Three Weeks To Go - Eating 21 Miles For Breakfast

4th October 2009

With the knee rested for over a week, I returned to Brussels feeling a bit more upbeat. I'd been chomping the painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs and wasn't feeling any pain.

With the New York Marathon just 28 days away I was acutely aware of the need to do a long run. The Long Run part of the training is very important, not only from a physical point of view but also from a mental point of view. Completing it reassures you that the massive distance involved in the marathon is achievable and also allows you to try out certain things, for example using gels, drinking water, setting the right pace and generally getting a sense of how you will feel on the day and what problems could crop up.

A few weeks ago, before encountering my injury, I'd entered the Brussels Marathon and I decided that I would start it and see how far I could get. If my knee began to hurt I would drop out, but in a best case scenario I would be able to do 21 or 22 miles, thus covering off my Long Run.

The Brussels Marathon is tiny in terms of competitor numbers, with just 2,000 runners, compared to New York's 37,000 or London's 30,000. Even Edinburgh, the other marathon I have run, had 13,000.

It's also a very fast marathon, with a 5 hour cut-off. No beginners here.

Arriving at the start, in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe in the Park Cinquantenaire, built when Belgium celebrated 50 years of independence in 1880, it became very obvious that this was a marathon for SERIOUS RUNNERS. Nearly everyone had a gel belt and a lot of serious kit. There weren't that many women.

I suppose the reason is that the Brussels course isn't particularly pretty, the city itself isn't a major holiday destination and finally that the course is very hilly, so there's no likelihood of getting your best time. Here's the profile:












The Brussels marathon has a team of professional pace-setters who aim to set a steady pace for runners who want to reach the finish line at a certain time. There are seven sets of 2 runners, each with massive coloured balloons on their backs for a certain time, ranging from 2 hrs 59 - Pink balloon to 4hrs 3o - orange balloons.


I lined up with the Orange balloon team and was quickly introduced to John and Terry, who said there were "our grandparents" and would look after us for the run. They were both fairly old but super fit and running with them was great.

I remembered my Edinburgh marathon experience where I had been really concentrating on my time, wearing a pace band, continually checking my watch. It was quite stressful. Following a pacemaker completely removes that and allows you to focus on the race itself. I will definitely follow one in New York.


The race went well, with good weather conditions. I found myself reminded of why I love running and the sense of immense personal achievement I derive from it. Brussels is a very green city, and the route goes through the woods and out to the beautiful Africa Museum before returning to the city and ending in the Grand Place.











The city also has a lot of traffic tunnels, and this, in terms of a marathon, means a lot of running down in to the tunnel and up out of the other side. I feared for my knee entering the first one but tried to concentrate on my breathing and "running from my core." Up and down, it was fine.

Reaching the half marathon at 2 hrs 15, I took a gel - vanilla flavoured, and powered on. The knee pain kicked in. I took 2 paracetamol.












Stopping after 21 miles was tough. Part of me really wanted to carry on to the finish but I was in a lot of pain and acutely aware of how long it took me to recover from the Edinburgh marathon. My main focus is on New York and being able to get round the course and enjoying it. So I stopped and walked the remaining 5 miles. Almost everyone passed me and a policeman drove past, closing the course.

Handing my chip in at the Grand Place I felt great. The New York marathon is in my sights and all feelings of letting myself or my running buddy down were gone.

Link to my official marathon time, here

Time for 21.02 miles: 3 hrs 36 mins
Average Pace: 10 mins 16 seconds/mile

Overall time for marathon: 5 hrs 9 minutes

9 Weeks To Go - Humidity Strikes!

Monday 24th August, 2009

The past week has been a write-off in terms of running, I've only managed to get out twice, because the weather in Brussels has been crazily hot and very, very humid.

Each day temperatures breached 30 degrees Celsius and last Thursday the record for the hottest day of the year in Belgium was broken, with the peak temperature hitting 38.2 degrees Celsius. More Here.

It didn't even cool down at night.

The problem wasn't so much the temperature but the humidity - the amount of water vapour in the air.

I've never lived anywhere with high humidity before and it's quite different to living somewhere where it gets just hot.

