Saturday 18 April 2015

Marathon Coverage on TV

I watched the marathon coverage of Brighton Marathon on Channel 4 today. It was great to re-live the weekend and nice to see running represented on TV, even if it was really early in the morning.

I think overall they did a pretty good job of capturing the atmosphere and excitement of the weekend. It was also good to see what the elite runners got up to as I only briefly saw them a couple of times as they whizzed past going the the opposite direction to me.

However, there were three parts of the coverage that I felt were a bit disappointing (I’ve also noticed the same in coverage of other races). In this post I want to talk about them and suggest some improvements that the producers might want to consider for the future.

The Phrase ‘The Masses’

My first complaint is with the use of the term ‘the masses’ to describe everyone who isn’t one of the elite runners. This seems a very disingenuous way to describe people who have trained hard, covered hundreds or thousands of miles and gone out in all weather to make it to a marathon.

These runners are putting in just as much effort as the elites and describing them as ‘masses’ just doesn’t capture how special they are. It make it seems as if any old person can just pitch up and run a marathon.

For me ‘the masses’ are the millions of people sitting and home who wouldn’t dream of stepping up and attempting a marathon. Those who are there and actually doing it, no matter how fast or slow, are athletes.

My suggestion for the commentators would therefore be that rather than saying “…and going back to the masses” they instead go for “…and returning to the main group of athletes”. Much more empowering and rewarding.

Time Goals For Non-Elites

The other thing that annoyed me was when the commentator had just finished discussing times and paces of the elite runners and then returned to the main group with the phrase “….and of course for many of these runners time isn’t important, they will just be aiming to finish the race”. How patronising!

Yes, there are probably some runners for whom just finishing is the goal. However, I expect that there are far more who are there with a specific time in mind, with a personal best to be beaten or a challenge to be met.

It think it very demeaning to just assume that just because a person isn’t running sub 5-minute miles that their only aim is to make it to the end without collapsing. Please commentators, give everyone a little more credit for all their hard work and effort.

Sub-Elite Runner Coverage

It was great to see the elite Kenyan runners at the front of the field feature heavily in the coverage. It’s lovely to watch how smoothly they run. Seeing the main group of athletes, those in costume and those doing excellent charity fund raising work was also great. It’s nice to see so many people getting involved in and taking pleasure from running.

Unfortunately the coverage just seemed to flip between the front elite group and those who would be finishing in about 4 hours 15 minutes or longer. What about the three thousand runners in the gap between these two ends of the spectrum? Aside from a few panning shots this group of runners was barely shown at all.

This seems a shame when you consider that this group probably contains a large number of dedicated club runners, people targeting specific times (a good-for-age for London, a qualifying time for Boston) and a vast amount of marathoning experience.

The runners in this group will also be people with families, holding down full-time jobs and also managing to train regularly and possibly coach others as well. They should be an inspiration to others who want to go beyond just completing their first marathon. They show what is possible with hard work and dedication. Producers, please give them a bit of air time as well.


With just a tiny bit of improvement, excellent marathon coverage could be amazing and serve as an inspiration not just for people to attempt a marathon but also to those who want to push themselves to even better performances. Lets up the game and really showcase the full range of athletes, from those running just over two hours right down to those fighting all the way to make it to the end.

Friday 17 April 2015

Journey to My First Marathon – Part 4

On 12th April 2015 I took part in Brighton Marathon, my first ever marathon event. In this series of four posts I will be talking about my marathon build-up, training, performance and what I learnt along the way.

In the previous post I looked my race preparation and my pre-race strategy.

In this final post I'm going to cover my actual race performance and all the things I've learnt from my journey.

The Race

So, I'd finally made it to race day. I was fully fuelled and hydrated. Legs feeling strong and full of energy. Arrived at the start in Preston Park, Brighton in plenty of time.

Weather

The weather was clear skies and sunshine and probably a fair bit warmer than predicted. However, there was also a fairly stiff sea breeze that made it seem a lot cooler than it actually was. At this point in time I never even considered what impact the weather conditions would have on the race, probably due to a mix of excitement and lack of experience at this length of event.

I learnt afterwards from a friend on Strava that the elite runners considered the weather conditions significant enough to adjust their race plans slightly. Probably shows why they are the elites!

The start

At Brighton the elite group have their own start further along the main road. The remaining runners start in Preston Park and do a lap of the park before merging into the race with the elites. This had the advantage that I was able to work my way pretty much to the front of the start coral, crossing the line just a few seconds after the gun.

The downside of the Preston Park start is that the first mile consists of a tight loop of the park starting with a steepish uphill section followed by a matching downhill. This isn't really the best way to start a marathon as it makes initial pacing really difficult to judge. If I do Brighton again I will definitely be aiming to join the elite start group!

The first third

After the first mile was complete I quickly settled down and got into my flow. Pace at this point settled at around 4:18/km (6:55/mile). This was fractionally faster than my planned pace but it felt comfortable and I didn't feel that I was over-exerting myself so I decided to stay with the flow rather than make lots of little adjustments to pace.

By the time I reached the 14km mark my average pace had quickened fractionally to 4:16/km (6:51/mile) with my average heart rate creeping up to about 167bpm. Maybe I slightly over exerted myself on the first section of the run compared to plan and this probably didn't help with the problems I suffered in the final parts of the race.

However, at this point I was still thoroughly enjoying myself and feeling really strong. I therefore decided to pick up the pace a fraction and try to get my average pace to 4:15/km.

