Shades Marathon Training

VR - I sure do! They ensure I stay relatively healthy during the week.I don't eat them that often to be fair. Normally I go for shish kebab (skewers with charcoal grilled lamb and chicken) for my weekend treat.

I do need to be more careful what I eath though. I have 1 stone to lose and I put on weight this week.

Si J - I hope your house move gets sorted soon. It is the most stressful thing. Well done on the half - hopefully it resulted in a good nights sleep?

Morning everyone!

@Si J - Well done on the Royal Parks Half. It was a bit cold to start off with but a lovely day. I managed 2.17. I was on track for 2.10 but my left quad started to really tighten in the last two miles so i took it really easy.

@Khanivore... Lol, whatever floats your boat.

@VR - Well done on the reverse enigma! When is your next one before Dublin?

@Shades - How was your weekend?

Well done to Mowser for the sub 4!

Today is a stretch/foam roller day. If anyone has any good quad stretches - please send them over... :/

Morning Emmy. Well done on your half too!

My next one is with my club trip. We are going to do Marato Del. Mediterrani. Its near Barcelona on the coast. Cant wait!

Khanivore - Do you know how many calories are in those thngs???  Zillions!
Would undo all your hard work from the week. Ditch them! 
But of course its your life!

VR - ooh! That sounds lovely! Do you have any spare room in your suitcase?

I agree about the kebab... I remember seeing on supersize vs. superskinny - someone that ate kebabs on a regular basis and they broke it down to is 'really' in a kebab... I've not eaten once since!

Yesterday I did my long slow run and the day before I did my long bike ride of the week. Both were rather hilly. This is the first time I have really needed my rest day because my leg muscles are sore.

It is a nice kind of sore. Not painful. I just feel like I have used my legs and every time I even think about using the cycle turbo trainer in my garage my legs remind me my performance would not make it worthwhile. 

It's a wonderful feeling Roll on tomorrow - by when I hope my legs will allow me to run again!

I think it is the hills in both my ride and my run that have led to this. I shall keep including them in my training.

VR I eat a doner kebab at most once a month - normally I opt for the sheesh kebabs which are grilled meat. I think it is important to have these treats now and then. They help me stay on track

i have bad DOMS today i usually drink some milk in some form or another after the race which prevents it but yesterday i had chicken noodle soup instead

VR- We have been gazumped twice now on houses we have tried to buy.We put an offer in on a house on Saturday but someone else put in the same offer and the vendors are now deciding who to sell it to! The housing market has definitely started moving. Well done on your 98th. I wish i was coming to Dublin to see your prize giving at the pub afterwards. i received a message from Elspeth today- was lovely to hear from her.

Mowzer- well done on a sub 4 hour i know its not the first time you have gone sub-4 but its amazing that you can still pull that kind of time out of te bag when you are doing so many.

Emmy- well done! Maybe it was the very cold start that led to the muscle problem. I have never suffered with tight muscles in a race but i did on Sunday.

Khanivore- a bit of aching in the muscles is a good sign as it shows you have challenged them Drink some milk and have a recovery runand  they will be fine.

Slowkoala - yes that's absolutely fine as prep for your 10 mile race.   Just keep that long run pace down.

SiJ - well done, that's a good time.   It does seem that you are overtired and a bit stressed at the moment with the house situation and setting off at a fast pace and then having to slow down would explain the DOMS.    The cold weather wouldn't have helped at all, my muscles get stiff running in cold weather too.

I saw Mrs Mac at Loch Ness, she came and found me when she heard my name being announced at the finish line.

Khanivore - LOL at the name change.  I'm another one that wouldn't eat a donor kebab

Seems like your training is going well, when is your half marathon?

Emmy - well done, that's not far off your PB is it?   How's the quad?   Avoid any downhill running until it eases.

Just checked those shoes and not my size unfortunately, I need a 7.

Mablethorpe is a lovely marathon, beautifully organised, lovely 2 lap course, great marshals and nice scenery.  Really enjoyed it.   Was nursing my sore calf round and managed to squeeze in under 5 hours, 4.59.04!  My calf is no worse from doing the marathon, I wore a new pair of shoes.

 Mowzer did 3.49!!!, brilliant running and won her age category.

