Cobbles & Red Wine - Sarah’s Paris Marathon Plan: Sub 3:35

BTRR - well done at this stage the speed of the 20 is relatively unimportant compared to actually getting the miles in.

Evening Ruth,

A hotel close to the hotel sounds fantastic. Gosh – that sounds like late eating!

In the food test before Dorney, I had the main carb-heavy meal at lunchtime and a lighter evening meal but with lots of veg (as per usual) and potato wedges to bump up the carbs. I need your advice as you said that this wasn’t a good option in your last post.

I’m wary of having rice as this isn’t something I usually eat. My evening meal is usually fish (without a sauce) and is heavy on the veg (although I’ve been having a sweet potato to accompany this recently as you’ve suggested. The heavy carbs at lunchtime and a lighter evening meal worked well at Dorney Lakes. What would you advise?

Thank you for the additional marathon info. It sounds fairly similar to what I had to do for Liverpool marathon. I brought pre-portioned porridge with the sugar already mixed in and a bowl for the breakfast and just poured boiling water from the kettle onto the porridge and covered it to soften. It worked well. Do you have any idea whether there will be kettles in the hotel rooms this year?

Evening Sarah!

Yes – it’s definitely worth having a go at spin … plus I’ve heard it’s good for speeding up your running! Not sure how true that is, mind …!

Glad I’m not the only one that enjoys running like a 6 year old!!

Evening Angela!!

Wow! Sounds like you’ve done an amazing job on getting your partner to have a healthier lifestyle! My boyfriend has been running years … but will only eat rubbishy food!! Not even the horse thing recently has put him off cheap sausages and burgers!

However, he might start eating a bit more healthier now I run faster than him. Nothing like a bit of an incentive to start some healthy habits!!

Evening Buffy!!

Woo woo!! Glad you’re back running!! Well done on your 20 miler!!

I’m still not 100% either – have my first long run back tomorrow. Suspect it may hurt! However, I’ve downloaded a couple of audiobooks to see me through and I’ve chosen a different route which is laps and it’s offroad. So I just have to make sure I keep going past the car each time and then I won’t be able to get home unless I run back to the car!

How are you feeling now?

Evening Marathon Coach Steve!

You were absolutely right about starting the early morning run slowly … I didn’t have a choice! Heavy legs, tired and I was like a zombie the rest of the day! Much prefer to run late at night!!

Week 12, day 4

Goal: 5 miles of marathon, 10k and fast jog (9m total)

Actual: 2 mile warmup, 5 miles of marathon, 10k and fast jog, 2 mile cool down, (9m total)

Decided to try an early morning run … more out of necessity and being unable to fit a run in in the evening but I thought it might be a good idea … after all most races start in the morning.

How do people manage it? First of all the getting out of bed at 5am for porridge … then having to leave the house before the sun was up … heavy, tired legs … having to stop for cars at junctions as the roads were busier (not usually a problem during late night runs!) … although being able to stop at Tesco for a call of nature rather than a pub was a bit of a novelty.

However, it WAS nice seeing a bit of daylight while running and it meant that I was able to use the canal paths which are usually off-limits when it’s dark because they’re so lonely. It was definitely prettier seeing the scenery rather than just blackness and orange sodium lights.

I used 7, 8 & 9 minute/miles for the paces. My brain doesn’t seem to function early in the morning so I thought I’d keep it simple. However, in the final ½ mile of the 5 miles of the intervals I still forget that I had to change back to 9 min/miles and wondered why it was hard going hopping over the puddles and kerbs … 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/281736872

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/281736868

I'm unable to post pics from the run at the moment as it doesn't seem to be working but I'll get these up as soon as possible

Evening Angela!

Ha ha! So there ARE benefits to this healthy living then?!

I reckon it's the creme eggs too ... c'mon Mr Cadburys! Send some freebies over for us promoting the benefits! ... I wish!!

Have you got a long run tomorrow again?

Week 12, Day 6

Goal: 6 miles hills

Actual: 6 miles hills

I love running. I really do. But I also really didn’t want to run tonight. A combination of a grumpy, sulky 3 year old and the soft play centre running out of coffee today had meant I was also grumpy and sulky and it was 10pm and I still hadn’t got my trainers on.

I got to the back door. Opened it and closed it again. I was already forming the excuses in my head as to why I wasn’t going to run tonight.

Gave myself a mental kick up the backside. Training isn’t meant to be all enjoyable. The whole reason for slogging through the tough bits of training is to make the marathon easier.  Grit your teeth and get the training done now – in the dark, in the cold – and I get to run more easily in the sunshine – well daylight, anyway – in Paris.