The middle third

Picking up the pace initially felt fine and I covered the next 10km right on my target pace. Then at about 25km (16 miles) things started to get harder. My pace started to slow and become more erratic, averaging out at about 4:23/km and heart rate reached an average of 171bpm.

At 28km I pretty much accepted that the goal of a sub-3 hour marathon was beyond me. I decided to settle for maintaining my new pace as best as possible, which would still result in a very acceptable time.

The final third

The last part of the Brighton Marathon course is particularly mentally tough. After going through the centre of Hove you head out into an industrial area, with a loop around the power station. There's much less crowd support in this area and very little scenery to keep your spirits up. It's just a case of focusing on your running, gritting your teeth, counting down the kilometres and thinking about the finish.

By this time I was really beginning to suffer and my pace got slower and slower, averaging off at about 4:30/km (7:15/mile). I did however have the mental presence to realise that my earlier good pace meant that all I need to do was keep going and I would still be well within my target time range.

The last 3 kilometres

Those final 3 kilometres were a mix of pain, daze, excitement, hell, enjoyment, perseverance and pleasure. By this time my left glute was rebelling and delegating a huge amount of extra effort to the hamstring. This muscle was in turn getting tighter and tighter with every step. As I went past runner after runner stopped at the side of the road with cramp I knew I just had to keep on moving.

Fortunately by this time I'd made it back into Brighton and the cheering crowds along the seafront and promenade were a massive boost. If you look at some of the race photos, you can see me alternating between pained grimaces one minute and happy smiles the next.

Current pace had dropped to an average of 4:46/km (7:40/mile) for each of these last 3km. However, my watch was displaying an average race pace of 4:23/km (7:04/mile) so I knew I was on for a good time and I therefore didn't try to push any harder and risk a blown hamstring.

The finish

As the finish came into sight I tried to muster up everything I had for a final sprint, and I managed somewhere to pull out a 4:23/km pace for the final finish straight. I crossed the line with a huge smile on my face and a finishing time of 3 hours, 5 minutes and 19 seconds!

Yes, 3:05:19 for my first marathon. I was elated and not at all disappointed at missing that 3 hour mark. In fact by the time I'd reached back pick-up I was already planning my next marathon and how I would knock off those extra 5 and a bit minutes. It was also great to fire up the Brighton Marathon App and see that I finished in an amazing 160th position (165th on chip time), far higher up the standings than I ever thought was possible.

Recovery

I met up with my family and, as suggested by my sports masseur, I went and stood in the sea for 10 minutes to give my legs an early ice bath. It was then straight into compression tights and off for a nice meal to celebrate. Sunday evening and Monday morning were a bit painful as my legs started to stiffen up, but another ice bath and keeping active really helped. By Tuesday morning everything was feeling good again and with a couple of sessions on the foam roller I was out doing a 5k recovery run on the Thursday morning.

Race Assessment

So, I've finished my first marathon in a really good time, but I struggled at the end. My recent half marathon PBs suggest I could have gone faster, so what let me down?

Pacing

I did go out at a slightly faster pace in the first third than originally planned, but only by about 3 seconds per km. I also felt that I was running the first third at a relatively comfortable effort. By half way I was slightly up on where I had expected to be but spot on for a 3-hour time. All I needed to do was maintain a steady 4:15/km pace for the second half of the race. This should have been achievable based on my training and recent half marathon experiences.

I'm not sure whether I underestimated how tough the second half would be or whether the weather and hydration difficulties described below caused my pace to drop off, but I still think I'm capable of running the 4:15/km average pace for the entire distance.

Nutrition

I think I got my nutrition pretty much spot on. At no point did I feel depleted of energy and I certainly didn't hit the legendary 'wall'. After the race was complete I didn't experience any post-race energy dip or excessive tiredness so I think I must have got both my pre-race and in-race fuelling correct.

Hydration

It was hydration that I think really killed the final stages of the marathon for me. I found drinking from the paper cups far harder than I expected. I found that at most drink stations I spilt about half the water while trying to collect the cup and squeeze the top together into a funnel. This meant that I was probably only getting a couple of mouthfuls of water per drink station.

Given the weather conditions (see below) I think I was therefore loosing far more liquid than I was taking on board, even though I took a drink from every station. This certainly accounts for the gradual loss of performance in the later stages plus the early signs of muscle cramps in the last few km. I certainly wasn't unique in this situation as I saw so many people suffering during the last 10km, many having pulled up with cramp.

With hindsight I probably should have made the effort to slow down at the drink stations so as to not spill so much and therefore be able to get more water on board. Someone also mentioned in their post-race analysis that they got their wife to pass them drink bottles at a couple of points in the race. I'd never thought of that, but it's certainly an option that I will consider having available in the future.

Weather

Coupled with the difficulty I had taking on water, I think the weather conditions on the day contributed significantly to dehydration problems. It was a clear, sunny and warm day. However, the stiff sea breeze made it feel much cooler than it actually was. I think this resulted in a number of things happening:

  1. Extra effort was needed to run into the wind at a few points along the course. This resulted in more exertion that I didn't take account of in my pacing.
  2. The higher than expected temperatures and warm sun was causing more perspiration than expected (certainly much more than I'd been used to in any of my early morning training runs), but I didn't feel that I was getting hot at any point due to the cool breeze.
  3. The strong breeze was drying perspiration very quickly so it wasn't obvious just how much fluid I was loosing from sweating.

In all my previous races all I’ve needed to worry about was pacing in a head or tail wind or looking out for sunburn. This was the first race where weather had a significant impact on my performance and, given the length of the race, I needed to take it into account, but I didn’t do so successfully.