Drove as far as Bromsgrove last night, had a lovely 5 mile recovery run on some quiet village roads there this morning then drove the rest of the way home.

Hi folks.

Well done to Shades, VR, Emmy and SiJ on recent races .

Great to meet up with Shades at Mablethorpe. Agree that it is a lovely marathon (except that the half marathoners had used up all the hot water in the showers). I set out way too fast  but as I felt good I decided not to slow down on purpose and to carry on as far as possible, then slow down 'naturally' as it caught up with me.  I thought the last two miles along the sea-front were going to finish me off, but there were more runners towards the end (ones I'd caught up with and others who were catching up with me) so I managed to keep going and got a new pb (3:49:57 chip time, 3:51:01 gun). Bit hot during the race, but afterwards Shades and I sat outside in the sunshine chatting and drinking tea. Very relaxed atmosphere for a marathon and I'd recommend it to anyone (unless you love hills ). 

Had a lie in this morning , then later I managed a slow recovery run, but calves ached a bit.

mowzer - well done, that's a cracking PB.  It is a lovely race and although I was dreading the section in the 2nd lap along the prom, I loved it as the wind had just changed direction enough so it wasn't a problem.

Khanivore - you should be on for a very good PB at your 10k then.

Emmy - I hope you did a PB, you deserve it

 There's no urgency for my shoes, these will see me through the rest of this year's races so I'll keep looking, but if you see any do let me know.

The weather at Mablethorpe was perfect, dry, sunny, little or no wind.   Probably about 10 degrees at start and warmed to maybe 14 or so.

No rest for the wicked,  I have Leicester marathon this weekend (as does mowzer and Keith), then Dartmoor Vale (my local, only a mile from home), then Dublin.

Mowser - Fantastic running! So chuffed for you 

I've ordered some new shoes as well. trying some new types of the same brand I use already. Saucony and Adidas. 

I see that guy that hopped on the bus at Keilder marathon. Rob Sloan has been at it again, although not cheating this time but running under a different name (his friends) in The Great North Run so not to gain attention! 

Hi Shades, Please can you email a copy of your marathon plan.  Thanks!

Morning all,

@Mowser - That's a great race report and I like the absence of hills.

@Shades - it was a PB by 10 seconds. Not a lot but definitely a PB! And it was 8 minutes faster than the Fleet half this year. Wow! That's a full calendar!

@VR - I saw that on Facebook - it's actually brought up a lot of debate but I can see why he did it (in a very misconstrude way).

I stretched last night and the quad still is a little sore so am going to give it another rest day.... is it wrong that there are already doubts creaping into my head?

Emmy - we all have doubts and if we listened to them we wouldn't do anything!
maybe a massage? 

@VR - I'm just being a wuss and needing to harden up! I'd love a sports massage but the guy cannot fit me in this week

Good luck at Kettlecise tonight!

VR - well I hope that twit gets a further ban from UKA running under somebody else's name.

What shoes have you ordered?

RMB4 - you need to mail me your email address, can't send attachments via RW

Emmy - that's great, a PB is a PB.

The quad is such a big muscle it can be hard to judge the damage, just keep stretching gently, walk if pain free and run gently on the flat again if pain free.

Slowkoala - you'll be fine.   Put your 10K time into McMillan's race calculator and that will tell you what pace to run your 10 mile race at, hopefully may stop you going off too fast

Very drizzly today and pitch dark now for all of my run, not helped by our numpty council switching off some of the streetlights which limits my routes.

Morning all,

Shades - I made a completely numpty mistake! It's my hamstring not my quad. I did 4 miles instead of 5 this morning as it really started to twinge. I've stretched it and done some self massage but am trying not to get too worried. A question - when would you take ibruprofen and when would you not? I read an article from Hal Higdon and he said that we should avoid them when running as you should 'feel' the pain. Do you have any advice?

It's also dark and cold here Not nice weather at the moment.

Emmy - LOL although it's not funny, but good news a hamstring injury is much more common than a quad injury and there are a lot more stretches for hamstrings than quads.  If you can run, stick to the flat, run gently with small steps, no striding out, no speed work

Re ibuprofen, I never, ever take it when training, I agree you do need to know if you have any pain.   I use it if I have a niggle/injury to reduce inflammation but again not when I run, I took it for a couple of days last week for my calf.    I also use it in races.