Running 12 Marathons in 2012

Never one to go without a challenge, and having tackled the beast that was my first marathon, I have committed myself to running 12 marathons in 2012.

Yes 12.....

It's not quite at the Run Geordie Run scale, but it will still be a massive personal challenge. The runs will take place from March 2012 - October 2012, and so far I have registered for six.

My running Calender looks like this so far:

March

18^th – Rome Marathon

April

15^th – Brighton Marathon

29^th – Greater Manchester Marathon

May

20^th – Brathay Windermere Marathon

June

24^th – Lancaster Castle Marathon

July

1st – Lakeland Trails Marathon

It wouldn't be a challenge without a bit of fundraising on the side, so I will be trying to raise as much money as possible for Spinal Research UK, who research possible ways of reversing spinal cord damage and paralysis. 

If anyone knows of any big runs that will be available to register for soon in the UK please let me know!!!

My First Marathon...

....was bloody hard. It rained, it poured, it was cold and windy. I wanted to die, I wanted to cry, I was in pain, but it was worth every second.

Pre-Race
Depsite 8 weeks of preparation, training and nutrition, I managed to screw it up in the last 3 days/weeks. My nutrition went to crap, something that will not happen again. My mental state deteriorated rapidly and I would have crumbled was it not for my little Run Liz Run duo that kep me going.

I knew it was going to be a toughey when firstly, I had the most horrendous stomach ache which was partially due to nerves, and secondly, it decided to piddle it down (I had barely trained in the rain).

Another minor point, I hadn't noticed that Kielder Marathon was a trail run...doh!

The Race
The first 3 miles were a doddle, I loved it, thought man this is easy....and then came the signs. No joke, "steep incline" and "steep decline" signs were dotted around the course. They featured in my nightmares after the race and probably will for the next few weeks. I had a blood blister the size of an extra toe and my quads felt like they were going to snap.

I got a buddy at the last 800m at which a spectator shouted "go faster it's only 800m", to which my new found friend and I passed 400m of pain chunnering about the fact that it wasnt "only" 800m, it felt more like 8 miles.

The personal touch at the end was lush, they read our names out as we crossed the line, and despite the fact they got my name wrong, it was still a lovely touch.


Post Race

I couldn't sit down and threw up 6 times (I made it to the toilets, I had too much pride to do it in public).


The day summed up into pictures

1 day to go....

...Until the big day and to put it frankly, im sh*tting myself! Nerves are beginning to get the better of me.

I've done everything in my power (apart from losing my race timing chip) to make sure that the big day will run as smoothly as possible, but the only thing that I can't control is my mind.

It’s been a long journey. Training has sometimes been lonely, frustrating, hot, sweaty, painful, even sometimes agony. Why do it then? Because all those feelings don’t shadow the sense of achievement when you’ve completed another long distance run and pushed yourself an extra couple of miles.

Tapering…

Something I’ve rarely done before a big running event (possibly because I’ve never actually done what could be classed as a loooong run). It’s been one of the most frustrating bits of my training. I’m a go hard type of person when it comes to training, so having to literally cut the amount of hours I’ve done in a week for the past couple, has been a big shock, and I’ve found it very boring.

I’ve carb loaded, run and cycled very little and to be honest am now feeling like a tub of lard. 

I know this is all for a good cause though. My body feels relaxed and rested, and I’m literally bursting with energy and buzzing to get a few hours of exercise, something that won’t be bad for the big day.

All that’s left to do now is wait….

I’d rather the marathon was now. All the possible problems keep popping into my head rather than going with the flow, it really is a mental game!

So in one day, we will see whether it really is possible to train for a marathon in 8 weeks instead of 16! 

Wish me luck.

Whoever tells you it gets easier lies

So I've got a good bit of training under my belt now, and only 5 weeks left until my first marathon! (S**T)

I've done a hefty bit of mileage (Up and Running will tell you exactly how I've literally run my trainers into the ground), averaging out about 40 miles a week. With 3 long runs down; two 18.5 milers in 2 hours 45 minutes and one 20 miler in 3 hours, I've got one question....

When the hell does it get easier??????

Don't get me wrong, I love running. In fact I love the long distances more than the short ones as I have an excuse to go at slower pace and say there is some theory behind it (besides the fact that I can't be bothered to run any faster). But the problem lies with the fact that they don't seem to be getting any easier. There are so many books, and training guides out there like the one above, and I've come to one simple conclusion and review for them all...
....they lie.

Mind over Matter

I know, having completed 3 longer runs, that have been the furthest I've ever run, that I'm physically capable of completing these long runs. However its a mind game baby. When you're out on a run of such distances, it can get a bit lonely and you often feel like your runs resemble something like this rather than the pretty pictures of people sprinting though beautiful fields with glorious weather....

I may not cross the finish line looking like this...

More maybe like this poor chap....

But I will definitely do it (she says). Despite the fact that its mentally the most challenging thing I've ever pushed myself to do, I'm competitive as hell. Not competitive as in I love a good team game, I'm competitive with myself. If I tell myself I will do something, I have to finish it no matter what.

Despite all this I'm still hoping that it might get easier (even just a teeny bit).

6 weeks to go...

Until my first marathon. Surprisingly the training is going well, I've managed to crack out 20 miles on my little legs, and feeling optimistic!