Learnings For Next Time

So, I’ve completed my first marathon in a really good time. I’ve got my good-for-age time for London in 2016 (unless they change the rules/requirements). What did I learn that I will do different next year?

Training plan adjustments

I was really happy with the P&D training plan that I followed. It seemed to work very well for me and the pacing discipline and strong scientific grounding really allowed me to have confidence in the plan.

The one change that I would make when using it again would be to add some additional marathon pace work and adjust when this occurs in the run.

First off I’d make sure that all of my long runs finish with a couple of kilometres at marathon pace. I feel that this would better prepare my legs for dealing with that last few km of the marathon when they are tired and when maintaining pace is essential for a fast time.

Additionally, in the plan there were a few marathon paced long runs, but I executed them as a short warm-up, marathon pace section and then the remainder of the long run at slow pace. When following the plan in future I will do all of the slow pace work first and then position the marathon pace work at the end. Again, the goal will be not to teach the legs to run a marathon pace (they can already do that) but to teach them to do it when they are tired.

Hydration strategy and practice

If the next race I do is planning to use paper cups for water I’ll be setting up a drinks station in my road and practicing and practicing until I can pick up cups and drink a decent amount from them without spillage! I really should have done that before Brighton but I just didn’t consider it such an issue.

I’m also certainly going to be going away and researching hydration strategies, fluid loss to perspiration and so forth. There are systems you can use whereby you weigh yourself before and after runs at different efforts and in different temperatures. From these it is possible to determine your expected rate of fluid loss and then use this as to plan and influence how much and how often you need to drink during a race. I plan to never go into a race again without having full certainty on how much fluid I need to consume.

Finally, if I have supporters coming along to cheer me on at my next marathon I will be making sure they are each armed with a disposable bottle of water with an added electrolyte tablet. That way if I’m struggling to take on enough water at drink stations I can always be sure that there will be a good alternative option available.

Strategy improvements

I still think my pacing strategy was reasonably sound and I think I followed it fairly successfully. However, for my next marathon I will aim to be much more precise with pacing in the early part of the race and not let myself get too carried away (even if it’s only by a few seconds per kilometre).

I’ve also learnt that as the distance of the race increases I need to take much more note of the weather conditions and adjust my expectations and pacing plan accordingly. In particular, I need to make sure I’m not over exerting into a headwind and getting the most from a tailwind rather than trying to maintain a consistent pace throughout.

The Next Marathon

Now that my first marathon is complete I’m already planning the next. Provided the rules don’t change I’ll be planning to exercise my good-for-age entry into the Virgin London Marathon in 2016. And I’ll be working really hard to get that sub 3-hour time on my next attempt.

Journey to My First Marathon – Part 3

On 12th April 2015 I took part in Brighton Marathon, my first ever marathon event. In this series of four posts I will be talking about my marathon build-up, training, performance and what I learnt along the way.

In the previous post I looked at how I followed my training plan and managed my nutrition during the training period.

In this third post I'm going to cover my race preparation and race day strategy.

Race Preparation

After booking in to Brighton Marathon I'd also entered both Bath and Reading half marathons as race preparation events. Bath was six weeks before Brighton and Reading just three. The aim was to run Bath as a flat out effort to assess progress and then run Reading as marathon paced training run.

Bath Half

My plan going in to Bath Half was to aim to run in the 4:05/km to 4:10/km pace range (6:35 to 6:40 per mile) and then, if feeling strong, pick up the pace towards the end of the race. The day dawned pleasant but with a fairly strong breeze that would present itself as a headwind for a significant part of the course.

Even with the wind, I had a cracking run at Bath and reduced my PB from 1:30:01 down to 1:26:09. I also managed to run each of the last 5 kilometres at sub-4:00/km pace and still felt that I had a bit left in the tank as well. This gave me a lot of confidence that my training plan was going well. I was really glad I made the effort to include this additional race into my calendar.

Reading Half

My great result at Bath left me with a small dilemma for Reading. I'd always planned to run this race as a marathon pace training effort, but I still felt I could run a faster half marathon, especially if the conditions were more favourable.

I weighed up the options as decided that as I was feeling strong and healthy I would therefore race Reading rather than treat it as a training run. My reasoning being that another really strong half marathon would give me a greater confidence boost than just completing another training run.

My feeling was correct and I was able to maintain an average 3:58/km (6:24/mile) pace for an improved PB of 1:24:33. This was the exact confidence boost that I has hoped for. The only downside was that a second full effort half marathon in just three weeks made for a slower recovery. But, with the taper for Brighton started and a sports massage in the middle of the taper I was able to get the legs back in good shape in plenty of time.

I'd strongly recommend that if you are approaching a marathon you include a couple of races in the couple of months before. Having more race experience and a way to measure the result of your training makes planning for the marathon a much easier task. If you can also hit a PB in a shorted event along the way then you are setting yourself up with a great mindset going into the big day.

Race Strategy

I'd been thinking long and hard about race strategy for months, but this became a major consideration in the three weeks leading up to the race.

Pacing

When I signed up for Brighton, my target time was 3:10:00. This seemed appropriate given my then half marathon PB of 1:30:01 and my goal of a good-for-age entry to London in 2016 (which requires a sub-3:15 marathon for the 41-50 age group). My initial race plan was therefore to target a steady pace of 4:24/km (7:05/mile) which would result in a time of 3:07:00 - giving some buffer time for a slow start, congestion on the course, slowing at drink stations and similar.