High humidity makes you feel hotter because it prevents the body’s sweat from evaporating.

Sweating is the body's method of keeping cool, especially during exercise. When that's not working, blood flow is diverted to the skin, limiting your ability to cool down.

I found these stats on the internet, about the effect of heat and humidity on heart rates:

For Heat:
Temperatures between 60-75°F (16-24 degrees Celcius) will increase your heart rate by 2-4 beats per minute
Temperatures between 75-90°F (24-32 degrees Celcius) will increase your heart rate up to 10 beats per minute

For Humidity:
Humidity levels between 50-90% will increase your heart rate up to 10 beats per minute

So a combination of high temperature and high humidity levels can increase your heart rate by 20 beats per minute and that's before you've even started running!

The main methods of managing this are to keep hydrated and then either reduce your pace or use the run/walk/run method of training.

I opted for the first, keeping going for as long as I could before stopping and walking for a bit and then starting up again. The concept is the same as reducing the pace because the walking part of the training allows your heart to recover.

I managed a total of 5.7 miles in three intervals before I was too hot to carry on.

The forecast for this week is slightly cooler, and I'm off to the Champagne region of France at the weekend so hopefully I'll be able to pick up the training again!

Malta

Jun 23rd-30th, 2009

Holidays took me to the southern Mediterranean isle of Malta. Foolishly I packed my running kit. I did make it out running once - 3.26 miles round the beautiful St Julian's Bay - early in the morning when the heat wasn't too much. My route and some pictures below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Julian%27s

http://www.choosemalta.com/en/about-malta/webcams.php

Running On A Hangover

Thursday June 18, 2009

A lovely evening and too many drinks in my local, Bistros des Restos, saw me spend most of Thursday feeling pretty out of it. But a gorgeous day in Brussels had me hankering for a run.















Most people don't recommend running with a hangover because alcohol has a dehydrating effect, and when you feel hungover, what you're actually experiencing is intense dehydration. Not good for running.

I tried to overcome this by drinking A LOT of water during the day, and setting off. Felt terrible, uncoordinated and clumsy but pushed on for almost five miles - you can see the massive, hangover-induced dip in the middle, here:













Ran: 4.9 miles

Time: 44 mins 59 seconds

Pace per mile: 9 mins, ten seconds

Calories: 515

Ate: A LOT: Museli, tomato salad, steak frites, ice cream sundae, thai green curry

Edinburgh Marathon Take Two - Ninja Turtles

Monday 1 June, 2009

And so to my second running of the Edinburgh marathon.










And *news flash* I have decided that I like the city and the course and the atmosphere so much that I will run it ever year. But only as part of a relay team!

One year ago, having dinner to celebrate my completion of the marathon, my university friends and I dreamt up a plan to run the Edinburgh Marathon Relay dressed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Fast-forward 12 months and we were faced with the prospect of running the race as part of a very green and very silly-looking quartet...














The 'Hairy Haggis' Team Relay - its official name - splits the marathon's 26.2 miles between four runners and is designed to make race running more fun and more accessible.

Leg One is 8.1 miles, from the course start to Musselburgh, Leg Two is 5.4 miles, to Port Seton Links, Leg Three is 8.0 miles, up to Gosford House and back and the final leg is 4.7 miles and runs from Port Seton Links to the finish at Musselburgh Race Course.

Having entered, we devoted our entire weekend to to costume making and running. We carbo-loaded by eating pizza - in true Ninja Turtle style - and fashioned costumes from Peacock's Size 20 T-shirts... On the morning of the race we donned lime green footless tights and a lot of green body paint.

I was up for the first leg. At the start I was reminded of my longer run a year ago and what a massive achievement it was. I don't think that really sunk in at the time.

The start of the race is beautiful and goes down past the Parliament building, out toward the Edinburgh coast and along through the beach resort of Portobello.

The heat was really draining, even for just eight miles, temperatures were as high as 22 degrees Celsius with hardly any breeze. Ten people were taken to hospital and 160 were treated for heat-related illness on the scene, according to local newspaper The Scotsman.


