Asics training starts now...!!

melaniejayne wrote (see)

....is your name secretly Geoff...?? 

Possibly.... if it's so secret that nobody informed me.   Wouldn't be the first time I've discovered a family secret in an Eastenders Christmas Special stylee 

 Well that was a sightly muddier run than expected!!!!

ooooh Tenjiso.....im loving the eastenders family secrets...!!! who needs a soap when you can spill the beans for us!!!...

Hey Mel,

Just been having a catch up on your thread and you're doing so well through such a tough time - really inspiring stuff and I'm so pleased you've got a smile back on your face.

Wow, mega probs with the shoes then! What a shame - as Seren says, perhaps it is better to just stick with what you know for now. Better that than force yourself to change to something you're not so comfortable with and inure yourself as a result...

Oh my goodness, Mel!! What colour did the trousers start out at? I can't tell whether the black is mud or the cream? Eek! Hope you've got an industrial strength washing machine!!

Happy New Year Mel - have been thinking of you and glad you had your girls with you for mutual support at this tough time.

Also good to see your mud splattered clothing - I get the sense you are more at home on the trails and hills - and will definitely bear that in mind... though we have to remember the streets of Paris are made of tarmac, and a few cobbles

Hope week 3 has helped you get your mojo back - you've got your hilly run tomorrow and Sunday's long run is fine to take off road. Have just been off-roading myself quite a lot - in the wilds of Scotland. No mobile phone signal or wifi for 5 whole days over New Year. Bliss

Hi Melanie

Congratulations on the forum so far and what an inspiration you will be for so many people on this forum. My name is Ruth and I am the Asics Pro Team Dietitian. I have worked with athletes now for 12 years from young developing athletes to Olympic level athletes and enjoy the challenges that sports nutrition brings; research continues to move at a  pace, but often getting the basics right will have the greatest results throughout training and on on race day. Good nutrition will benefit immunity, motivation and recovery. A sucessful race day is dependant on a well practiced nutrition plan.

In regards  the gels you can use jelly sweets instead: jelly babies, beans etc they do the same job. The gels are good in regards they are nicely foiled wrapped and won't get stickly in your bumbag/pockets especially in Paris as it could be hot. Have you tried an isotonic gel (ones with some water added)  such as isogels by High Five or GO by a company called science in sport

Please feel free to post typical daily food and drink consumption, including meal & snack times as well as sleeping and training times. Also include any recent dietary changes.

You are in safe hands with Sam. I look forward to see how your journey will progress over the coming few months. I tend to come onto the forums a couple of times  a week (likely to be Monday & Thursday) and try to answer all nutrition questions.

 Great as always to have the support of everyone posting on forums.

Ruth

Hello Mel,congratulations on making it to the final five I am just catching up with your forum and looking forward to following your progress. Love the muddy clothing pic, I suspect there will be more to come 

Hello Ruth

Good to see you here.

Mel, Ruth is your woman for any nutrition/hydration queries - she makes it all sound like good plain common sense instead of baffling science 

I think it's fair to say you're going to need something other than water once you get to the much longer runs, and the race itself. And I am not talking about G&Ts, either

Hi Sam- good to hear from you...Have to say Im pleased 2012 is over!!!......Scotland sounds amazing!!!!....Running and no contact with the outside world!!!..Bliss.....Dont worry although I love the hills and trails, Im still pounding on tarmac!!.....Todays run was lovely over the Downs.....with a camel back for the first time and a gel which wasnt like cement..!!....although had to take it as if it was medicine.....I will try jelly beans....santa gave me some...!! Cant believe we are about to start week 4!!!!!

Hi Ruth- Lovely to hear from you!!.....any input is amazing....I am like a sponge just wanting to soak up all the information....I'm sure I will pick your brains many times!!...I will try the jelly beans next time I have a longer run, ( how often would I take them??) I also have a selection of gels ect now for my longer runs that I am trying.....coconut water post run??? what are your thoughts on that??.....

Hello mad welsh woman!!!.....Thank you!!!.....I would think coming from Wales you would be used to muddy clothing!!!!......

Steve - Sorry takes me a while to get back......thats why Im in the busy life style catagory..... The shoes....??? well I have just been sent another pair......GT2000 as recommended by my lovely local running shop......so fingers crossed....( although I have also bought another pair of my favourite Brooks...).....Have to say I love the photo of you on Twitter of your very tight running attire!!!!....Its the look on your face which makes me laugh the most!!!!......

Sarah.....They were supposed to be Black!!!......muddiest run I have done for a while!!!....falling over twice didnt help!!.....

 I got my little girl out for a run with me today!!!!!......( well maybe not quite so little...)

Here we go…the run down for week 3!!....( excuse the pun..)

Monday – Should have been 4 mile comfortable, but had the opportunity to do a lovely run with friends tomorrow……so swapped!!!

Tuesday – 4 mile comfortable (10:15 – 11:15)

Oh this was muddier and hillier and longer than expected. A great start to the new year though….thrashing over Cissbury Ring friends what could be better!!.....

Miles - 5.15 Time - 54.40 Pace – 10:37….I gave up on the pace after I fell over in the mud for the 2nd time, it just wasn’t happening…!!

 Wednesday – Speed session 1 mile comfortable (10:15 – 11:15) 3x8 Mins fast ( 8.45 – 9) 1 mile comfortable(10:15 – 11:15)

Managed to incorporate this into my running group, where a few of us split off. 

Lap 1 0:09:45 Dist 1mi Pace 9:45 min/mile

Lap 2 0:08:00 Dist 0.9mi Pace 8:53 min/mile

 Lap 3 0:08:00 Dist 0.9mi Pace 8:53 min/mile

Lap 4 0:08:00 Dist 0.9mi Pace 8:59 min/mile

 Lap 5 0:09:50 Dist 1mi Pace 9:50 min/mile

Thursday – Rest

Friday – 5 Mile Hilly

The South Downs definatly have hills……Great run with my sister and daughter…and her very fast boyfriend.