However, my great results at Bath and Reading half marathons got me really starting to question whether my target time and strategy were aggressive enough, especially given how well my training had gone. A half marathon time of 1:24:33 put me tantalisingly close to being able to break the magic three hour marathon mark. My feeling was that it would be really great to hit this milestone in my debut marathon, but at the same time I didn't want to risk going too hard, detonating and missing my good-for-age target time.

After much deliberation I decided on a strategy that would give me an opportunity to target a sub-three hour time if things were going well but that wouldn't take too much out of me early in the race, saving energy for if things got tough. The final strategy that I went into the race with was:

  • Start to 14km (9 miles): 4:20/km (7:00/mile)
  • 14km to 28km (miles 9 to 18): 4:15/km (6:50/mile)
  • 28km to end (18 miles+): If feeling strong then 4:10/km (6:40/mile) otherwise remain at 4:15/km

If all went well then this would average out at around 4:15/km, which would be pretty much spot on the 3 hour mark. I was also quietly confident of being able to maintain the slower 4:15/km pace for the final third of the race if things weren't working out. As it turns out, I wasn't able to fully follow this plan, but that's a subject for the final post in this series.

Nutrition

Given my fairly low carb, high fat and protein paleo diet, I opted to avoid the typical massive carb fest in the few days before the race. Instead I just ate my normal diet but substituted porridge into my breakfast and rice into my evening meals. I was pretty confident with my body's ability to efficiently burn fuel based on the vast number of mostly fasted miles I'd put in over the months of training.

Race day breakfast was my usual large bowl of porridge with a 33Shake All In One Shake mixed in. I usually eat this three hours before the start of the race.

About an hour before the race I then have a couple of low fat and fibre ginger cookies that I make following a recipe on Runners World. I find these nicely settle my tummy without causing any digestion problems during the race.

In-race nutrition was to be provided by four 33Shake Chia Gels, which I would consume at kilometres 8, 16, 24 and 32 (miles 5, 10, 15 and 20). I've been training with these natural energy gels for months and have found them very digestable with a good slow release of energy, rather than the massive sugar hit and crash that you get with normal energy gels.

Hydration

My pre-race hydration plan is to drink plenty of water with breakfast. This ensures good starting hydration levels for the day but gives you an opportunity to flush everything through before lining up to race. Definitely don't want to be starting out with a partly-full bladder and needing to take a pee stop mid-race. I then sip some water on the start line just as a final top up before the off. I didn't see any reason to change this strategy that has always worked for me in the past.

For this year, Brighton Marathon opted to use paper cups, instead of the more common pouches or bottles, for both water and gatorade. Their stated reasons for this choice being that it's more environmentally friendly and also that it allows them to have drink stations every mile throughout the race.

My plan was to consume only water, as I haven't ever used any energy drinks and don't really see the need to do so. With drink stations every mile, I intended to take on water every other mile and therefore have the option for additional water if needed in the intermediate period.

I didn't bother practising with cups as I've used them in previous (10k) races with no trouble. I also didn't even consider the prospect of having additional fluid handed to me along the course. As we will see in the final part of this series, these omissions may have been a less than ideal strategy.

Ready to Race

With a successful preparation and a clear race strategy it was time to get down to the running. My performance in the race and what I learnt as a result will be the subject of the final post in this series.

Thursday 16 April 2015

Journey to My First Marathon – Part 2

On 12th April 2015 I took part in Brighton Marathon, my first ever marathon event. In this series of four posts I will be talking about my marathon build-up, training, performance and what I learnt along the way.

In the first post I looked at how I selected Brighton Marathon and other build-up races and how I selected and customised my training plan.

In this post I'm going to cover my build-up to training, the execution of my training plan and the nutrition strategy that I adopted to take me through training.

Build Up

Unfortunately I picked up a tendonitis injury in my foot that put me out of action for much of September (too much running on the beach!). I knew that my training plan was starting in the second week of December and that it suggested I should be running 70km (45 miles) per week before I started it.

October and November were thus spent slowly increasing the number and length of runs starting at around 30km (20 miles) per week. I did all these runs very slowly at a pace of around 5:30/km (8:50/mile) so that heart rate was always kept well in the aerobic zone (130-141 bpm). It was tough to stick to, what for me, is a fairly slow pace, but I think building a strong aerobic base and allowing the foot to heal properly set me in really good stead for the training that came after.

By the end of November I was comfortably running 7 or 8 times (mainly to and from work) and covering around 70km each week. I was also maintaining one swim session per week. I was ready to start training in earnest...

Following the plan

The plan worked out really well. I managed to stay healthy and free of any major injury. This allowed me to train consistently for the whole 18 weeks. In fact, I didn't miss a single session which I think really helped with being in top form. I also managed to keep a 100% score on Jantastic as well!

Luckily the only small niggle that I picked up was a tight achilles on my left leg. This was primarily linked to very tight calf muscles in my left leg. As long as I kept these well stretched and mobile then the achilles didn't really hamper my training.

There's no doubt that the plan was tough. In particular the presence of a medium-long run (16-19km / 10-12 miles) each week in addition to a long run meant that most sessions were done on fairly tired legs. Also, most beginner marathon plans I've seen tend to build up to just one or two very long runs (27km/17 mile+) at the end, while the P&D plan had me doing 9 very long runs over the 18 weeks of the plan.

I did find that about half way through the 18 weeks I had to change the plan slightly. On four days each week I was running to work as a session and then doing a short (3.5km) recovery run home again. As the main runs got longer and harder I decided that this was resulting in too much running. So, I dropped the second runs on Monday and Friday and cycled to work instead on those days. This certainly aided recovery and freshness and I don't think I could have completed the plan as successfully without making this change.

