Week commencing 17th May 2010

The Edinburgh Marathon

The Numbers over 20 weeks/140 days since 4th January:

• 102 x Training days
• 596 miles over 82 runs
• Average 30 miles per week running
• 30 x rest days
• 8 x days ill/rest
• 26 x circuits/weights sessions
• 60 x Pilates/core stability training sessions (mainly with clients)
• 13,000 x push ups for upper body strength
• Final weight = 13 stone 3 lbs = 14lbs weight loss
• Body fat %age down from 17.6% to 14.0%
• 131 x alcohol free days
• 120 x days where I followed a healthy diet, eating little & often of the right foods

So was this enough or too much?

Training:

This week = very easy:

• Monday - 5 miles easy running
• Tuesday - 3 miles easy running
• Wednesday - 1 x hour Pilates, 1 x hour sports massage
• Thursday - 3 x miles easy, 1 hour Pilates
• Friday - Rest
• Saturday - Travel to Edinburgh/Rest

Sunday - The Edinburgh Marathon!!

Woke up to a scorcher! Weather forecast of 24-25°C (77°F). Oh no, not again!

Ate a good breakfast and got to the start hassle free. I was worried about the heat and also how my body had recovered from the chest infection. I finished the anti-biotics the day before. The atmosphere was fantastic and about 13,000 runners for the marathon. Set off, at mile 1 was a little behind plan but caught up to goal pace and by mile 2 was where I needed to be. I was already very hot and sweating loads. At mile 3 I was bang on the pace but my heart rate was 175. This was a bad sign. This is way above the 150-155 I would usually run at this pace. At mile 5 still on the pace, my heart rate was still high and I was struggling to keep up the pace. This is a pace my body is used to running and by mile 7 I needed to walk as I felt nauseous, overheated and weak. I knew that my sub 4 hour marathon run was not going to happen. I started to run again and after a minute or so I was again back to walking. Run / walk for the next mile or so, and I knew that the 26.2 mile finish at Musselburgh racecourse was also at 8.5 miles, so I decided to get there and decide to either drop out or walk / run for the next 18 miles and finish in 6-7 hours. At Musselburgh I felt grim and dropped out and was led to first aid where I then fell asleep for an hour after I was checked over. My heart rate was still over 100 bpm when I had rested for an hour. Felt ok but bitterly disappointed and got changed, had a couple of pints, some lunch and then went to the finish line and watched for a couple of hours as thousands of runners crossed the finish line looking hot, tired but very happy. Dave and Neil from the running club both finished in times slower than they had expected but it was good to see them finish. Dave ran a PB. Well done mate.

Over 100 others dropped out, 350 were treated by first aiders and tragically one 52 yr old man died. This puts things well into perspective.

I am still a little disappointed as I write this on Tuesday, but am looking forward to getting running again in a couple of days. There are always other goals and challenges to go for and although this one has gone I am still determined to run a sub 4 hour marathon this year and will look to do one in September/October, maybe in Loch Ness, Berlin or Amsterdam. Over the 20 weeks training I have lost weight and increased my fitness, I aim to build on this over the summer.

My next challenge is the Norwich Olympic distance Triathlon (1 mile swim / 24 mile bike / 6.2 mile run) on July 4th and I am looking forward to swimming, cycling and running shorter distances. After this I have a 10k run on July 30th and I will concentrate on increasing speed and going for a PB.

With the benefit of hindsight and how my body has reacted in recent weeks, I feel I over trained and also ran too many long runs. I think this is why I picked up this virus as my body was tired and my immune system was affected. My running fitness probably peaked around the time of my half marathon and 20 mile PB’s in late Feb early march. So hopefully a lesson learnt for next time, less long runs and more speed training. The last few months has shown me I have a lot to learn, that training for and running a marathon is very hard with no guarantee of success, BUT this is also what I really love doing, so I will keep on going for that elusive sub 4 hour marathon!

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: ............Dave and I had drunk several pints and Dave had been pulling my leg about pulling out of the race etc.....I asked Dave for some much needed words of encouragement and his pearls of wisdom were.............. At least you have 3 running gels left!

I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog over the last 20 weeks and it has given an insight into what is involved. Of course there are so many different ways to train and this is just my experience, good and bad over the months! Running is a great sport/pastime, is sociable, inexpensive, helps to keep fit and lean, helps to combat stress and depression and there are always races and events to test oneself or to enjoy, if this is what you are looking for.

Thanks for now and keep active

Steve

Author: Steve Cuviello from Cuviello Personal health and fitness