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.
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