Focus of the plan

The P&D plans don't focus very much on speed work, assuming that the speed is already there and that you just want to increase endurance and the ability to maintain that speed over a longer period of time. This was just fine for me, although I did find that as my fitness improved my threshold pace was also getting faster as well.

The other thing that the plan is quite light on is actual marathon pace work. I think there were only about three or four sessions that had any marathon pace elements scheduled and even these were only partial sections of a longer run. The core plan was primarily about long and medium slow runs, general aerobic conditioning, lactate threshold runs and then, towards the end, some VO2 max work as well. I'll touch on this further in the final post where I review what I've learnt.

Pacing and heart rate

The P&D plan structures all of its sessions based on heart rate zones: starting with a heart rate reserve (max HR – resting HR) and then defining training zones based on that reserve. These work out as follows (with my max HR as 186 and resting HR at 56):

  • Recovery: less than 70% of reserve + resting HR = below 147 bpm
  • General Aerobic: 62% to 75% of reserve + resting HR = 136 to 153 bpm
  • Medium/Long Run: 65% to 78% of reserve + resting HR = 140 to 157 bpm
  • Marathon Pace: 73% to 84% of reserve + resting HR = 150 to 165 bpm
  • Lactate Threshold: 77% to 88% of reserve + resting HR = 156 to 170 bpm
  • VO2 Max: 91% to 94% of reserve + resting HR = 174 to 178 bpm

I pretty much stuck to these zones for all my training on the plan. On a typical day these heart rates translated to roughly the following paces:

  • Recovery: 5:30/km (8:35/mile)
  • General Aerobic: about 5:15/km (8:17/mile)
  • Medium/Long Run: about 5:08/km (8:00/mile)
  • Marathon Pace: about 4:24/km (7:05/mile)
  • Lactate Threshold: about 4:05/km (6:35/mile)
  • VO2 Max: about 3:50/km (6:10/mile)

Lactate Threshold pace in particular improved from about 4:10/km at the start of the training to 3:58/km that I maintained at Reading Half Marathon.

Mental Discipline

It was however surprisingly difficult to maintain the required heart rate zones and paces. On a good day it was really tempting to go a bit faster. On a bad day it was a real challenge summing up enough pace to get into the required heart rate zone. On a really bad day, trying to keep in the heart rate zone and a good pace at the same time was almost impossible. Still, the end results seem to have been good so it was certainly worth the hard work that this involved.

I also think that the mental concentration required to maintain both pace and heart rate was excellent preparation for race conditions. As it's impossible to run and continually look at a watch, I developed a very good feel for both how fast I was travelling and my current level of exertion. Add to that being able to concentrate on these aspects of running this for long periods of time and you have most of the mental skills in place for a longer duration race like a marathon.

Equipment

With all of my training taking place within defined heart rate zones, having the right equipment was essential. First off, every single run involved use of a heart rate monitor chest strap. I'm quite lucky that I don't suffer any discomfort from these, but getting one that is really comfortable makes a big difference. Secondly a really decent GPS running watch that supports heart rate zone training is also a very worthwhile investment.

The first few weeks of training were carried out with my trusty iPhone running the iSmoothRun App and my Pebble smartwatch for display purposes. Fortunately I was the recipient of a Suunto Ambit3 watch for Christmas and this made the rest of the training programme a much more enjoyable experience. Just running without a slab of glass strapped round your arm was a huge win. I tend to run without any music, so needing nothing other than a watch and the HRM strap was great.

Shoes

I used a number of different shoes during training. Most of my general and longer runs were done in Saucony Echelon 3. These are a great neutral shoe with a reasonable amount of cushioning. I also did plenty of other runs in my Saucony Peregrine 4 trail shoes, especially when my off-road routes started to get a bit wet and muddy. All of my faster sessions were carried out in Saucony Kinvara 4, swapping to a pair of Kinvara 5 towards the end as these are a very lightweight shoe that are great for going fast in! I used the Kinvara 5 for all my races as well, including the marathon.

Nutrition

Back at the beginning of 2014 I swapped from a typical UK diet to more of a paleo style diet. This involved reducing carbohydrate intake, increasing protein intake and swapping to less processed and sugary foods that are high in natural fats. In particular my meals changed to:

  • Breakfast: cereal and fruit juice became half a grapefruit, salad, poached eggs, avocado and water.
  • Morning snack: remained as cheese and a cracker
  • Lunch: sandwiches and a low-fat yoghurt became roasted veg, sweet potato, smoked mackerel and a full-fat yoghurt.
  • Afternoon snack: fruit, dates, peanut/almond butter and oat cakes replaced biscuits or cake.
  • Dinner: normal meals but mostly eliminating high-carb items like pasta, pizza, bread and potatoes.
  • Evening snack: milk and dark chocolate.
  • Drinks: black tea, coffee and significantly more water (I was already teetotal).

Supplements

The only supplement that I take is Zinc Matrix, which I have found really helps with keeping hormone levels in balance and aids recovery while sleeping. Since taking these tablets before bed I've certainly noticed better quality sleep and waking up much fresher in the morning. Other than the Zinc Matrix, all my other nutrition needs are taken care of by a healthy diet.

Impact on health and performance

I credit a change in diet to significant improvements in my running ability. I've found it much easier to keep my weight under control and maintain a very lean physique. I certainly didn't find myself lacking for energy during any part of the training.

