Race Day Diary - Water Aid Half Marathon

So I ran my first half marathon of the year on Sunday and despite not achieving the time I wanted I’m glad I did it and it was an enjoyable time.

Let me give you a quick rundown of my preparation.

Nothing earth shattering really I was going to train up until the Friday but I got called up to play footie on Saturday so gave myself Thursday & Friday off training.

Carb loading time then on these rest days chip buttys all round. Only joking I generally try to eat wholegrain carbs with everyone of my meals and that’s pretty much it. Saturday I made sure I took on plenty of calories and carbs with a big breakfast of porridge oats and protein shake.  Toast, fruit plenty of fluids around lunch time and packed a meal replacement bar (high protein & carb) for after the game.

Now one thing that I didn’t prepare for was 2 hours of football as I was filling in I expected to be a sub for the game but 90 minutes later, extra time and penalty’s I knew I’d have to revise my times for the next day.

So the day started with me waking up at 7am normally, this was just as well as I had set my alarm clock wrong. Now I knew about the clocks were going forward but still managed to get it wrong, don’t ask how.

7:30AM is when I finally got up and dressed. First port of call was to lighten my load if you know what I mean.

7:45-8:15AM breakfast of porridge, honey & cinnamon. I also had a can of nourishment (high protein & carb) with my supplements and vitamins.

8:30AM all ready to go and awaiting my lift from my good friend Chris Spratt
8:50AM lift finally arrives so it’s off to Bisham Abbey
9:15AM Arrive

9:20-9:55AM Get registration info, number, chip timing and generally get yourself sorted. I put my chip timer on wrong so had to do that again. Usual dash for the loo 10 minutes before the start. Taking on plenty of fluids and I must confess didn’t do a proper warm up & stretch.

9:56AM Get in to position

10:00AM and were off

First couple of miles was a little on the tight side and I’m not talking about the muscles...ok maybe a little but some of the route forces you into 2 at a time in the earlier stages.

I realised at the 4 mile mark I was going to struggle to get out of second gear and concentrated on keeping my rhythm & technique going.

I did however find another gear / second wind reaching the 9 mile mark and started to tick along quite nicely.
Into the last mile and I started to dip big time and needed that line to appear.

In the end I finished with a time of 1hour 42 minutes and 13 seconds.
I was slightly disappointed as I wanted to be under that 1h 40 mark but it wasn’t to be.
The positives though were I’d beat my previous half marathon time and without football I know I would have shaved off 4-5 minutes.

I ran with 2 friends of mine and they did manage to get one over on me with Chris Spratt 1h 36 and Miles Smith 1h 39.

But there’s always next time

First event of the year

I haven’t been keeping you up to date with my half marathon training but it’s a bit late now as its on Sunday.
As per usual I haven’t done the amount of training I'd like to but I have managed more than I did when I last ran a half-marathon.

As I play football I've integrated this as my interval training. Footballs stop, start nature is very similar to the sort of interval running I would do to prep myself for a run.

A very basic plan for preparing for a race like this would be based around 3 good runs a week. These would be a long run, interval training and a pace run.

The long run is like your practice and the one that pushes your endurance. I have only managed 2 of these and covered just over 10 miles. Some people like to cover the whole distant maybe more but I was wary of pushing too hard and not allowing yourself the adequate recovery.

The reason you do just the one long run is as I've stated already allowing yourself time to recover plus pounding the streets still takes its toll whoever you are.

I've been experiencing some niggles with my knees recently so I'm listen to my body and therefore I'm taking it just far enough I am getting older you know.

Interval, power training or hill running is all very similar. Interval training such as sprinting for 30 seconds, walking 30 seconds, sprinting 30 and so on for ten minutes can improve your fitness even more than your long run. Along with power training this can improve your explosive power, now this may not be as essential to long distance running but I believe it all helps to making you a faster runner.

Examples of power training are exercises like burpees, jump split squats and even clap press ups.

Hill running is good if you’re in a race that...duh, consists of hills. More importantly it can help to train the muscles in your legs to move faster. When running up hill your foot strikes the ground quicker and coming down encourages you to go faster so therefore your memory muscle is absorbing all of this.

Pace run is the final one and actually the one I haven’t done. This is obviously setting yourself a target pace over a shorter distance. You may do something like 5-6 x 1 mile runs with a break at a set target pace. Again this is another one that’s good for prepping you body (memory muscle) for the race to come.

One thing I have done is a couple of cardio sessions in the gym using either a bike, rower or both.

Two reasons for this one, it takes stress off of the knee's and the other in doing other cardio it just raises your all over level of fitness.

So watch this space and see if I got the training just right or I was under cooked.

I have 3 target times, one I want 1h 30mins, one I'll settle for 1h 35mins and my can’t go over whatever happens time 1h 40mins.

Bye for now

Simon

The art of recovery

I’m trying to kick on with my half marathon training seeing as it’s only a couple of weeks away.

I completed my first 10 miles since... we’ll probably last time I did a half marathon.

It didn’t go too bad and I was spot on my target pace but did tire rapidly after the 8 mile mark.

Now one thing I’ve worked on over the years is the recovery side of things because we’ve all done those runs where days later you feel the aches and pains.

Ultimately if you’re in training you want to get back on it as soon as possible but obviously with adequate rest of course.

Now for me regardless of what I’m doing weight training or running I use the same fuel.

I know most runners will load up on the carbs and there’s nothing wrong with that but sometimes I feel runners can over look the importance of protein in their recovery.

