Marathon #1 (Barcelona)

So my first marathon has been successfully completed!

Today I ran the Barcelona Marathon in 5 hours 5 minutes. My knees and quads are in absolute agony right now, but the sense of achievement is astonishing. To be honest, considering how poor and interrupted my preparation was I am happy that I just managed to finish it. Next time I will aim to substantially improve my time and hopefully completely avoid having to walk.

I ran it with my friend Erik from eriksmarathon and 2 of his friends. The first half marathon 3 of us basically stuck together, which was nice as we got to see the Nou Camp and the Sagrada Família together, but the pace we were running wasn't exactly ideal for my race strategy and I ended up dropping back just before the half was completed and couldn't catch up either.

The last 10k was very tough, as my knees were burning, so I had to walk at least half of the time of that distance.Given that the most I had trained was 19 miles (31k) and that was intervals with walking and running I am pretty pleased with that I could complete it, and hope that the next one goes a lot smoother on the knees!

The pic at the top is the 4 of us at the finish line showing off our medals and our pecs, below is a closeup of the medal.

It was a good day so far, but now I need to leave and have a celebratory beer and stuff! :)

A full blog about Barcelona will appear soon.

Viel Spaß homies!

Marathon Mini Series: A Mini Update

Hi All!

I am pleased to announce that I am quitting being a quitter; I'm going to run (or at least attempt) the Barcelona Marathon as originally planned!

I got my flight tickets yesterday, and will travel very early on Saturday morning and spend an afternoon in Barcelona and the next day explore the city in my favorite way, running!

I hope I can do it, but as my training was cut short due to the harsh winter conditions for running I'm not in as good a shape as I should be to tackle my first marathon. I hope to do it even if there is a bit of walking involved. I'm looking forward to sharing a beer with Erik, Dave and Jamie with our medals after the run!

Viel Spaß homies!

Marathon Mini Series: Winter Training Is A Killer

I started drafting this post a little while ago to try and explain the difficulties of training in cold winter conditions and how I overcame them. Unfortunately I don't have such a success story.
At it's worst the temperature in Munich was -25 degrees and the surface was icy for over 6 weeks. In the end that proved too much for me, it got too dangerous for me to train during this time, so I made the sad decision to drop out of the Barcelona marathon.
I'm disappointed in this because of all the effort that has gone into it, but at the time of writing I have only a month to train for this marathon and I realise it is out of my reach to train properly for.
This doesn't mean I won't run a marathon though, I only have to delay it for another time.
I did however get some really nice pics of running around Munich in the winter from before I gave up. Hopefully next year will be a warmer winter so I can train then. For those of you that are still training in winter, remember the saying "winter miles, summer smiles!"
Viel Spaß homies

Marathon Mini Series: Intervals

I decided to adopt a different training gestalt for my Marathon, this is basically because I thought I wouldn't be able to build up to running for 4 and a half hours in just the 9 weeks that were left when I started it.

What I'm doing now is increasing the amount of time I'm out for each workout (over 3 hours) and adding in a rest period. This gives my body some time to recover before the next 'work phase', and I can stay out longer and get my body acclimatized to being out for the amount of time I will need to.

I am working in blocks of 15 minutes, where 11 minutes is running and 4 is walking. Every week I will increase the workout by 15 minutes and also take 30 seconds off the rest time and add it to the running. By doing this I will (hopefully) at least be able to complete the marathon, even if it involves a bit of walking. Today I did 14 blocks of 15, and did 19.1 miles.

Intervals are also useful for other areas of running training. For instance, if you can already run the distanceyou're aiming for, but you want to improve your time, then you can do intervals of slow and fast rrunning. This will improve your stamina, and help you to run the distance faster. Another useful tip is for when you have to tackle a hilly run, you can do intervals of up and down hills, with some flats mixed in as well.

Viel Spaß homies!

Why Kettlebells Rock

Hello Readers!

This is an exciting exercise week for me (if such a thing is allowed!) because I have received my order for some new kettlebells. These are the exercise tool that, alongside ChiRunning, got me out of a major down point in my life. The situation was that I was quite overweight at around 16 stone (over 100Kg) and none of it was muscle.

My parents had membership to a posh gym, where they met Roger and Claire, who were personal trainers there. Due to a disagreement with the management there they left there and started their own studio gym, for just them to train (and punish!) willing candidates. I was one of these candidates.