The fact that I didn't have any illness throughout the training period is probably also down to eating very healthily. There also appears to be a strong link between eating sufficient protein and quality fats and the body's ability to recover and repair injury. Again, I think my diet definitely helped keep me injury free and able to put the maximum into my training.

Fuelling for training runs

The vast majority of my training runs all took place first thing in the morning, even the long runs. For a General Aerobic, Lactate Threshold or VO2 Max session I would generally get up, have a glass of water and then head straight out. For my long and medium-long runs I'd typically get up and have half a grapefruit and perhaps a banana with my water. Breakfast would be consumed after returning from the run.

I firmly believe that doing most of my training in a largely fasted state combined with changing my diet has significantly improved my fat burning ability and allows me to run quite efficiently without needing to injest large amounts of carbohydrates. I'll revisit this assumption in the next parts of this series when I look at my race preparation and performance.

As most of my runs were done very early and on cold, dark mornings I found very little need to drink much during training. It was only really on the long 28km (16 mile) plus runs that I bothered with any water. Even for those all I did was place a couple of small bottles of water on my route at the 1/3 and 2/3 distances. A few sips was generally enough in most cases.

On my long runs I also consumed energy gels following the same pattern that I intended to adopt during the marathon. I've never really been a big fan of the maltodextrin based gels and they certainly don't work well with my paleo style diet. Instead I've switched over to 33Shake chia seed based gels. These are much more natural and provide a much slower release of energy as opposed to the massive sugar hit of normal gels.

During long runs I would generally consume gels at 8k, 16k and 24k and this was sufficient to see me to the end of the run. Included in the post-long-run breakfast I also had a 33Shake All In One Shake as part of my refuel and recovery routine. I found their nutrition worked really well and was very compatible with my dietary needs.

Getting Ready to Race

With the training plan going well and a healthy diet in place it was time to start preparing for the big race. This will be the subject of the next post in this series.

Journey to My First Marathon – Part 1

On 12th April 2015 I took part in Brighton Marathon, my first ever marathon event. In this series of four posts I will be talking about my marathon build-up, training, performance and what I learnt along the way.

In this first post I'm going to look at how I selected Brighton Marathon and other build-up races and how I selected and customised my training plan.

Race Selection

After a successful Reading Half Marathon in 2014 I decided that I wanted to attempt a marathon in 2015. Looking around for a spring event of a decent size and convenient date I narrowed down the choice to either London or Brighton. Not wanting to chance my marathon debut on a ballot, and the fact that we like visiting Brighton, made it a fairly easy decision.

Also, based on my 2014 Reading Half time of 1:30:01 I was also fairly confident to predict a marathon time of about 3:10:00 which, if achieved, would get me a good-for-age entry into London for 2016 anyway.

So, at the end of May 2014 I booked my place for Brighton. At the same time I also booked a hotel for a family long-weekend holiday (Friday to Monday). My logic at the time was that I didn't want to chance travelling down on the Saturday and missing the race number collection and I wasn't sure what state I would be in on the Sunday afternoon to drive home again. As it was, I would have been fine on both counts, but it was nice to have a family weekend away!

Build-Up Races

With my main race for 2015 booked, I then decided to look around for a half marathon in the weeks before. The aim being to use this race to test my fitness and practice race strategy. My default selection was to do Reading as this is my local race and a race I've always enjoyed previously.

However, when the date for Reading was released I discovered that it was only three weeks before Brighton. A few questions on some forums and the suggestion was that this wasn't my best option, the main reasons being:

  • With the race being right before the taper there would be little time to adjust training or strategy before the marathon date.
  • If I was carrying any niggles and aggravated them during the race, three weeks might not be long enough to allow them to heal.

I then looked around for something a bit earlier in the season and came across Bath Half. This was six weeks before Brighton and marked as a fast, fairly flat course. I therefore signed up for Bath as well. The aim being to do Bath as a full-on effort, aiming for a new PB for a half marathon. Reading would be a marathon pace training run and race practice, with the option of running it as a full race effort if things were going well with my training.

My race calendar for the start of 2015 was now complete. I then went away to focus on triathlon for the summer.

Training Plan Selection

For my first half marathon I followed a basic plan straight out of the pages of Runners World. As I started to read and learn more about running I then switched to building my own custom plans using various books and online sources as inspiration. However, for my first marathon I decided that it was important to follow a proper structured plan. I wanted one with a sound scientific background and a proven track record.

Finding a plan

Listening to the Marathon Talk podcast I had heard quite a bit about the Pfitzinger and Douglas plans and their book Advanced Marathoning. I purchased a copy, read it cover-to-cover and was very impressed by their approach.

I have a strong belief that a training plan will only be really effective if you believe in it. As someone with a scientific and highly logical background I was far more comfortable knowing the full reasoning behind the plan structure and recommended sessions. I just can't see myself ever being confident with plans that just tell you what sessions you need to do and when without giving you the full understanding of why.

With an understanding of and confidence in their approach to marathoning, I decided to select the Pfitzinger & Douglas 18-week 'up-to 55 miles per week' training plan. This felt compatible with my limited running history, my current mileage and the number of hours that I could dedicate to training each week.

Customising the plan

The first step was then to customise the plan to fit into my slightly unusual circumstances. I had the following constraints to meet:

  • No training runs at weekends, except short sessions on a Sunday evening (part of my agreement to enter the marathon would be that training shouldn't impact on family time).
  • Avoid training in the evenings during the week (for the same family time reasons and because my wife uses evenings for exercise classes and activities).
  • Maintain one swimming session each week, which has to be on a Wednesday or Friday morning as that's the only time when the pool has convenient adult lane sessions. This was necessary as I was planning on some triathlons later in 2015.