This session was hills, but mindful of the fact I had one of my longest runs in about 12 hours time I didn’t set myself a strict routine like my last hills session. Instead, I ran up and down the biggest hill I could find … but gently. Which I understand isn’t really in the SPIRIT of a hills session but I thought might be the most sensible option.

Distance: 6:07

Time: 54:09

Garmin Info Here

Looking at the Garmin info … it really does look as though I chose the most pathetic hill possible. In fact it looks practically flat. In my defence, can I refer you to my HR info … see I WAS working! Honest!

Angela Isherwood 2 wrote (see)

Hi Sarah,
Well done on your 18 miler! And lots of MP miles
I think the similarities in our OHs are remarkable. When I met him, and we'd message about what we had for dinner or whatever, he would regularly reply one of the following: KFC, McDonald's, dominos pizza. And he was a footballer, but 'injured' so never played.
Now, he eats much healthier, and is doing the following races with me this year:
Bupa 10000 (London 10k)
Ride London 100 - 100 mile bike ride, I'm even scared about this
Bacchus half marathon- convinced him due to the presence of wine on the course- seems like a copycat of the medoc marathon, so quite intrigued

My OH has been more successful than me on the dryathlon ( no alcohol in January) now I'll have the odd glass mid week but he's still limiting himself to only drink wine on Sundays, though I think my absence over the last couple days may have led to sme boys nights out! Is yours a runner too?

Will you be drinking the wine on your way round? I really dont know if I could do it, even on holiday I cant drink in the day and just want water!

Hope you are not still out there now!

two fairly hard runs the previous two days so hope it wasn't too hard.

Hi Sarah....a 5 am start is enough to destroy anyone. My morning runs never have me up before 7:30

Hope you had a good LSR today

Hi Steve, im just wondering will sarah be doing her longest run 3 or 4 weeks out?

Last year I did mine 3 weeks out. I was planning on doing mine 4 weeks out but due to other commitments its not possible so I was going to do it three weeks out instead now. I know Sam has advised Ady to do his this weekend (4 weeks out) so I was wondering your views on this?

Many thanks

Hi Sarah,

Yes, I plan to drink vino! though I don't plan to race this one at all... more like a gentle jog around some nice country, and we'll be staying with a relative who lives close to the vinyard, so really its just a minibreak where I'll get to stretch my legs out

RunnyRunRun wrote (see)

Evening Ruth,

A hotel close to the hotel sounds fantastic. Gosh – that sounds like late eating!

In the food test before Dorney, I had the main carb-heavy meal at lunchtime and a lighter evening meal but with lots of veg (as per usual) and potato wedges to bump up the carbs. I need your advice as you said that this wasn’t a good option in your last post.

I’m wary of having rice as this isn’t something I usually eat. My evening meal is usually fish (without a sauce) and is heavy on the veg (although I’ve been having a sweet potato to accompany this recently as you’ve suggested. The heavy carbs at lunchtime and a lighter evening meal worked well at Dorney Lakes. What would you advise?

Thank you for the additional marathon info. It sounds fairly similar to what I had to do for Liverpool marathon. I brought pre-portioned porridge with the sugar already mixed in and a bowl for the breakfast and just poured boiling water from the kettle onto the porridge and covered it to soften. It worked well. Do you have any idea whether there will be kettles in the hotel rooms this year?

Hi RRR

The eating late on the Friday night of arrival is really just logistics of travel and having to go to register at expo but the idea of having it so close to the hotel is that 1 or 2 of you can just wonder back to hotel as soon as you have finished eating.

The problem with sweet potatoes is that these are not that common in France so I am just trying to be realistic what carbs will be on offer but on the Saturday night we  can put in a request to the restaurant but you just never know until you arrive that this request will be as you wish! The problem with being heavy on the veg (which on a day to day basic I am all for!)will fill you up but at the end of the day you need to be comfortable with what you are going to eat so if this means heavy carb main at lunch and carb snacks throughout the day then you should consider this. Could you write down for me how you realistically you see how your 2 days before Paris will look (even on travel day) as this will actually be a good exercise for you (I think!) and for me to give some comments?

I will try and find out about kettle.

Hi RRR

I managed to avoid the minor blizzard by running yesterday - hope you aren't lost in a snow drift. I do feel well now  and didn't feel normal till I started running properly again. I fear I'm addicted. I never get up early to run - don't know why but I just can't hack it. I'm more of an evening runner but I can't sleep if I leave it too late!

Hope you enjoyed your long run.