Claire got straight to work on me, and discovered that the reason I got so many injuries while running was that my core stability muscles were very weak, and I was asking small muscle groups to do difficult tasks, which leads to injury. One example of this is shin splints; if you get shin splints then you are probably using the small muscle on the front of your shin to do part of the pushing forward when you run. This is an incredibly small muscle for that kind of task and so gets fatigued quickly and can no longer perform its primary function when you run, which is to aid in keeping your foot stable on the floor under the impact of your stride.

In order to fix this for me I was trained on how to use kettlebells, which helped me to become strong and flexible enough to be able to successfully change my running technique. Since then I actually have never actually had an injury from running, so it seems to have worked!

So how does it work?

This is the all important swing, if you play the video you can see how the swing uses all muscle groups in the legs. It increases strength, endurance and flexibility all in one. Also, you can see that the movement is aimed at driving your body forward, all important for running. I have already noticed an improvement in my power and speed, having just ran a new distance personal best of 15 miles, and managed to keep it under 10 minutes per mile. The training is really starting to pay off!

This is the website for their studio, located in Bracknell, England. Drop them a line if you're interested in learning the techniques.

Viel Spaß homies!

Marathon Mini Series: Updated Training Plan

So the change to my training plan has come about because of 2 things; the speedier progress up to the half marathon than I predicted, and the arrival of my new kettlebells!

My next post will explain why kettlebell training is excellent for runners, but bear with me until then. The working week starts on Monday, but the running week starts on Sunday, so I'll start there:

Sunday
On Sundays is when I will do my long runs. The goal is for every time to increase my maximum running distance by 1 mile, but it is also OK to consider it a recovery run every now and then if my body is fatigued, and save that longer one for the next week. Hopefully this tactic will help me stave off injuries, especially in the critical last 6 weeks of the training.

Monday
Will always be a rest day.

Tuesday
Kettlebell VO2 Max training. Is really good for improving how efficiently oxygen can be delivered to the working muscles, making you a more efficient runner.

Wednesday
This will be for medium runs, usually about half of the distance of the previous long run, but about 30 sec/mile faster. This is to hopefully make me able to run the race at a faster pace.

Thursday
Kettlebell strength training, will build core, lower and upper body strength. It's helpful to give me an extra training day but without adding running miles and reducing the change of impact injuries.

Friday
Fridays are for a short recovery run to expel some of that built up lactic acid to put me in top condition for the long run on Sunday

Saturday
A well earned rest day, but if I have plans for Sunday then I can swap the long run to Saturday

16 weeks of following most of this program and then 2 weeks tone down and recovery should put me in tip-top condition for race day. I can't wait now, I'm even looking forward to the long run on Sunday, planning for 15 miles :)

Viel Spaß homies!

Marathon Mini Series: 50% down, 80% to go

Before I start, no I haven't forgotten how to do maths!

So yesterday I ran 14 miles, which was my furthest ever run, and my fastest ever half marathon. The half marathon time was 2:13:57, which was faster than my only other half marathon by over 10 minutes! I think this time will get faster as I get more miles in my legs.

That is 50% of the distance that I need to run in one go, but I believe I have only put in about 20% of the effort so far in order to reach my goal. The rest of the 80% is made up of the next 18 weeks in which I will be running about 400 miles, that's a long way to go! Even just writing that figure is daunting, considering only 26 are actually required for the run.

That said however, I only need to add 12 miles to my long run and have 18 weeks to do so, that puts a kind of better slant on it right?

I'm still enjoying the runs, no injuries, so it seems I am making regular and uneventful progress. Not exactly good for writing a blog about it :)

Viel Spaß homies!

Marathon Mini Series: 6-week sitrep

So far I have mostly been posting about my plans and very little on the progress that I have actually made, so here is an update.

6 weeks is a long time when it comes to training plans and quite a lot has happened, but thankfully it was largely uneventful progress. There was one week where I was set back with a sprained ankle, which meant I had to skip one long run. Believe it or not the ankle sprain was not when I was out on a run, or playing football or anything like that, it was running for the bus! So another run-in with a bus got me injured. What am I like eh?

In total I have ran 95.5 miles in these 6 weeks, with the longest one of these being yesterday, a 12 miler completed in 1:57:56. I am very pleased because I managed to keep up a good pace the entire run and also have enough energy for a fast finish. Take a look at the split times (time to complete each mile):

The last 3 miles were my fastest ones, this demonstrates a big change in my running gestalt, where previously I would run to fast too early and not be able to make it through the difficult endurance periods. Now even for long distances I can moderate my energy expenditure better and pay attention to what my heart rate is telling me for a much better long distance running style.

