Food

I've signed up for brighton marathon next year, and am getting into training. Eventually I plan to run to work 3 days a week. Its ~7miles with 3 long but relatively shallow hills.

I'm concerned that after that I'll need something to stop me passing out at the desk, something which I'm confident would fast-track me to the 'redeployee' line. I don't want to carry too much on the run, so was thinking I could keep a box of protein powder or something at work.

Questions:

Is the plan to run in 3 days a week far too ambitious - too much hill training?

What would be a sensible post run top up?

Also I'm having trouble getting my pace down on the 'slow' runs. Currently a good 5k time would be

Comments

  • Hmm sure I typed more than that. I'm blaming it on work browser (which you might already be aware of if you can see more than I can)

    currently a good 5k time would be [ah it seems that it doesn't like the 'less than' symbol. that might explain it] under 25min, but my 'slow' 10k is 50min so I'm clearly not going 1-2 min slower. I'm worried that I'll go too hard and injure myself.

    Thanks in advance for any advice, and sorry for the messy 1st post(s)

  • Seems fine to me so long as you work your way up to it.



    I happily run half marathons without breakfast so I'd not eat before and maybe grab a breakfast bar or something in work. Milkshake even. Protein powder I'd not bother with.



    Practice your first morning run on a weekend so you know you can cope. I can't see you'd be passing out after it though. Don't race it.
  • Agree, plus eat and hydrate well the night before.

  • I'm running into work a couple of days a week, it's 7 miles also, but no hills, as flat along a river.  Currently, i have a cup of tea about 45 mins before i start running, then have toast and peanut butter when I get there as breakfast, from the canteen. We're lucky enough to have that, and shops for porridge etc around if needed.  I guess the creal bars are the best alternative then. I basically eata normal breakfast, nothing special

  • JohnasJohnas ✭✭✭
    Joe Tester wrote (see)
    Is the plan to run in 3 days a week far too ambitious - too much hill training?

    Depends what your current training is. If you're currently running 5 miles a week, then upping it to 21miles a week without any sort of progression could lead to all types of injuries. As for the hills, not sure there's such a thing as too many hills!

    Joe Tester wrote (see)
    What would be a sensible post run top up?

     

    As cougie has mentioned, eating before a run of 7 miles isn't critical like it would be for an 18 mile long run. In fact, I do all my early morning runs without breakfast as it trains the body to use fat stores instead of the body's glycogen stores, which is handy for marathon running.

    Once at work, I'd opt for a low GI breakfast so that you feel full up to lunch time - shredded wheat with a banana or instant porridge are easy office meals. Adding some protein powder to cereal won't do any harm to aid muscle repair.

  • Thanks folks.

    Currently I can't leave the house in the morning without breakfast, but perhaps if I have a bigger evening meal I can manage to change that.

    Johnas wrote (see)
    Depends what your current training is. If you're currently running 5 miles a week, then upping it to 21miles a week without any sort of progression could lead to all types of injuries. As for the hills, not sure there's such a thing as too many hills!
     

     

    I only started training recently. Last couple of weeks have been ~10k Mon,Weds+Friday, with the weekend off. So 18k, pretty flat compared to the work route. Once my weekends free up a bit I'll start fitting the longer runs in there. I appreciate that hills are great training (I used to cycle the route daily and as a result I flew up hills at the weekend), my concern is about giving my body enough recovery time between runs. As cougie says if I can manage to do it at something other than race pace I should be ok.

Sign In or Register to comment.