However I'm one of those people, that doesn't like it when things are easy and I like to take the hard route, so never mind being my first marathon, I'm now setting myself a time goal to do it in.... Under 4 hours 30 minutes.

Doable? Not sure but I shall have a good crack at it!

Diet to pants
The main thing that will probably help me achieve this on top of my training is my diet. Surely as a personal trainer my diet is perfect...ish. maybe. not really. I eat LOTS. 80% of the time my diet is good, but I have a few slip ups that like anyone have now become a regular occurance. The occasional piece of cake, chocolate bar, biscuit here and there. Aswell as the alcohol.... WOOPS. My diet now resembles something more like this...

And this...

Guess what, I'm only human! So in order to get my time nice and speedy, I'm giving up alcohol and sugar once again! Similar to the no sugar experiment but not quite as restrictive, I can have sugary goods in the form of sports drinks and gels, aswell as a few bits of sweetner in my protein bars and shakes.

Generally the idea behind this is to get rid of the mentality of "I can eat whatever I want cause I'm going to burn it off" and back to "my body is a temple".

Pre 20 mile carb loading...

So tomorrow morning I shall be getting up at the crack of dawn to run 20 miles.... desperate times call for desperate measures. Usually on a long run day I complete it in the late afternoon/early evening and have chance to stuff my face before.

This early morning hefty mileage is new to me and I'm not the type of person to crack out a full english at 5am, so I decided to shovel it in today instead. I literally rocked it out on the carbs...

I thought I would give you all a little insight into what a typical day of my diet looks like prior to a hard training day. My Carb loading today entailed....

Breakfast
1 Medium Orange, Handful of Strawberries and Blueberries, Handful of Cashew Nuts, 2 slices of wholemeal toast with crunchy Peanut Butter and a Protein Shake.

Training: Gentle 4.5 mile run

Post Workout Snack
Muesli Bar

Lunch
2 Tiger Bread Buns with Cheese and salad and a portion of chunky oven chips

Snack
1 medium apple, 1 Nectarine and a toffee cake

Snack
Protein Bar

Dinner
Wholemeal Pasta with Blue Cheese, Broccoli and Peas (MASSIVE portion)

Snack
Greek Yoghurt with Honey and Banana

Sounds like a lot and surely I'm going to end up looking like this....

 The weight is literally dropping off me, so there's truth when they say eat more to loose weight guys (as long as you burn it off).

Another thing I NEVER thought would happen. I'm sick of the sight of food. When you spend most of the day shovelling it in, it gets very boring very fast. My last meal today resembled me looking more like this...

Eating my way to a marathon...

Like anything to do with fitness and good nutrition, there's no point in having one without the other. This is particularly the case when training for long endurance events like marathons, and a good diet is essential. Sure calorie wise, as race day approaches you can pretty much eat whatever you want as you will more than likely burn it off later. However, performance wise, living off chocolate and pizza isn't going to help get you over the finish line. Diet is key, making sure you load the right amount of carbs, get a good amount of protein, and replace all the minerals lost in sweat.

Here are a few of the things that have got me through the gruelling training so far...

Standard morning feast ie. Breakfast

Typical Luncheon (on days when I have time to prepare something)

A couple of good quality dinners....

A typical carb loading meal the day before a long run....

Snacks inbetween (courtesy of Jane Delphi!)

16 miles of hell summed into a few photos

I went on a run yesterday, the longest one to date, on my 8 week mission to a marathon and thought I would display the sheer agony of parts of the run via photo (was a bit tricky!)

Getting my game face on....

16 miles requires a few essentials...

The first hill (Matthew Bank)...

Nice long stretch along Great North Road...

Running with the cows in town moor...

Down into the city centre....

I made a friend on the tyne bridge...

Into Sandyford...

Snack time at the top of Shields Road...

Hills, hills and more hills...

Escaping down into the Dene for a while...

The hill of death out of the Dene (pictures don't do this beast justice)...

Through to Gosforth High Street, only a few miles to go!

Got a bit lost and ended up coming out from here...

Less than a mile to go...

Homeward bound....

Finished thanks to these little champs!

Racing to my first marathon

I’m never one to do things the sensible way, so when I slowly began to progress from my half marathon distance I decided that I would attempt to run a marathon while it was easy to train and adapt my body in such a way. I usually rush into things, with my head in the clouds and blag my way through but I decided that this time I wanted to do this properly and really enjoy the experience having trained properly. So one random day in April I signed up for the Brighton 2012 marathon, thoroughly satisfied that with a year to train I would be in tip top condition.

I started training hard and fast increasing my distance significantly past the 13 mile wall and found that I hit a new wall, 16 miles. Frustrated with myself and mentally never being able to push myself past this point I tried to understand why psychologically my body wouldn’t let me go further in this distance and over the past few weeks the realisation that my goal is too far away to make me push myself hard enough. 

So me being me and never doing things the normal way has signed up for a marathon. Fair enough I hear you say, surely you’ve got 12-16 weeks over the year that you set yourself to train, which is still more than enough time. Aha! Here is where the problem lies, as I only have 8 weeks….

Is it doable? I have no idea; the body can do strange and wonderful things when you really want it to. Will I get a good time? Probably not but I will be happy just to complete it! So for the next 8 weeks I will blog my very short but sweet journey to my very first marathon.

Wish me luck!

 (I might not win but I can dream big!)