I was asked for some running advice yesterday, which was a bizarre feeling since i don’t know this person. He’s a friend of a friend. I never thought of myself as someone that could offer running advice. But, in an effort to help my fellow man, i started to think about the questions he asked and how i applied what i’d learned over the past few years and in particular my experience of training for my first marathon which was earlier this year in May. I should note I’ve been running for a few years now, my favourite distance being a Half Marathon. (i’ll do another marathon, but it’s tough!)


The gent in question was having a hard time training for his first Marathon – big day is in 6 weeks. In summing up his email to me he said “So basically I’m looking for any advice you can offer, especially on eating, hydration, walk/run etc.”


In response I pretty much mentally vomited into the email.


The reason I’m posting it is I’d like to know about you’re experiences. Is the advice below a load of bull? Is there anything you could add that I could learn from? What would you do differently, etc?


Below is my email response:
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Hi

I’m more than happy to help pass on anything i’ve learned and it’s good to chat with a fellow runner.
(I’ve dropped this line in last before i hit send. Basically i just did a mind dump onto the page based on what you said in your email and on the assumption you don’t know much about running. But i appreciate that you no doubt know as much about it as i do. So my apologies in advance if any parts sound patronising or cheeky in any way!)
Firstly good on you for keeping up training on your own. I train on my own and i know how hard it is to motivate yourself sometimes, particularly when the training is getting tough like you’ve mentioned.
Marathons are hard going and the training can be pretty bad. I go as far to say that Marathon day is a walk in the park compared the peak of training. I followed a 16 week schedule too and personally i found weeks 12 & 13 the toughest because I reached the peak of my weekly distance – around 50 miles, longest single distance for me was 22miles (although i appreciate all training programs are different) – which is tough. After i did the 22mile run (Week 12) my training started to taper, so the Sunday after that (week 13) i was meant to run 18miles. It was one of the toughest runs i’ve ever done. What made it worse was i had to stop with 1.5miles to go. I couldn’t run any further. My legs gave up and i had to call the wife and get her to come pick me up. Put massive doubt in my mind over whether i could do it, which I guess is similar to you asking yourself whether you can do another 9 miles. It took a lot of positive thinking to push that doubt out of the way, but i made it on the day. Cheesy line i know but you have to think positively throughout!
Couple of questions first off:
Were you regularly running before you started training, I.e. comfortably running 10+ miles a week?
Do you drink while you’re running or eat energy gels/pastes?
Are you following the training plan to the letter? (Sorry if that’s sounds cheeky but it can make the difference between achieving your goal or not)
Do you warm up before a run/stretch off after?
What is your target time?
And just out of curiosity, where did you get your training plan?
Re. You being sick, etc. Sounds like you’re pushing yourself too hard or you’re dehydrated. Or both.
Eating
You’re burning A LOT of calories running, especially on long runs. On your 17mile run you prob burned around at 2000 cals. So, food is important. Eating smaller amounts often helped me out. I’d have breakfast, something around 11/11.30 then something around 3 then my dinner when I got home around 7. Stick to carb foods, lower in fat, like pasta. Lots fruit and veg. Just eat sinsibly really. Chippie teas, indians, chinese, McDonalds, etc, won’t help you whatsoever (also it’s best to avoid booze. No harm in having the odd beer or glass of vino tho).
Before a run.

Midweek I ran at around 5.30am so didn’t eat before running unless it was over 4/5 miles in which case i’d have a carb gel before heading out. My long run was always on a Sunday since the actual race was on a Sunday. I’d always aim to start my run at 9.30am since the race started then (sort of gets your body to remember when you do big runs so you’re ok for the big day). Anyways, Sunday’s i’d get up 1.5/2hrs before heading out and have 4 slices of toast and peanut butter and a 500ml bottle of lucozade sport (the flat stuff not fizzy!). don’t eat/drink any later than 1 hour before a run. 1.5hrs is prob best.
During a run i’d possibly have 1 carb gel for every 45 mins after i’d started running (the sport drink provides the carbs for the 1st 45mins). However I tended to get my carbs through fluids mid run but I’ll cover that later.
After a run drink a 500ml bottle of sports drink. Carbs aid recovery plus, It’ll help rehydrate you and get your sodium levels back up. As a supplement I drank 90% soya protein shakes after a run. Again to help with muscle recovery.
Hydration.
As a rule of thumb you should be drinking min 1.5/2 litres of water a day. It would surprise you how much fluids you lose sweating when your out pounding the roads. Before and after a run, as I mentioned above, 500ml sport drink an hour before and then when you finish.
During the marathon, since it’s such a long distance, (unless you’re an elite runner) you have to be able to take on fluids while you run. Personally I found this really difficult. I was used to running half marathons so carbs carb gels did me ok with the odd sip of water at a station. But you have to keep hydrated during the marathon! Sip on water or carb drink every so often all the way round or when you can at water stations. Practise this while you’re training tho. Don’t drink too much either as an imbalance in salts can be dangerous. From what I can remember i think you should take in around 1.5ltrs of fluids between start and finish (check though). I took the approach of getting a camelbak (http://www.camelbak.com/sports-recreation/hydration-packs.aspx), which is basically a really small back pack that holds 1.5ltrs and has a tube that runs to your mouth. It was comfortable for me but it’s not for everyone. It also meant I didn’t have to rely on water stations (good if you heard the news about water station at Edin Marathon earlier this year). If you’re going to sip water only it might be worth getting carb gels. I used Go Gels. Try them out from now on if you want to take that route. whatever you do don’t try anything new on the day! Otherwise sip on sports drink on your way round. That way you’re hydrating and getting carb intake.
Walk/run
Avoid a walk/run approach. As soon as you start walking, particularly late on in the run, the harder it is to start moving again. Also taking that approach and wanting to keep to your target time could knacker you out. If you want to hit your target time and walk a lot you’d be doing fast bursts in between walking that would need to be a lot faster than your average pace just now. Imagine trying to keep a 7.5/8minute mile pace after 24miles!
From your email it seems you can keep running without walking for 18miles so it maybe that you reduce your pace to, say, 11 or 12m/m to make it more comfortable to keep running the whole way. You could try running a negative split. That’s where you run the 1st 13miles slower than the 2nd half. Means you’ve conserved energy for the hardest part of the run.


Other tips I learned
Vaseline! Get a good layer around your bits, arse crack and thighs. Chaffing is a bitch otherwise! Put some vas on your feet before your socks to. Can help reduce blisters. Buy proper running socks. Pricey (around £9 a pair) but worth it. Plasters on your nipples. Bleeding nipples in a shower after a run is very painful!
Work on your stride. If your stride isn’t correct you re not running efficiently and so it’ll take more energy to move. Think of it like a car going up a hill at 20mph in 4th gear. It’ll labour, you’ll need to rev hard. But if you change gear the car moves more efficiently. Look online for tips on improving your stride. I found runnersworld.co.uk is a good site. Also, nip into your local Borders and you can pick up a copy of Runners World monthly.
Again, never try anything new on the day. No new tshirts, shorts, socks and definitely no new trainers!!! Stay positive. Take each stage of the run as i comes. Study the route map so you know where where everything is. If you can, go round the course. Nothing worse than not knowing where you are or when the next marker is coming up.
Let me know re. the Q’s at the start of the message, if you want to ask anything else and if you disagree with anything i’ve said

Hope that’s helped.

It might not feel like it just now but you’ll be able to do the Marathon!
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So there it is.
What are your views?