With the above constraints in mind, I re-jigged the P&D plan so that it roughly fit the following pattern:

  • Monday morning – general aerobic run
  • Tuesday morning – long run
  • Wednesday morning – swimming
  • Thursday morning – medium-long run
  • Friday morning – session (e.g. lactate threshold, intervals)
  • Saturday – rest day or slow recovery run with the kids (working up to Parkrun)
  • Sunday evening – easy recovery run

This would mean doing some 3 hour runs on a Tuesday morning before work, but the plan fit my schedule nicely and getting up early has never really been much of a problem for me.

I also planned on making the runs on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning end at work so that I could do a 3.5km (2 mile) recovery run home each evening.

In addition to the running, I also scheduled in a core strength session every Tuesday evening and a leg and hip strength session on a Friday or Saturday evening. Also there were short sessions of stretching and rolling pretty much every night as well.

Ready to Go

With a plan in place it was time to start my build-up and then move on to the training plan proper. These will be the subject of my next post in this series.

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Brighton Marathon 2015 Review

This weekend I raced my first ever marathon: Brighton Marathon 2015. I had a really good experience and finished in 160th place with a chip time of 3:05:19. Very happy with this for my first attempt at marathon distance. In this post I'm going to review the actual marathon itself. I'll make another post where I'll review my performance and training.

Registration and Pre-Race Information

When I was contemplating my first marathon I was looking at either London or Brighton. In the end I went for Brighton as there was no ballot process and I felt this was a better way to plan my race season. Registration was easy and I had my goal race for the following year planned in May. Nice feeling.

All through the following months the communication I received from Brighton Marathon was timely, clear and sufficient. At no point did I feel I was unprepared for the weekend. It's difficult to emphasis how important this is. There was enough on my mind about the actual run without having to worry about administration details or logistics.

Finally, the Brighton Marathon Weekend Guide appeared online which contained every piece of useful information that you could wish for. I'd list this as an essential read as there was loads of really useful material contained within. Top marks for quality of information and communication.

Exhibition

Having never done a marathon before I wasn't sure what to expect from the Exhibition. All I really knew was that I had to go there and collect my race number. As the kids were off school, we made a long weekend of the event, travelling down on the Friday and returning home on the Monday.

We visited the exhibition on the Friday afternoon. This seemed to be a very good plan as it was fairly quiet and I was able to collect my number in minutes. We probably only spent about 20 minutes looking round the rest of the exhibition as there wasn't much to appeal to my kids and non-running wife. It was funny watching my boy try a sample of beetroot juice though!

Exhibition was well organised and had just enough stalls to make it interesting, but not too big that it felt like a major effort to explore. I wonder how busy it got during the peak collection periods on the Saturday?

Before The Start

On the Sunday morning of the race I got up early in my hotel. Breakfast was two pots of just-add-boiling-water porridge as I wanted to eat way before the hotel's breakfast opened up. Not too much hassle really. I drove about half way from the hotel to Preston Park and left the car in a side road (fortunately in the same parking zone as my hotel permit) and walked the remaining mile to the park. The walk was an excellent leg stretch to start the day.

Preston Park was a nice venue to start the race. Everything seemed well organised and laid out. Bag drop-off was nice and easy. Two potential improvements I would suggest to the organisers:

  1. It would be good if the changing tents had some form of carpet on the floor or more chairs. I've been to other races where this has been the case and have always found this a good place to chill before the race, but I didn't want to sit on a plastic bag on the cold, damp grass.
  2. I'm not sure there were enough toilets for the number of people present. There were some really huge queues that didn't seem to move very fast. Reading Half Marathon is a similar sized race and that has probably double the number of porta-loos plus all the toilets in the football stadium available as well.

There was a very short walk to the start and the corrals seemed very spacious and well organised. The fact that the elite wave had a different start just down the road meant that I was able to get almost right to the front of the race as well, which made for a nice quick start.

The Course

The course takes a nice tour through both Brighton and Hove. You get to see plenty of the sights and spend a fair amount of time along the seafront, which was very enjoyable.

Here's my Strava activity from the marathon:

The race starts out with a lap around Preston Park. Unfortunately this encompasses both a fairly steep hill followed by an equivalent descent within the first mile. Not perhaps the best way to start a marathon. The elite wave starts down the road and doesn't have to do this loop, so if I ever did Brighton again I'd be targeting getting into that wave instead.

The first part of the race goes through the centre of Brighton round by the Pavilion. It's a nice flat area and it was great to see the elite leaders on one of the double-back sections. Support was also pretty good in this area.

After that the route heads up hill into the Kemp Town area and on towards the marina. There's quite a lot of uphill here and you are very exposed to the wind. I think it was this section that took a lot out of so many competitors. Good crowds at the turning point where you head back towards Brighton, but other than that, this section of the race is very quiet.

Next is a run right along Brighton seafront. Very enjoyable with huge crowds and lots of support. Easy to get carried away here and overdo the pace a bit.

After that there's another inland section as you head deep into Hove and then back out again. The support in this section is surprisingly good. I think the people of Hove make a big effort to support this section of the race.

Next up is probably the toughest part of the race as you head out into the industrial area of Hove, round the power station and then back again. This section encompasses miles 19 through to 24 and is pretty soul destroying this far into the race. There's a much lower number of supporters in this area, although the big band were a fantastic boost. If you can keep a focused mindset through this part then you have the race pretty much nailed.

