Tag Archives: training

Interrupted London Marathon Training!

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Today its exactly one month to go until the London Marathon – eek!  Sponsorship is going quite well, and I’m over the £1000 mark now with the next target to be £1500 but I’m hoping that I’ll get closer to £2000!  Various people have said that they will sponsor me but haven’t yet so I’m still hopeful 🙂

The biggest problem now though is various interruptions to my planning training regime – all very frustrating.  In recent weeks I’ve had niggles, wisdom tooth removed, bad cold, and now I’m off to Taiwan for a week!  It means that my training plan has become a bit hit & miss just at a time when I needed to get my longest walks in and keep my stamina up.

All of the above means that I’m only going to do one ‘longest’ walk )should be 7.25 hours which is about 45 mins less than I’m expecting to take on the day) rather than 2 and I’ll be missing stamina training (not expecting any opportunities to do training in Taiwan) at a time when I really can’t afford to miss anything.  All in all it makes me a bit worried about finishing the marathon, but I’m determined not to drop out at this stage.  I guess the worst that will happen on the day is that I keep on stopping so it takes me a lot longer than I thought it would, but I WILL FINISH!!

 

(As always, you can sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/Sturtridge-London-Marathon)

Hitting ‘the wall’ even when only walking long distances

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We’re now getting to the really serious part of my training, but also the point where I know whether or not I’ll be able to actually finish the London Marathon on April 21st.

My last two training walks (over successive Sundays) were 5 1/4 hours (17.5 miles) and then last weekend 6 hours (20 miles) with the first in absolutely hideous cold persistent rain and the latter in bright sunshine so I had to wear suncream (though it was cold if you were out of the sun).  In both of them I started to struggle from about 4 hours in, until sometime after 5 hours so I seem to have found my ‘wall’ which I wasn’t really expecting given that I’m ‘only’ walking.

The first week I put it down to the horrible weather and to being absolutely soaked through and freezing (it would appear my waterproofs can only hold out persistent rain for so long and my gloves are definitely NOT waterproof!), but I didn’t have that ‘excuse’ last week.  I’m trying to eat and drink as much as my personal trainer has suggested as I walk (though I am finding it tough especially last week when there was a lack of public loos and then they were closed!), so I’m unsure what I can do to get me through it except ring up my OH and be pathetic down the phone!  As pathetic as this sounds it has worked, so maybe I should try and get company at that point in order to distract me and probably get me to eat something sweet as its during this period I feel really down and everything seems to be hurting and I’m just so tired…

Its only just over 8 weeks now until the Marathon so I really need to get this sorted as soon as possible!  Other that this, everything seems to be coming together quite well – I’ve started to break in the shoes I’ll be wearing on the day and I’m nearly got my clothing sorted too.  I bought some running tech tights (I already have a tech shirt) to wear under my trousers last week and they did help to get the sweat away from me but they also rubbed in one place so I’ll have to make sure that won’t happen on the day.  Maybe a bit of vaseline will do the trick!

Given that I’m out ‘on the road’ for so long, I’ve switched from a bag (which always got in the way) to a rucksack and that seems to be working much better and means that I can carry pretty much everything I could possibly need though I’m trying to make sure that it doesn’t start too heavy especially as I start with 1 850ml water bottle and 1 500ml water bottle (both full).  I’ve had to make a checklist of everything I need to take, and what to have ready for when I get back just so I don’t forget anything!!  Obviously I may not need to do this ‘on the day’ but I will have to have some sort of bag to carry food and my mobile portable charger as it won’t be realistic to expect my supporters to have what I need at each point.  Maybe I shall have to get a ‘bum bag’!

One thing I have been impressed with on my long walks is that (as long as I’m sensible with using my bluetooth headphones and listening to music) my Nexus 4 Android phone battery has lasted quite well even though I’m using Endomondo on it to track my training via GPS and checking Facebook/Twitter/Email.  I really thought that I would need to use my portable charger more, but on the 6 hour walk I was listening to the womens cricket world cup on my DAB radio and didn’t need to charge it at all AND it had over 30% charge still by the time I got home.

I’ve also been quite pleased that I’ve managed to maintain a steady speed over most of my walks.  At this speed (approx 3.33 miles per hour) I should take just over 7 3/4 hours to finish the course which is actually better than I’d hoped though I may well get quite slow as I get towards the end – especially if they are packing up the marathon around me (a real possibility)!  However having done a 6 hour walk I now feel like (if I keep up my training) I WILL be able to finish the Marathon so now its full speed on getting sponsorship!

This weekends walk is ‘only’ 4 3/4 hours (16 miles) as its a recovery one after my two longer ones.  Hopefully the forecast snow will stay away and I’ll be able to get out there!

As always if you want to sponsor me please go to https://www.justgiving.com/Sturtridge-London-Marathon but I welcome encouraging comments too!

Marathon training update

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Whoops, didn’t take long for my intention to keep this blog regularly updated to go by the way!  I blame Social Media – its far too distracting… 😉

Anyway, I’ve been continuing my training sticking pretty much to the training plan produced by Adam Lewis from Your Fitness Coach.  I’m still keeping him on his toes as he has theres not that much information out there for walking training!

I’m getting into ‘serious’ distances on my longer walks now, but am happy to say that I’ve now done over half distance – woo hoo!  I’ve had to miss two long walks so far – one because I had a stinking cold and din’t leave the house for a couple of days, and one because of the weather last weekend – I just can’t walk when its so cold and icy.  I did manage to do about half the distance in the snow though so wasn’t a completely missed day, but it was affecting my joints so I had to come back.

As the weather has worsened (wetter and colder), I’ve been coming back from my longest walks very very cold and its taken me ages to warm up, especially my legs which is not good for  me.  I just can’t walk fast enough over that length of time (4 hours plus) to keep my legs warm especially when they are getting wet.  I’ve had suggestions for warmth of both runners tights and waterproof trousers and I think I’m going to go with the latter as its the getting wet I need to avoid I think and they’ll help with the cold.

My longest walk so far has been 4.5 hours so I’m still a way off how long I think its going to take me (about 8.5 hours including toilet stops) but I’m getting there.  I am starting to have a problem with nutrition and fluid intake though – especially as it looks like the sports drinks I’ve been having (lucozade mainly) may have upset my digestion a bit.   Yet another thing for Adam to sort out for me!  I have managed without sports drinks the last 3 long walks I’ve done but I have felt a bit funny at times due (I think) to low sugar/energy/salt levels which obviously isn’t good as my walks get longer and longer.

Something else to contend with as I’m out for hours is the boredom.  As lovely as Brighton and Hove and the seafront is (even in Winter), I still need something to keep me motivated as I walk.  I’ve started putting together a playlist on my mobile phone, and I’m also going to try audio books.  Theres also taking photos and updating/checking facebook and twitter as well as reading emails as I walk.  All of this, plus the GPS tracking I’m doing using Endomondo, means that I am draining the battery on my phone especially now that I have the using the Nevo Rockaway bluetooth headphones that my other half got me for Christmas.   I have a Veho Pebble which is going to allow me to charge the phone when it gets low but that may not be enough.  Now what techy thing shall I not do… 😛

Onwards and longwards!