I have today ran the Leicester 1/2 & had one of my worst performances ever having run out of steam about mile 7 & walk/jogging the rest. I am no stranger to 1/2s & felt I had trained adequately for this. The previous 2 1/2s I did went pretty well. I ate all the carbs yesterday, started today with a bowl of porridge etc etc. Has anyone got any tips how to avoid this as I have just signed up for the Bedford 1/2 in December & don't want a repeat!!
Comments
RHR = Resting Heart Rate, if you know what yurs is normally then it is a good indication of impending doom
If you have done other HMs before then you should know what suits you, I would not expect to need a quantity of sports drinks before/during/after
You shouldn't really be hitting the wall after 7 miles. Did you go off too fast? I'm assuming it wasn't a hot day? Perhaps you ate/ drank too much- sounds like the amount of food/ drink was more than really necessary for a 1/2
Or just put it down to a bad day.
Not having a suffient taper - too many races too close together?
I had an absolute pants race today - I know I'm just getting over a cold and ran a hm two weeks ago when I had the cold and had a poor run then, though better than today by a long shot.
When I finished I just wanted to sleep, I also know that my rhr is elevated still, don't run with hrm but I know that my hr is higher than normal as I can feel it. All I wanted to do post race is sleep - for 13 miles thats abnormal.
Don't knock yourself over one bad run, though I know yu want to because I am right now.
It really does sound like you are eating / drinking too much before the race. I have max one bottle of water before a hm. Try not to drink during a race, just a mouthful of water and spit it out.
What was the terrain / elevation like? Did you hit the hills too hard? Just bog down? So much can go wrong.
Back to the drawing board.
M...eldy, Small world eh although runners scene even smaller!! To be honest it was the only 1/2 I could find that fitted round my shifts. Have you run this before? what is the couse like, from what I have seen looks ok!
Hitting the wall after 7miles i would be gutted too,i ran 7.5mile today with a stinking head cold,just a bad run mate every run isnt the same,and also i thought you hit the wall on a full marathon at around 20miles?
could have got an insulin spike from that and then a drop off causing lethargy. I would avoid sports drink prior to a run. On a half I normally take my own Isotonic drink and have just a couple of sips every 3 or 4 miles.
You know, it's been shown that you run better slightly dehydrated then fully hydrated
Peter, not run Bedford before but I work in MK so I can fit it in before my shift starts