A Marathon for a great cause

Itā€™s very tough to juggle the massive training commitment with working from home, but I manage it as best I can.

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Personalised T-shirt and headband have arrived all the way from Cambodia.

30 days to race day now.

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That headband looks a bit on the small side.

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And a bit thin, will look like an alice band

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Would you not clean the top of your rads?

A bit small? I could use that as a belt. He must have one massive pot shom

Size okay? TFK logo on it next time!

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Thatā€™s Anitaā€™s job, but sheā€™s semi-ghosting us. Hasnā€™t turned up the last 2 weeks. A fair bit of notice the first week, an abrupt text just before she was due this week, the next step will be not contacting us and then not turning up at all.

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Size is grand, pass on my thanks to the crew!

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Iā€™m nursing an absolutely head wrecking achilles injury. Itā€™s only inflamed but 2 weeks of rehab later I canā€™t shift it. My prep has fallen apart completely, barely managing 2 slow 5kā€™s the last 2 weeks. Outright rest is likely what Iā€™ll be told to do so thereā€™s a good chance Iā€™ll be turning up on the back of fuck all runs.

All that being said, Iā€™ll walk around if I have to as a DNS isnā€™t an option

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Even at that youā€™ll still bate me around the course!! Tough going with the injury chief. I feel pain in around the ankles every time I start walking and then it eases away - just part of the process with a marathon.

A month to go, fuck me, where did that time go??

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Kid, get decent insoles ā€¦that little bit of elevation helps.

I follow Pat Walsh Running on social media. On Fridays he gives tips and his knowledge and I find it really good. Hope this helps those doing DCM in a months time.

** Energy to run **

Few questions recently about fuelling for the long run and hope some of this helps or gives you ideas to try out. You have trained hard to date, you still have some miles to go yet, but you want to make sure you have enough fuel on board and on the day have the energy to get you over the finish line.

Before I give any advice, I know the ā€œserious runnersā€ out there will frown at some of this but all I can do is give some tips that worked for me.
We are all different and what works for one, might not work for another runner. Also the length of time we are running has a bearing on this as well, as someone in the 4hr+ category will burn a lot more calories than a sub3hr person.
Equally there will be a difference in calories burnt, depending on your body weight.
Eat well in the days coming up to the long run / race. Good quality food with lots of water to get fully hydrated.
In the 24hrs beforehand eat easily digestible foods that are unlikely to cause cramp or any indigestion issues. Pasta, Rice, potatoes chicken, fish, cooked vegetables. Stay away from any foods that you think will take a while to digest such as red meat, tomatoes, lettuce, any raw vegetables or salads.
What you are trying to do is fill the muscles stores with readily available fuel that can be used on the run.

  • Long run trial
    Good idea to have 1 decent trial run and work through attire, pre-race food and fuel on the go. Have your usual breakfast beforehand and try to allow the time before the run to compare to race day. I know that means getting up earlyā€¦!!
    Conserve your energy after eating as best you can so the maximum is available for your run.
    If you always run in the evening then you should try one early morning long run as that is what is happening on the race day.

  • Pre run nibble.
    If you find that you can eat something just before you run then you should. That puts more fuel in the system to be converted as you are running and will be used later. I have tried Jaffa Cakes, some Jellies, few spoons of yogurt, or half a banana at different times and these were ok for me. Eat slowly and if the first few miles are easy then these will be digested no bother.

  • Early and Often
    Most runners do not have enough energy stores to get them over the finish line so you have to take something to help you. There are exceptions I know and older runners who are training for years can get away with little or nothing.
    However most people need to take something whether a gel, sweets, and energy drink to keep them going or else they burn out and hit the dreaded wall. This is when the body runs out of available fuel and at this stage you are feeling shite and taking anything is too late. I have ran with a packet of Jelly Babies and ate on at each mile markā€¦!! Mad stuff
    Donā€™t forget to plant some water and fuel for the training run to match the race day.

  • Water
    Keep sipping water all through your run. If the body is dehydrated then the whole energy process slows down and can come to a stop. No water ā€“ no energy.

  • Fat Burn
    Most of us (including myself) have little stores of fat stored around the waist and hips (love handles) and if the effort level is low and oxygen is available then the body can burn this and use as fuel. Happy daysā€¦!! This is another great reason to go very easy in the early miles and let the body use these reserves as an energy source.

  • Kicking the can down the road
    Whatever you take onboard will help delay this empty feeling and what you are trying to do is postpone this emptiness until you are finished. The gel at mile 5 is the energy for mile 10. So start early as it will take the body time to convert this. Be disciplined and donā€™t lose yourself in the occasion. Remind your friends to fuel up, remind yourself when you see others doing it.

** IMPORTANT
For any fuel / energy to digest and get to your muscles you need to be in the right effort level. If you are running hard in the Red zone with almost max Heart Rate then the body is working to keep you moving and doesnā€™t have the available capacity to digest the food and water and make it available to you. You are few miles from disaster.
Know your Heart, know how your body feels and keep the effort steady but enough that it can be maintained. Leave some processing power for the food to digest and the energy to flow to the muscles.
If you are breathing hard and canā€™t talk then that is great for a 5K but a recipe for disaster in a Marathon.

Keep the faith, learn from your mistakes and just ā€œBE AWESOMEā€.

Hope some of this helps and your run this weekend goes well.

#pwr

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Get Turmeric capsules into you

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The best pre marathon breakfast is apparently about 100g of rice krispies with milk and a double espresso, about 2 hours before the race.

Thatā€™s bollix about the Rice Krispies. How could they be better than porridge? Iā€™d have brown bread with peanut butter too

Rice Krispies contain easily digestible carbs. The amount of fibre in porridge is too hard for your body to digest under the strain of a marathon and likely to give you a dose of the shits.

A normal bowl of Rice Krispies is about 30-40g so youā€™re taking on between 2.5-3 a normal portion size. Basically just eating a big bowl of sugar.

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Polenta is the closest weā€™ll get to the Kenyan ā€˜ugaliā€™

Horse it into ya from the middle of October

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Toast and Jam, a cup of coffee and a banana. Keep it simple

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Iā€™m reading yer manā€™s book on the Japanese at the moment. Itā€™s fascinating. They run those poor fuckers into the ground. The anecdotes from the Kenyans and Ethiopians based there are brilliant