In this time my motivation and determination have not wavered, and every week after my long run I get more and more confident that I can complete the marathon next March.

My message to my readers is that our bodies limitations are only set by your mind, which you yourself have complete control over. If you have a target or a goal for something believe in yourself and anything is possible.

Viel Spaß homies!

Stupid Sexy Flanders

Do any of you remember the episode of The Simpsons where Homer and Flanders go skiing together? Flanders turns up in skin-tight ski gear and tells Homer that "It feels like I'm wearing nothing at all" and Homer later imagines him saying that in a thought bubble shaking his arse. This sketch often comes to mind when I'm out running in Munich (and no I'm not coming out!)

I was taken by surprise by the number of runners wearing skin-tight ruining clothes. Especially compared to places I have ran in England and to a lesser extent America. Perhaps the Germans (or continental Europeans) like more showing off their glutes! As I'm feeling more and more absorbed into the culture and I'm training for a marathon this winter I thought I'd get in on that spandex action! So on my run today I was rocking the spandex 3/4 length trousers, and let me tell you, it does feel like you're wearing nothing at all!

 Viel Spaß homies!

Marathon Mini Series: Chi Running

I think it is safe to say that this challenge would have been impossible if I had not discovered Chi Running.

Running used to be a kind of therapy for me, until I got injured, bringing back all of the stress that I left with every single stride on the pavements and trails. These injuries eventually got so common that I gave up. They were not always the same injuries either; knee pain, back pain, shin splints, ankle pain. The list goes on.

How then, can I now even consider running a marathon? The answer came from a book I saw in a smoothie shop in San Francisco called "Chi Running". I saw it on the same day I went for a run and got shin splints after just 2 miles and was a little down in the dumps. I would have got anything that could help, as it turned out I found the perfect thing to fix my problem!

So Chi Running is both a running technique and a running philosophy, both aimed at reducing your rate of injury from running and also gradually increasing the distance.

There are 10 components to the "Chi Running" principle:

• Flexibility: Does not extend just to the muscles, but also the tendons, ligaments and joints. You move a lot more efficiently if your body is flexible, and it makes it easier for you to modify your technique if you get injuries
• Posture: When running you need a good posture. If you're slouching too far forward you will use more energy holding yourself up. It also can restrict blood to your brain and other organs
• Good Leg Motion: Overstriding in your running pace is one of the main causes of knee, hamstring and ankle injuries. When you land your feet just under your body it greatly decreases the force of the impact on your ankle
• Cadence: Most people have too slow a cadence, a faster cadence helps to reduce the amount of time your foot spends on the ground. When your foot is on the ground when running it is enduring a 2-4G worth of pressure. The idea is to reduce this time by increasing your cadence. The ideal is 85 to 90 steps per minute
• Body Sensing: This is a kind of self-analysis of your body after a run, and note everything down. If you notice some pain in your ankle or knee after a run then you can take steps to improve for your next run, and increase your recovery days if necessary
• Mental Focus: This kind of goes without saying, but it is more than the focus you need to get through a long run, it takes a lot of mental focus to make an effective change. You need to re-educate your muscles and control them, this is the mental focus you need to change. Eventually your muscles will initiate your change naturally, and the battle is won
• Coordination between halves: You should use roughly use 50% of your energy in your top half, most of this in your core so you keep a strong posture and a good twist in your top half. Good technique is when your top half and bottom half are working together instead of against each other
• Good Breathing: Runners should use Belly Breathing instead of chest breathing, as chest breathing does not engage the most of the bottom (larger) half of the lungs, for that you need to expand your diaphragm. When you are fatigued, you will probably notice that your breathing is very fast and you don't actually take much air in, over time that will really reduce your capacity for running. Concentrate on expanding your diaphragm, especially when you're fatigued
• Knee and Elbow Bends: It sounds counter-productive, but the more you bend your knee and elbow the less energy you will use. When they are bent they swing much easier, thus losing less energy in your stride.
• Staying Relaxed: When you are relaxed you are less likely to strain a muscle, try to keep your muscles relaxed when running. This can be easily achieved with a smile, or a good song :)

So if you have any kind of problems with injuries when running check out this site, it helped me a lot. http://www.chirunning.com/

Viel Spaß homies!