Miles – 5  Time – 49.15 Pace average - 9.51

Saturday – Rest 

Sunday – 11 mile comfortable (10:15 – 11:15)

My running club meet on a Sunday morning and do a 6 miler….So I ran to them instead of driving…..lovely run in Arundel Park…then ran home!!!....Slightly longer than expected, but great run. Used a camel back for the first time, and found a gel which wasn’t like cement in my mouth.

Miles – 12.7  Time – 2 hours 12  Pace average – 10:24

A great week....Ive loved every minute of it!!!

Sounds like you've had a great week Mel It's great that you can work so many of your runs into your running club.

Hope you get the running shoe issues sorted!! I've got GT2000s as well - no problems with them so far, they seem like a really good shoe (although I had Asics GT-2170s previously which were fairly similar so not much of a change for me).

What is the favourite (non-cement) gel so far?

Good luck with week four!

Hi Mel -  that's great that you've enjoyed this week. I was a bit worried for you when you said a week ago that you weren't enjoying it. (although understandable in the circumstances) Onwards & Upwards now.

Hi Cecilie

I'm providing Mel's training programme and I tend to prefer to post a month at a time - which gives the opportunity to adjust, amend along the way depending on Mel's progress and how her body (and mind!) responds to the different sessions. The next 4 weeks will be posted next weekend. That said, Mel's programme is specifically built around her time availability/access to different surfaces/current mileage etc so it isn't necessarily the best one for you to follow (although it might be fine - it's just everyone is different.) The key things are not to make too big a jump from your 'normal' training to your marathon training (eg. if you are only doing 3 days a week, then suddenly doing 5 a week is too much) to make sure you include some slower than proposed marathon pace runs - usually the long run - and some faster than proposed pace runs (usually intervals or tempo training) as well as some that is around proposed race pace. There are so many ways to swing a cat! 

Mel, so pleased to see a great week's training in the bag - and it looks like the pace guidelines are just right for now, too. It's a cutback week this week, mileage wise, but no problem adding a mile or two to either tomorrow or Thursday or Sunday's session.

A couple of things re. week 4. Are you signed up to do a parkrun on Saturday? 
Do you have any cross training activities that you enjoy? I may have missed it, but I think you've always opted for 'rest' when it has said rest or cross training! 

melaniejayne wrote (see

Hi Ruth- Lovely to hear from you!!.....any input is amazing....I am like a sponge just wanting to soak up all the information....I'm sure I will pick your brains many times!!...I will try the jelly beans next time I have a longer run, ( how often would I take them??) I also have a selection of gels ect now for my longer runs that I am trying.....coconut water post run??? what are your thoughts on that??.....

 

Hi Mel,

Little girl certainly not so little anymore!

At this stage of your running I would start trying jelly sweets or gel for any runs longer than 75minutes. But when you know runs will be this long, do not wait until 75minutes until you have your first sweet/gel! Have your first one at 30minutes if using a gel,  then another gel every 30minutes, you may not need them this often but only time will tell. If using sweets you have a choice to drip feed them every 15minutes (4 small jelly sweets or 2 large ones such as jelly babies) or at 30 minutes; a handful of 5- 6 small jelly sweets or 3-4 larger ones and exactly which sweets/gels you are using so I can check carb intake per hour. Let me know exactly how this goes on each run you try.

You may also want to take water on during long runs so you know you will have no problems in race day (and often drinking from a cup can be different from a bottle or camel bak) but really in winter here in Britain you will get away with up to 90minutes without water - no problem unless poorly hydrated before start of run  but best to get used to this/or re-practise again.

Believe it or not coconut water, plain water, milk, freshly squeezed orange juice or even coke taken with some food (for  the salt as salt helps uptake the water and most food will have enough as only need some amount) will rehydrate you but the difference is how quickly. Coke, fruit juice and milk have higher sugar content so will take longer, coke and fruit juice especially, as they sit in your stomach longer due to this higher sugar content and tend to empty little by little but probably less wasted as you tend not to go to the toilet (like you do if drink lots of plain water as it leaves stomach quicker so less overall absorbed).So as long as fluid lost is replaced by next you will rehydrate. However when you need to rehydrate quicker for example if doing 2 sessions a day etc then the tyre of drink becomes more important. I am not saying to drink coke but just making the point that make sure you drink something after runs then little and often until next run and you should not have a problem with hydration but water is the drink with no calories or issues with acid attach on those teeth! Sports drinks are taken up very quickly (especially the isotonic or hypotonic (these are ones advertised as low calorie such as powerAade zero, lucozade light sports drink, high five zero) as they ahve the salt added and a little sugar which also helps uptake fluid. Hope that all made sense- always tell me if not making things clear!

How is your day to day eating?

Keep up the good training.

Hi Sam!

Hi Steve....yes I am so lucky to have such a fab running club....a lot of them do longer distances such as marathons and ultras, so there is normally someone needing/wanting to do a longer run or a speed session, or just to bounce ideas off!!!.....

I have my lovely new trainers to try out tomorrow on a little 3 miler.....fingers crossed!!!....

DS2....thank you.....yes the Christmas week was hard, just goes to show how much of a mental sport running is!!....but yes...back on form thank you and loving it!!!!.....and I haven't cried on a single run yet this year!!!.....

Celilie.....I think on page 2 or 3 of this thread is the running schedule for the first 4 weeks.....I am about to post this week up again as a reminder......Its been great!! Which Marathon are you doing on the 14th??