a go on that menu. I'm interested to see the use of white bread and pasta as well, which I wasn't expecting to see.

    I've never had any troubles with Hi5 gels before. I'll give the SIS Go gels a go this weekend and see how I get on. When I used these before it was very warm, so I wonder if it was the fact I was dehydrated rather than the fact that the gels didn't agree with me. I don't think the SIS Go gels had any caffeine, but I'll double check the ones I have to see.  

    As for the weight loss.............I will try and cut out the cheese and bacon. I promise this was just a one off! I haven't been eating any bacon really since starting the training and only used this up so I didn't have to throw it away (honest!). image The cheese I use is also low fat, and I eat this much more sparingly than I did before. 

  • Evening Ady, I think its just taken me about half an hour to catch up on your thread. Some brilliant runs, despite the tired legs and head on winds. Think you have deserved a rest day tomorrow especially if your legs are feeling a little tired. You will be raring to go on saturday!



    Ive never been a huge fan of shephards pie, I always saw it as a boring meal, however I really enjoyed it last weekend. I think all this running has increased my taste buds and appetite, I seem to be eating loads and craving things I wouldnt normally eat and enjoying them. If im playing netball I take something to work eg an innocent pot or porridge to have for my tea before driving to netball as I dont tend to get home until (9:30-10 pm). If I go to the gym from work I normally phone chris to put my tea on whilst im having a shower so its ready when I get home normally at about 9:30 (which is normally veg). Fri-Sun I try and cook something proper for us both to make up for the lack of balanced meals in the week



    This week chris however has made cornbeef hash on sunday whilst I was running and Thai green curry last night ready for when I arrived from work before I had to drive down to my parents. I like to cook so I try and cook but if im busy chris will normally have a go if I twist his arm!



    Some very good questions bro, and answers Ruth, thankyou, although it looks like you have to eat loads to carbo load!
  • MalcsMalcs ✭✭✭

    I want to carbo load NOW! 

    I read Ruth's post last night and as a result ate a hot cross bun, frusili bar, Club biscuit (naughty) and a slice of bread and jam. Thanks for that Ruth! image

    Ady - those 800m reps were amazing. I fear I may not be able to stay with you come the Spitfire. Well done, you're absolutely flying.

    I am a bit preoccupied with house selling, work and child activity overload at the moment, hence the lack of posts recently. I am keeping tabs on you though so no slacking! image

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