Protein is essential to repair and strengthen muscles that are damaged during running.

Without adequate protein, your muscles will not be able to go the distance, recover, or repair themselves.

I personally will take a protein shake supplemented with creatine, HMB and essential amino acids after a run.

Now these additionally supplements are used by a lot of body builders but they seem to help my recovery.

HMB minimises muscle damage during hard exercise by minimising protein breakdown.

Although theres' not too many studies of creatine on runners, creatine it self helps to increase energy, endurance and reduce muscle recover time.

Essential amino acids are the chemical building blocks of protein but do lots of things so I take it for general well being along with my barley grass.

It works for me and generally muscle soreness is non-existent so now its part of my regime.

Just to give you a break down before my run I eat a wrap with 1/2 chocolate hazelnut spread & 1/2 peanut with a banana.

After completing my run I have plenty of water and a protein shake with milk, as milk is great at re-hydrating you for longer. I take my creatine, HMB and amino acids with some fruit juice for the sugars.

So to all you runners keep up the carbs but dont for get your protein.

Bye for now

Simon

Experiment time is up

Well there you go that’s almost 2 weeks and I’m happy with that.

I just wanted to highlight a good reason to doing something like this and one of the reasons I did.

I’ve read plenty of articles that stated that 80% of people who took this supplement gained 2lbs of muscle in a week.

7 in 10 people who ate this first thing in the morning loss on average 2 lbs a week.

My point being that 20% didn’t get the same gain and 3 out of 10 didn't loss the weight so even if the majority get these benefits not everyone does.

Therefore you need to try things out and experiment for yourself to see what works for you. So I have

The Experiment

I officially stopped being a veggie on Saturday so a total of 12 days which is a long time for me.

Overall I dont feel hugely different as mentioned before I feel like I'm waking more alertly in the mornings. I have noticed a decrease in a sort of belly ache feeling I used to get in the afternoons.
I do think the most significant thing has been the losing weight and feeling trimmer.

I didn't feel there was a big effect on my training apart from my waist shrinking but I didn't make any other gains in terms of size.
I did struggle on a few occasions with hunger but they may have not all been down to the veggie diet.

I must admit I've have kind of enjoyed it and feel I've rediscovered a couple of things.
I've broadened my recipe repertoire and I've even enjoyed the discipline / challenge side of it by sticking to certain foods.
I'd imagine its similar to those who have to eat certain foods for there beliefs and those that have serious health risks.

Most importantly I think I've got something out of this and will be taking the lessons I've learnt forward with me.

Here's a break down of the rest of the week

 

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri
Breakfast	Slice of banana protein bread & 2 boiled eggs	Slice of toast with peanut butter & 2 boiled eggs	Porridge & 2 boiled eggs	Rarebit on wholemeal toast & 2 boiled eggs	Scrambled eggs on toast
Lunch	Mozzarella & Homemade Mackerel pate, salad and banana	Mung bean & paneer curry with brown rice	Teriyaki salmon with sesame seeds, brown rice & salad	Quorn goan curry, salad and half a wrap	Quorn moussaka, veg & onion rings
Dinner	Teriyaki salmon with sesame seeds greens beans, stir-fry kale, spring onions, ginger, garlic & chllii	Quorn goan curry with homemade garlic naans	Grilled halloumi, roasted veg and salad.	Chunk of protein banana bread with peanut butter and half a tin of tomato soup	3 bean burritos, salsa, guacamole and salad
Snacks	Handful of mixed nuts, shape 0% yogurts, apple, boiled egg	Handful of mixed nuts, apple, Protein shake, 2 shape 0% yogurts, banana, cereal bar	Handful of mixed nuts, apple, Protein shake, 2 shape 0% yogurts, banana	Handful of mixed nuts, apple, banana, cereal bar, Protein shake	Handful of mixed nuts, apple, Protein shake
Pre/Post workouts		Protein shake	Protein shake	Protein shake

Bye for now

Simon

Happy St David’s Day

I am a proud welsh man but will be doing my celebrating on Sunday.

I have football tonight so that interrupts my dinner plans but those of you whole wish to indulge in some welsh cuisine I have some recipes for you.

First one I’m giving you the link for after all there’s no point recreating the wheel.

It’s a recipe for Anglesey Eggs by the hairy bikers for one of their shows and at the moment it’s my favourite cooking program so check it

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/angleseyeggs_92117

Now most welsh recipes will include Lamb but in days gone by, meals would have been revolved around the pig due to cost.

I’m going to stay away from the lamb recipes and give you 2 of the easiest to do.

Rarebit
Rough guide

• Enough cheese to cover your toast (depending on how much your making)
• Melt that down in a sauce pan and then add a splash of milk for each piece of toast to cover.
• Teaspoon of mustard for each 2 pieces of toast
• Teaspoon of Worcester sauce for each 2 pieces of toast
• Splash of beer if you like and spoonful of flour to thickening
• Then pour on to the toast

 

The next one is laverbread with oats now I know laverbread may not be everyone’s cup of tea but its so good for you.

Its low in fat, high in protein and loaded with nutrients so give this a go.

If you can get fresh laverbread than great but if not its likely to come in a 120g tin.

Simply add about 100g of oatmeal to the laverbread and mix together.

Pinch of salt and pepper to taste and form the mixture into pattys

Then chill for while you fry up some bacon in a pan

Pop in the laverbread in the bacon fat and cook until the outside is crispy

Serve with bacon and eggs

A bit of a rough post but you get the jist

Iechyd da