I finished my eight miles in 1 hr 14 mins. The others notched up great times too, giving us a total time of 04 hours, 09 mins and 14 seconds. Only slightly faster than my solo effort a year earlier.

1st Leg (Me, Leonardo): 1h 14m 28s (01:14:28)

2nd Leg (Caz, Donatello): 55m 55s (02:10:23)

3rd Leg (Anna, Raphael): 1h 19m 11s (03:29:34)

4th Leg (Miller, Michelangelo): 39m 40s (04:09:14)


Well done team! See you next year.



We raised over £700 for Medecins Sans Frontieres

To donate!! Click here:
www.justgiving.com/ninjasgo

Flagey 6k

24th May 2009

Exactly one year on from my triumph in the Edinburgh marathon, I signed up to run a 6k run in my new hometown, Brussels.

Walking down to the race, alone in the sunshine, I felt strangely nostalgic, remembering all the races and the preparation that I did last year and how great the Marathon Day had been.

The Flagey 6k race started in Brussels' famous Place Flagey, home to a very cool arts centre and cinema and also to Cafe Belga, a hang out for cool kids and one of the only places I have encountered in the city that doesn't have table service.

Before the start there was a great carnival atmosphere and a group warm up which involved a lot of jumping up and down, making me pretty sweaty before the race had even started...

A whistle sounded and off we went, through the blow up start line and around the Ixelles Ponds. The route comprised of two 3k loops.

The Étangs d'Ixelles are two long, skinny ponds separated by a narrow strip of road. It was hot and running down one side of the lakes we were going up hill and directly in to the sun. Not good, especially on the second lap.

At the base of the lakes, the run took us through the grounds of the Cistercian Abbey de le Cambre, founded in 1196. The gardens are immaculately manicured and part of the building now housees a visual arts school, while some of the other bits are used by the Belgian Geographical Society.

The finish was great, running through the blow up arch, directly on to the Place Flagey. There was a live band playing covers of The Beatles' Back In The USSR and a stand selling beer for Eur1.50. I was tired, but I got to thinking I could get used to running in Brussels...

Ran: 6km in thirty minutes and 41 seconds

Loot: VERY IMPRESSIVE: Pink rose (gotta love The Continent), running magazine (useful for future races), Vivaqua sports water (new to me), Eur15 voucher for Brussels running shop, microfibre headband

Visit the web page of the event

You can see my time, by clicking here

The Edinburgh Marathon - 26.2 miles

Sunday 25th May - D-DAY

And so it's over. I can't really believe it. But I do have the medal, scars and achey muscles to prove that I did run 26.2 miles on Sunday.

The start was fantastic. I'd walked to the pens with my friends and I felt really excited. The first few miles are through the centre of Edinburgh, down past the now-iconic parliament building with a fabulous view of Arthur's Seat - the peak of a group of hills which sit in Holyrood Park on Edinburgh's fringe.

The route then winds out of the city centre towards seaside resort Portobello and down the coast through a number of small towns before reaching the beautiful Gosford House where it turns back on itself for the last eight miles or so, to finish at Musselburgh Race Course.

At the half marathon stage in a town called Prestonpans I felt pretty good. I'd paced myself properly and I was running well.

The going got tough somewhere between miles 16 and 17. I ate 2 paracetamol, anticipating the pain to come.

That was wise. I started to feel the burn around mile 19. It was getting hotter, I was tired and my legs were aching. But I knew I had less than ten miles to go.

From mile 21 onward it's pretty much a blur -- I can't really remember much other than really, really wanting to get to the end and not allowing myself to stop running. All around me people were walking, stooping over and vomming in the road. My legs felt as heavy as lead.

As the Musselborough Racecourse came into view I picked up a little bit. The crowds thickened, knowing that soon I'd be able to stop. Crossing the line felt funny. I stopped moving and my legs turned to jelly. It didn't seem real. I'd finished in 4 hours 10 minutes, a time that made me very very happy.

My legs have been stiff for the past few days and I've got a little bit of rubbing around where my sports top was, but all in a escaped relatively unscathed.

