So two days after my first half marathon and I've had time to reflect and think about what I've learned. I want to record this here so I don't forget about it!
* Porridge and banana works really well as a pre-long run breakfast
* There is little point in running one of your fastest miles in mile one of a half marathon - better to save this for a 5k or 10k race
* It's easy to get carried away at the start because it 'feels comfortable', slowing down takes discipline but will reap rewards later on
* One gel an hour was enough for a half marathon, I may need to increase this as the mileage increases
* High 5 gels are definitely my favourite, for consistency if nothing else
* Too much Lucozade Sport makes my mouth feel quite sticky - I need to follow this with water
* Switching from a 9:1 to 8:2 strategy helped a lot in the later miles and made only a little bit of difference to the mile times
* Always trust your Garmin. It is right!
* Active recovery works - walking around in the afternoon helped to stop my muscles from completely siezing up
There are some questions that I still need to answer during the second part of the training:
* Can I survive 26.2 miles on gels alone? Will I be able to stomach it?
* What made my feet cramp up from mile 11 and how can I stop that happening again?
* Can I do 26.2 miles without any music - there will be a lot more going on on the streets for the London Marathon but a bit of music might provide a bit of a lift during the tougher parts - I know it would have helped on Sunday
* I averaged 11.50 minute miles for the half marathon - what is realistic for a whole marathon? I need to know this so I know if I am going off too fast at the start
* My hamstrings really weren't that happy from mile 8 onwards - how do I stop that happening again?
There's plenty of miles to be run in the next 9 weeks that should allow me to answer some, if not all of these questions. Some I will probably only answer for sure on the big day itself!
5 comments:
It was a brilliant effort Becca, and good to see you thinking forward. Maybe massage for the hamstrings to improve blood flow?
Enjoying the vicarious journey:)
It was a brilliant effort Becca, and good to see you thinking forward. Maybe massage for the hamstrings to improve blood flow?
Enjoying the vicarious journey:)
This is really interesting Becca so thanks for sharing. As I've not run a race yet but have now run the same distance it's interesting.
For the first time I ran out of juice. So it will be good to have water stations. I like the lucozade to that works for me.
I use PowerBar Gels which are thicker but if you have them in your belt they get so warm that they get quite runny by the time you take them!
I had an injury too which would be a nightmare on the big day.
My legs were really really tired at the end of my run on Sunday. I couldn't imagine doing 26.2 miles right now. The good news is that I was fine on Monday - so that gave me some hope
Well done Becca! Lots of great points there.
I especially agree about going off too fast at the start, such a classic mistake & I'm really annoyed with myself for making it!
I had my music on at the beginning (which is why I didn't hear you!) from around 2 miles to help me get up the "hill" but turned it off around 5 miles and then only switched it back on for the final push. Metric and Bloc Party had a lot to do with getting me through that extra 0.3 of a mile :-D xx
Well done! My first half marathon too blogged here: http://diaryofatinyholder.blogspot.com/2012/02/brighton-half-marathon-result.html
I tried gels for the first time for the B'ton half (silly I know), but if I drink lucozade throughout I find I don't start running out of energy until mile 9 so I need a little pick me up around mile 8. I found my hamstrings hurt a bit for some reason too. I wonder if it might be because in training I normally run 10.5-11 min/mile and on the day i decided to go for 9.5-10 min/mile.
I'm also doing brighton full now (just signed up) so got a bit of training catching up to do! :-)
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