The final section of the race is back along the seafront promenade, back through the seafront area and finishing just past the pier. The support in this area really carries you through to the end. I got some really motivating comments from supporters along the promenade part. Thank you people, you really helped a lot. By this time my left glute and hamstring were really starting to get tight. It was just a case of gritting the teeth and keeping going and the support really helped with that effort.

Finally it's through the finish line and a big sense of achievement at having completed a full marathon!

Weather

It was a lovely day: clear skies and warm sun, but coupled with a fairly brisk sea breeze. This did seem to present some challenges to marathon running. It was actually a lot hotter than it felt and the breeze was enough to dry sweat fairly quickly. A lot of runners, myself included, therefore underestimated just how much fluid we were loosing and probably didn't take enough back on to compensate. This led lot of runners experiencing muscle cramp and reduced performance due to dehydration in the final stages of the race. Definitely something I will be more aware of for the future and an important consideration for anyone doing coast based marathons.

Drink Stations

There were plenty of drink stations around the course, pretty much one every mile. Some were water only, others were both water and gatorade. All drinks were supplied in paper cups rather than the more traditional bottles or pouches. Cups were certainly much more challenging to drink from and I ended up spilling quite a lot of water at each station - probably didn't help me in getting enough fluid on board. I'd certainly recommend extensive practice at drinking from cups while running, especially as I think future races will continue to follow this trend.

One minor complaint that I did have over the drink stations was with those offering both water and gatorade. Pretty much the only way to differentiate drinks was the colour of the cup: light blue for water, light brown for gatorade. This made selecting the right drink yet another thing to think about when approaching the drink station. On a couple of occasions I went for a water only to realise that it was gatorade and then having to adjust my positioning or stride while avoiding other runners also trying to use the station. For future races I'd strongly suggest to the organisers that they separate the water and gatorade stations from each other to reduce the chance of confusion.

I'd also recommend that if you have a supporter with you that you provide them with a disposable drink bottle and get them to pass it to you at an agreed point during the race (about half way would be good). That way you are guaranteed to have a good chance to take on enough fluids before the latter part of the race if you haven't got on well with the cups.

Finish Area

The finish area seemed pretty well organised. After crossing the line there was a smooth transition to collect foil blanket, water, food and medal. Bag pick-up was very smooth, but then I was an early collector of my bag. I expect the back collect got very busy once more runners started to finish.

After bag collect it was a short walk to the family/friends meeting point. This was nicely rearranged alphabetically which made finding them very easy - just make sure you agree a letter in advance. I then went for a stand in the sea, as suggested by my physio, as a convenient alternative to an ice bath. I think this greatly reduced the amount of muscle soreness I experienced over the following couple of days.

Atmosphere

Brighton is a really well supported race. It has a nice atmosphere and lots of cheering crowds. This especially true through the main seafront area of Brighton. However, the whole town seems to make a real effort for the event and there was even some support at the most remote parts of the course.

Some great bands along the way also helped with the atmosphere, as did the big screen and commentary around the power station part of the course. I'd also strongly recommend getting your name on your race top (something I didn't do) as the supporters along the way made a real effort to call out racers by name whenever possible.

Brighton Marathon App

Brighton Marathon publish their own supporting App to accompany the race. You can add runners and track them round the course based on their split times and predicted pace. My wife certainly found this really useful in making sure she got in place to cheer me on. In fact, she found it so useful, that I got to see my family at four separate points during the race - a great motivator.

Being able to track other runners was also great as I had made a few good friends through our Brighton Marathon Strava Club. It was really good to get to the end of the race and be able to instantly see how they were all getting on. Having access to immediate results of your finish time and position was also a great feature of the app.

For the race I'd been raising sponsorship for Wolfram Syndrome UK and apparently the founders of the charity were also using the App to follow my progress.

If you are doing Brighton Marathon in the future then I'd recommend the App as a must have item for both you and your supporters.

Medal, T-Shirt and Goody Bag

The medal I received is very nice, a decent size and quite heavy. Feels good quality, which is always nice. The finisher's t-shirt is also pretty good and something that I will end up wearing regularly. However, I do regret not purchasing a technical top at the expo and it would be nice if these were offered online as well.

The goody bag was pretty basic: a banana, seed bar and some chocolate. All most welcome, but I've certainly had much better bags at much lesser events. But hey, we do it for the challenge and the result, not the prizes!

Hotel and Transport

We stayed at the Langfords Hotel in Hove. This is a fairly cheap, but quite comfortable and very friendly hotel. Perhaps a bit far from the centre of Brighton, but in a perfect position for the race. The course goes past both ends of the road where the hotel is situated, so my family were able to come out and support me without having to go on a massive trek. (Although they did walk down to meet me at the finish.)

Transport from the hotel to the start at Preston Park was always going to be an issue. According to google maps it's a 1.8 mile walk, slightly further than I want to cover on the morning of a marathon. Fortunately, the Brighton and Hove parking permit system is quite good and I was able to get a permit from the hotel and then drive about half way to Preston Park and leave the car in a side road in the same parking zone.

It would be nice if the bus company would put some earlier buses from Hove up to the park for marathon morning.

Conclusions

Overall, I'd have to say that Brighton Marathon 2015 was an excellent event. The course is good and the organisation pretty much perfect. Atmosphere and support round the course was amazing.

Do however be aware of the challenges of hydration using cups and the effect of the sea breeze. Go prepared either by practising with cups or by having your own additional drink supplies on hand.

I'd definitely make this a must-do event, especially if you want a big marathon feel without taking the risk of the London Marathon ballot system.