And so to the marathon day itself

This is one of those days that will live in the memory all of my life.  It was an amazing experience and something I will never forget.

It’s my first marathon so I deliberately did not put a target time on myself. My plan was to complete the marathon, enjoy the day and get a positive experience out of the whole thing (the training as well as the race itself).

The day started early after a fitful sleep.  I felt a strange mix of excitement and nervousness.  My mind and body trying to co-ordinate and recognise where I'm at both physically and mentally.  I wasn't really that sure.  I was venturing into the unknown.  Today I'm going to run further than I have ever run before, in front of thousands of people!  Are the muscles at their prime?  Or are they past their best?  I feared the latter rather than the former but I also felt like I had enough focus and determination to get through it.

I’m interested in all of the mental work that is required to complete a marathon, as much, if not more than the actual physical stuff. I do a lot of coaching (both Life and Business coaching). As part of this I’m interested in the limits we put on ourselves and for me personally, running a marathon is an excellent ways of breaking through some of my own limits.

So I set out on marathon morning in the knowledge that my training had gone extremely well, to a point. I blazed through the early months and into March. Easter came early this year and as a result I was running 20 miles with Gade Valley a week earlier than most years. That day I ran my best run. The last 4 miles I was running between 8 and 8:30 minute miles. I was feeling strong and powerful. After that run I started to feel a little sluggish and although I knew I could complete my runs, I didn’t have quite the same pace that I had before. And then to cap it off, on my last Sunday run before the London marathon day, I got a little twinge in my left hamstring. This got into my head for most of the week as I was worried that as I got deep into the race I might get a more serious pull of my hamstring and have to pull out altogether. I knew that there’s every chance that this wouldn’t happen but I also feared that it could. So I talked to some people I know (including some experienced runners on social media) to get their views and experience and by Saturday I was okay about it.

So as I set off on the race things were ok. I was enjoying the whole experience. It is such an amazing experience! My legs were heavy (still not like a month ago) but I’d come to the conclusion that maybe I had over-trained and that my body was a little over-ripe. And as I was running the early miles, I was conscious that I could be running quicker (that’s if I could work out how to navigate around people and over bottles and pavement kerbs etc). My lungs had the capacity to move quicker but I wasn’t sure that my legs did. I could feel my hamstrings. It’s almost as if they were over-active and therefore too tight. But I ploughed on as it wasn’t too much of a big deal and I put the concerned thoughts on how they would be deep into the race to the back of my mind. Then as I got closer to 9, 10, 11 miles I could feel my thighs. They just got so tight and heavy. A Sports therapist friend of mine suggested that this was the Lactic acid kicking in and maybe it was. But surely that’s a little early in the race? I just kept going, thinking, I’m going to do this and hoping it didn’t get so tight that they wouldn’t move. Gradually the miles started to accumulate and I remember at mile 16, thinking 10 miles to go. That felt like a lot so I worked on breaking it up in my mind so that it felt more manageable.

          

The crowd was amazing. Their cheering really helped to keep me going. At times I felt myself putting my hands in the air to get the crowds going and that would give me a surge of energy and push me on. Again, my lungs could’ve moved me quicker but my legs couldn’t keep to that pace so I had to reign myself in to ensure I could get to the end. I felt like if I stopped, I wasn’t sure I could start again. I saw so many people who stopped to stretch and I just thought if I tried that it would make things worse not better. So I just kept moving. My average pace overall was 9:08 min mile. From mile 20 to 23 I dropped down to about 9:30 but then I picked it up a little as I got a sniff of the finish line.

As I crossed the line I was really happy to finish and proud of myself. As I say, I hadn’t put a time on myself but I had also suspected I could do it between 4 and 4:30 hours, and probably inside 4:15. I thought if I break 4 hours that would be the icing on the cake but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter to me.

      

Thanks for reading my blog.  I hope you enjoyed it.

If you want to support my charity, the Outward Bound Trust, you can still do so by clicking on the link and making a financial contribution

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JonSleeper

The Taper before the big day

 
They say this is tricky time for any marathon runner, but in particular for the first marathon runner.  You cut down on your physical trainer to allow your body to recover and repair any damaged tissue.  So naturally if you're not still training physically that leads you to ponder and reflect.  It's getting me to look into my mental strategies in some more detail.

The Taper refers to a three week period between your longest run and the day you actually run the marathon.  The thinking is that the bulk of this time is spent, relaxing, stretching with some gentle 'recovery' runs.  The idea is that the body is recovering and re-establishing its strength.  This is all in preparation for the big day.

It's also important to eat carefully.  The intention here is to build up your levels of glycogen.  Glycogen is the element in your body that gives you the energy to run and endure the length of time that is required to complete the marathon.