A man dressed as spiderman broke his own world record, for the fastest costumed Marathon, finishing in an incredible 02:49:50.

Ran: 26.2 miles

Time: 4 hours, 10 minutes, 21 seconds

Ate: A lot of jelly babies, one disgusting gel, 2 paracetamol

Drank: Ridiculous amounts of water and lucozade sport

Felt: Hideous for 2 full days afterwards

Finally: A huge huge thank you to all my friends and family who came to watch, I really wouldn't have made it round without you there, you were incredible.

Hydration

Wednesday 30th April

Much has been written about the holy grail of hydration and of its importance to runners.

Most of it is useless, incomprehensible and fails to give clear guidelines.

After my lack of hydration in Richmond on Saturday I resolved to get to the bottom of the hydration-saga.

This little gem from the UK Government’s Food Standards Agency:

“It’s important to make sure you drink enough fluid when you’re training and when you’re running the race, but it’s also important not to drink too much. If you get dehydrated or if you drink too much, this can affect your performance and be bad for your health.”

Errr, thanks, that’s really helpful. It gets better:

“To perform at your best in the race it’s a good idea to listen to your body and drink whenever you feel thirsty. If you don’t feel thirsty, there’s no need to drink. And remember, you don’t need to drink at every water stop.”

So I need to drink exactly the right amount? Not too little but not too much? Ok thanks, that's great.

Better advice is found elsewhere:

It's important to begin the run properly hydrated. That means drinking at least 2 litres a day in the weeks leading up to the race and then 500ml of fluid two hours before the run and another 150ml of fluid just before you start.

Studies have shown that the average person loses 500ml - 1.5 litres of fluid per hour of exercise.

Replenising this is important, since a mere 4% drop in hydration levels leads to a 25% drop in performance.

Most people recommend taking 125-250ml of water or sports drinnk every 15-20 mins. That seems like a lot to me. Which is probably why I felt so dreadful on Saturday.

For a three hour run, that means you'd need around three litres of water. You'd probably also need to "do a Paula."

After a long run you should drink 500ml - 1.5 litres more, monitoring the colour of your urine as a guide to when you've had enough.

You're looking for the colour of pale straw apparently. Good luck!

18.2 Miles Down - 8 To Go

Saturday 26th April




Felt pretty scared ahead of this Saturday's run. I planned to run 18 miles and it was HOT.

To get an 18 mile route in Richmond I ran across the centre of the park from Richmond Gate to Roehampton Gate, turned and ran back and then ran around the edge of the park in one direction before turning around and running back again.

The first eleven miles were ok. Had two jelly babies at the start and then one at each mile after the eleventh. Miles 12-14 were also ok. Miles 15-18 were particularly tough and I ran out of Zade at just before mile 16. That was a mistake as it was very very hot.

Afterwards I felt alright. Very dehydrated, but ok. I had a sunburnt nose.

Legs were a bit stiff in the evening but muscles seemed to cope quite well. My left shin felt quite sore down the front and the bunion on my right foot is very painful but nothing a few days rest can't cure.

Topped off the day with a lovely picnic in Battersea Park watching the sun set. Rehyration using strawberry flavoured cava probably not the best option.

Felt: Encouraged by my progress, worried that I need to do more research on hydrating

Distance: 18.2 miles

Time: 2 hrs 48 mins
Average pace per mile: 9 mins 12 secs
Calories: 1916

Two More Days Of Nowt

Friday 28th and Saturday 29th March

Really there isn't much to blog about. I've wasted 48 hours of my life lying in bed. Felt well enough on Saturday to try 3 "normal" meals but not well enough to run anywhere. Consulted my friend's doctor-boyfriend over lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. He said I'll be well enough to run again on Sunday, provided I'm properly hydrated. Apparantly that's one of the key aspects of marathon running (eight weeks off, it's a constant learning curve). Onward and upward, off to bed early ahead of loss of hour and VERY early start...

Learnt about: hydration

Watched: Hot Fuzz on dvd

Ate:
Dry bread
Smoked chicken salad
Chocolate brownie
Chicken stir fry
Cadburys Creme Egg