 

Marathon Mini Series: Training Plan

I'm under no illusions that my marathon training will be difficult, one of the most difficult challenges I've ever taken. It will require a lot of time and training during the winter, which in Munich will require a lot of motivation. From last week when I decided to run it I have 25 weeks in order to train up to the 26.2 miles, so this is the training program I have designed:

The important column is the one on the far right, my long Sunday runs. They need to build up steadily but not so fast that I overtrain and burn out. I will build up to 22 or 23 miles 3 weeks before the race, and then go down so I have plenty of recovery time and I am in top condition for the race.

Tuesdays and Fridays will be my recovery runs. As strange as it sounds you need to run to recover so you can do more running... These are done at a slow pace (60-65% max heart rate) and allow waste products from previous running sessions to be flushed out, meaning you are in better condition than you would be without it. I have noted that I will increase the length of these recovery runs slightly, but I may just keep it at 3 miles, or even a set time limit. We'll see. As this is my first marathon I will be taking the advice of regular marathon runners and trainers.

Thursday I have slightly longer runs planned, which depending on how I feel I may make these faster than I would normally run the Sunday run, or if I need another recovery then I'll make it an easy run.

Cross training is intended to me something other than running, but still improves fitness and increases your general running performance. For me this is of course, Kettlebells! You'd be amazed how much swinging a heavy metal ball between your legs improves your performance as a runner.

The number of miles I need to run is staggering, I've just added all runs from each day and EVEN BEFORE THE MARATHON I will be running 651 miles! Eek.

Well as I'm writing this I feel the need for a recovery run, and would you know it's Friday! Off I go then :)

Viel Spaß homies!

Marathon Mini Series: Diet plan

Nutrition is just as important as the actual training, maybe even more so. I haven't been able to get a decent diet plan going since moving to Germany, but I'm determined to this time for the sake of the marathon.

A lot of runners go for the "carb loading" approach, where over 60% of their calorie intake are complex carbohydrates, such as whole wheat pasta, bread, pulses and lots of fruit and vegetables. In most ways I will emulate this approach, as in general it is a healthy approach. The reason for this is that it increases the store of glycogen in the muscles, which is premium grade fuel for endurance training, and proven to make the difference on my long runs.

A general rule of thumb is that runners burn 100 calories per mile, but for me right now it is up over 150 calories per mile! That will reduce over the course of the training as I lose some weight and increase my efficiency.

I have set up a folder in Google Docs for some example recipes here. If you have any ideas drop them in the comments (preferably with URLs :) )

Viel Spaß homies!

Marathon Mini Series: Why?

I had just finished writing a blog called "My post-Oktoberfest, one handed workout plan", it was full of a good mix of workouts I can do for the next 5 weeks or so that I can't use my left hand much. I was psyched to start up training again after the debauchery of Oktoberfest. I was just about to publish it when my friend Erik Orrgarde signed up for the Barcelona marathon.

He asked if I wanted to join, I immediately said no, because it was crazy. But I got thinking, how crazy is it? Regular follower of the blog will know that it is on my 20's bucket list to do a marathon, so it needs to be done at some point, why wait? Well, there are many reasons why not to run it, and only one reason to do it. That reason can't even be explained. I don't even understand it, but it's there. Other runners will understand, if someone can put it into words post it in the comments!

So Erik convinced me to do the Barcelona marathon, which is in 6 months from now (Sunday 25th March). I'll be starting a mini-series of the blog so if you wish you can keep up with my progress. Wish me luck!

Viel Spaß homies!

My "Running to beer gardens" challenge!

As runners know, when you really feel like going for a run, you go. That feeling doesn't happen every day but it happened yesterday. Another thing that happened yesterday was the first day in a while of bright sunshine and heat, perfect weather for beer gradens!

In this I was torn, should I go to the beer gardens or go for a run - and them my friend Evan suggested on Facebook that I run to the beer garden! Excellent idea.

So as I live in Garching (slightly north of Munich), I thought I would run towards Munich to a beer garden, stop, and take the train back. I found 2 good options, Aumeister and Seehaus, the former being about 5 miles (8km) and the latter 7 (11km). My normal long run is 6 miles, so I set myself the challenge of going further than usual.

I did the 7 miles to Seehaus in 1hr 6 minutes, which is a fairly brisk 9min 20sec per mile, which I was very please with the ability to run at that speed for that far!

And my reward? Well I was in a beer garden so it was of course a maß Radler and a pretzel, and following that a stretch and a walk then the train home. Quite a successful evening in my opinion. Mynext challenge then, is to run to Chinesischer Turm biergarten, which I think is one mile further. This could revolutionize my running training regimen :D

Seehaus is quite an excellent place, so it will get its own post in due course.

You can see a GPS track of my run here.

Viel Spaß homies!