All of that said, you are still doing as many runs as any other week of the training plan.  But the runs are much shorter.  So I went from a 22 mile run to a 11 mile run a week later. That's cutting the distance down by 50%.  But I still felt it at the time.  It was in my knees, at about mile 5, 6, 7, 8 and then to the end of the run.  There are a lot of hills on this running route so that adds to the endurance.  I managed to complete the distance okay but the fact is my pace has dropped off.

My body is tired.  It needs this recovery time.  I'm questioning whether I might have over-trained.  By that I mean run too many miles. But there's no point in going down this path.  Perhaps it's better to develop a new strategy.  This new strategy is simply to recognise the current situation and adjust my thinking and goals as a result.  This is not a massive adjustment.  It's a minor change in thinking.  I intend to go back to my thinking back in the early days of my training.

Back in February there was so much training to be done that I didn't have an expectation on the big day itself.  At that point in time my mind was focussed on the training not the actual marathon run.  I went into each training run with a very positive attitude and as a result I found each run relatively easy.  As time has gone on and the training has gone well, I've gradually increased my expectation on myself.  I've gradually started to challenge myself that I can put in an excellent time on the big day.  And yet at the outset I was quite clear that my goal is to enjoy the day, enjoy the experience and complete the marathon. 

As I write this now.  I'm now into my last week of this experience.  I had a further niggle last Sunday.  I tried taping up my knees and although the support felt good, I good a pull on my hamstring.  This is the first time this has happened in all of my training.  Pretty frustrating for this to happen 7 days before my first marathon.  I've been talking to other runners and I've also talked to my Chiropractor.  Every day I've been using hot and cold treatment, Sue's been massaging my legs and I've been stretching the Quads and the Hamstrings.  The leg is feeling better but I will be listening to my legs particularly in the early miles.

I've got faith in my training and the rational around the taper period.  I'm confident I'll be ready on Sunday for the run of my life along with thousands of other people.  So many people who have been through this before have told me this was the experience of their life!

Thanks so much to all who have supported me, by reading this blog, sending me messages of support and making a contribution to my charity.  Sincerely, it has really helped to keep me going through the training and it will genuinely keep me going this Sunday.

There's still time to sponsor my charity, the Outward Bound Trust by clicking on the link,


http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JonSleeper

The end of the long long runs is here

March has been a long long month.  With so many long runs, it has gone on and on and on.  And in that time a lot has happened.  I came into the month having run a 17 mile run with the Gade Valley running club and really wondering whether I could ever run 20 miles without having to crawl over the line.  But I found that with some good positive psychology I could finish strong.  I did this a number of times but I particularly remember the 20 mile run when I was running with a fellow runner.  She was running super fast.  And I was just trying to stay with her.  There are techniques that I have learnt to help to keep yourself going over long distances.  It's a gradual thing but it does work.

So as I journeyed through the month my confidence increased and I started to imagine a top performance on the big day in London.

And then things seemed to plateau.  Pain in my knees became more acute and consistent.  The struggles up and down the stairs.  Aches in my thighs and hips.  This started to weigh on my body.  And towards the end of the month I just started to feel tired and worn out.  My body was telling me something.  I started to worry that I had over-trained.  Perhaps I had peaked too soon and now I was going to pay the price because my body has had enough.  What could I do about this?  I spoke to my
chiropractor.  She said it's normal to feel like this.  She had worked the muscles above my knees, massaged them hard.  This breaks down the muscle so that it can come back more toned.  It can mean that you feel it some more at first.  I was certainly feeling it!  She suggested the following remedies, frequent stretching, ice packs and ice cold baths.  The last option is not for the faint hearted but worth a try if you want to make your family giggle at you (wear some shorts!).



Also talking to lots of runners who are far more experienced than me, they all say that this is perfectly normal.  After a while all the training starts to take its toll on your body and that is why the last three weeks of the training programme is called the Taper.  During the taper period you drop your mileage considerably and maintain your high-carb diet.  Basically you're preparing your body in two ways.  The reduced mileage enables your body to recover.  Lots of protein enables the muscle fibres to re-build and adjust to the strain of all the exercise.  The carbs help your body to load and prepare itself for the marathon itself.  It's like when you fill your car up for a long journey.  You need a full tank of fuel, plus a good supply of fresh oil in the engine and a check of the air pressure in the tyres.  All these things help to ensure the car can perform in the way that you want on the trip.  The human body is that same for a marathon.  And then there's the mental preparation as well.  If you can combine all these things in the right way, the day itself will be challenging but successful.

So that's the theory.  I've read about this enough times now.  I've trained for it, physically and mentally.  Now for the big day. Bring it on!
















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Thanks for reading my blog.  I’m running the London Marathon on 24th April 2016

Please sponsor my charity, the Outward Bound Trust by clicking on the link,


http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JonSleeper