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The Road to the London Marathon: 5 Weeks to Go.
It was an 18 mile run on Sunday. This went much better than last week's 16 miler which could have been for a number of reasons. Having spent most of the week on strike, I was nicely rested. This run didn't require four miles at race pace at the start and end so I wasn't pushing myself as much. Lastly the jelly babies were proving surprisingly controversial in the purplecat household. B. kept insisting that I shouldn't need to eat at all during the marathon, so in the end I asked for advice on the Habitica Runner's Edge group board (since it is a very small and friendly group with a big range of expertise). Ultrarobb, suggested that because the jelly babies got most of their carbohydrate from sugar, I could have been experiencing rapid blood sugar spikes and troughs. He recommended peanut butter, but *blegh!* so I invested in some gels*. So these were... well, not much worse than the jelly babies though I have some sympathy with the person who described them as like eating a gelatinous slug, albeit a fruit flavoured gelatinous slug. But they do derive most of their carbohydrate from starch rather than sugar, and I did feel better during the run so... B. remains skeptical - well he's agreed that maybe I do need to eat something, but he doesn't think it will make much difference to fluctuation in blood sugar levels.
On the downside, about two hours after the run, my digestive system reacted quite dramatically. This was not quite "Runner's Trots" (thank goodness!) but definitely quite dramatic. So I'm going to try halving the quantity I consume. Cue yet more discussion in purplecat household about energy consumption/absorption rate vs. physical size. I'm not 100% sure I understand B's science, but I'll give it a go and see what happens.
According to the plan, I was actually supposed to run a half marathon race this week (not 18 miles). However I was a week behind the plan on the long runs and the only available half marathon nearby was the Wigan Half Marathon. Now admitedly I'm sure Wigan is a lovely place** but the half started too early to get there on public transport and I didn't really fancy driving to Wigan at stupid o'clock, running a half marathon and then driving back. The downside is that I won't get any long race time to calibrate my potential marathon pace by, on the upside I'm back on plan and well, I didn't have to drive to Wigan at stupid o'clock in the morning.
Since then I've spectacularly failed to organise myself a sports' massage.![[facebook.com profile]](https://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico)
alexandra.stanton reminded me about this last week and I realised I'd forgotten to ask about it at the gym. I resolved to try better this week. I was treadmilling on tuesday (so dull, but needs must) and forgot. Then I completely forgot to go to the gym at all on Wednesday and forgot to even take my gym kit to work today - something tells me I may be self-sabotaging.
KM run this week: 48.2
KM run in 2018: 388.7
* I previously referred to these as "protein gels" but the ones I bought had precisely 0g protein in them so clearly not protein gels.
** This is a grotesque lie. However I have no actual evidence that Wigan is anything other than a lovely place.
While raising money for charity is not my motivation for participation, it is a big part of the London Marathon. Shelter have bribed me with a T-shirt and the promise of a post-race massage. People have been incredibly generous already, but you can donate here should you feel so inclined.
On the downside, about two hours after the run, my digestive system reacted quite dramatically. This was not quite "Runner's Trots" (thank goodness!) but definitely quite dramatic. So I'm going to try halving the quantity I consume. Cue yet more discussion in purplecat household about energy consumption/absorption rate vs. physical size. I'm not 100% sure I understand B's science, but I'll give it a go and see what happens.
According to the plan, I was actually supposed to run a half marathon race this week (not 18 miles). However I was a week behind the plan on the long runs and the only available half marathon nearby was the Wigan Half Marathon. Now admitedly I'm sure Wigan is a lovely place** but the half started too early to get there on public transport and I didn't really fancy driving to Wigan at stupid o'clock, running a half marathon and then driving back. The downside is that I won't get any long race time to calibrate my potential marathon pace by, on the upside I'm back on plan and well, I didn't have to drive to Wigan at stupid o'clock in the morning.
Since then I've spectacularly failed to organise myself a sports' massage.
KM run this week: 48.2
KM run in 2018: 388.7
* I previously referred to these as "protein gels" but the ones I bought had precisely 0g protein in them so clearly not protein gels.
** This is a grotesque lie. However I have no actual evidence that Wigan is anything other than a lovely place.
While raising money for charity is not my motivation for participation, it is a big part of the London Marathon. Shelter have bribed me with a T-shirt and the promise of a post-race massage. People have been incredibly generous already, but you can donate here should you feel so inclined.