Marathon training second time around!

I’m a little preoccupied, dear readers. Something is on my mind even more than Iceland these days – RUNNING. Those of you who have been reading for a while will remember I trained for and did my first marathon last year.

Although it was hard work, I recovered from the race really quickly and was inspired to sign up to do the same again this year, and even throw in a second marathon a few weeks later to make the most of my training. (why?? why??)

Second time around the training is not really any easier, but at least I know what to expect now and that I can do both the hideous amount of training and the actual race. I’m under more pressure this year as now I have a previous  time to beat! I’m now in the dreaded weeks where my weekends are taken up by doing long runs and then recovering from them. I’m not sure how much faster I am this year – annoyingly I don’t seem to be most of the time, but then I just had a really good long run – so who knows!

What is handy about doing it the second time around is that I can put into practice earlier the things I learned quite late on last time around:

1. I know what I can eat and drink, and that a recovery drink afterwards is bliss. Still it’s easy for me to over or under-hydrate, it seems to be a fine line.

2. Compression socks after a long run help – I’m not sure if it’s just psychological but who cares.

3. A foam roller is also really good and you don’t really have to spend much time using it. It just relaxes your pains somehow.

“The Grid” – does it look like it hurts? It does!!

4. I should have more sports massages as they find little niggles you didn’t know you had and correct them.

5. I’ve realised I don’t actually like “racing” – I’m much better at endurance than speed. I should just accept this and enjoy what I’m doing rather. I like the majority of my runs because they’re done at my own pace and at the times I like to go out. Racing contradicts both of those things! Maybe I just need to do some shorter distance racing for a time but keep up the longer training mileage. (yes, I’ve had a couple of bad races lately too)

6. Eating better helps, but is still a struggle sometimes. It’s amazing how when you are trying to watch what you eat, you really notice what lengths people will go to get you to eat the bad stuff they have brought in to the office, or a bad lunch. I keep having to tell myself that they aren’t doing all the running, and I do have to eat differently to them. Anyway, it would be nice if it wasn’t a daily battle of ignoring the array of junk food that is brought in to my office every day…

OK, it wouldn’t be so bad if it was at least Icelandic stuff they were bringing, but it’s not…

7. This will sound dreadful if you don’t run – I never understood why people were always going on about chafing, but once you start going further than half marathon distance you find the edges of all your clothing sear a really painful mark into you – so my final top discovery was Bodyglide, which looks like deodorant but coats your skin as a preventive measure. I’ll spare you a picture of what chafing looks like.

If you know someone who is training for a spring marathon, spare a thought for them, as they are probably thinking about running much more than you realise. Sometimes everything is going great and you really love your training, and sometimes you’re in pain a lot of the time, but either way, running has to take over your world for a little while. It’s really nice when people genuinely take an interest in what you’re doing, and equally it can come across as rude when someone close to you forgets for the hundredth time that you’ve told them about a certain race you’re doing. (see ranty post from last year on tactlessness here.)

Hopefully when it’s all over I’ll be writing a post to tell you I broke my own record! Until then I’ll be counting down the weeks…

Tips for “improving” runners

It’s that time of year again where I and many other people start marathon training. I did my first marathon this year and many of you patiently read my training page and provided encouragement along the way. Now that I’m an old pro I’m not going to bore you with my training again – but you may get the odd post where I’m either complaining about the training or telling you how much I love running! Just think, a marathon can’t be that bad if I signed up to do another one. (OK, I’ve actually signed up to do two – but I can’t bring myself to really think about that yet)

Following my post on tips for new runners, I thought I would share some tips I learned when becoming a marathoner.

1. Training is everything. For all race distances you should follow a schedule, but for marathon training it is really a must. Training at different paces for different distances will definitely help get you around.

2. Training shortcuts = no finish! I was really shocked to see how many people were walking and looking like they were going to die early on in the marathon – you see this in half marathons too, but I always thought anyone who would sign up for a marathon would know enough about running to take it seriously. If you don’t have the time to do all of the training runs you need to do minus one or two – don’t do the race.

3. Eating and drinking are key. In a half-marathon you can get away with not drinking enough or not eating anything. Many people either do not finish a marathon or finish it feeling absolutely terrible because they haven’t eaten or drunk enough. You need to experiment to find out what you can eat and keep down. I eat little and often and drank more than I thought I needed (and still should have drunk more probably).

4. If you can do all the training, you can do the race. The training is worse than the race in so many ways – all those super long runs by yourself, trying to work out where to go, knowing you can just stop…the training is torture. The race may be longer but at least you know when you’re done you’re done and it’s the last of your long runs!

5. Keep things interesting. You have a lot of time to yourself when running. Some people like to listen to music or podcasts, or mentally sort out their problems. The point is this is actually quite useful mental time and if you keep your mind busy it’s easier to forget how long you’re running for! Going out at different times of day or on different routes also helps. Even buying new running clothes becomes inspirational.

6. Post-run recovery. I discovered quite late in my training the benefits of sports massage and of using a foam roller to attack your muscles. I’m lazy and like to stop without stretching or using the roller, but when you start racking up miles these things really help you feel better and can stop you getting injured. I also found a recovery drink that seemed to help immediate muscle soreness. All of these things made a big difference to my training.

You will find that all runners love to talk about their running. A unexpected bonus of running: non-runners have no concept of time or distance when it comes to running and think anything you do sounds impressive!

10 Icelandic songs for running

As a runner, having some decent music to run to can be key sometimes in keeping up your motivation. I listen to an ever-evolving mix of music when I’m running. I usually listen to mostly British/American music with a handful of Icelandic songs thrown in but thought it might be fun to try and do a completely Icelandic running playlist. Once I got going it was hard to narrow the list down! So yes, I know I’ve left lots of good songs off. This idea was inspired by Running on Sober who does a great job of regularly posting inspiring running music and quotes.

I’ve included a warm-up and cooldown song, and the rest are a mix of mainly rock with some electronic and 80′s sounds. Even if you don’t run, you might like some of this music!
1. Sigur Ros – Glósóli

2. Vicky – Blizzard

3. Berndsen – Supertime (if it’s good enough to run away from the zombies in Zombie Iceland it’s good enough for me)

4. Legend – City (I am obsessed with Legend right now)

5. Lay Low – Vonin

6. Dead Skeletons – Dead Mantra (I alternated between this and Ghostigital’s “Suicide” which gives you an idea of how running can make you feel)

7. Mammút – Svefnsýkt

8. Just Another Snake Cult – I Know She Does

9. Sykur – Reykjavík

10. Sin Fang Bous – Catch the Light

If it was easy, I would do it…

Tips for Beginner Runners

I started running about 6 years ago. I had always wanted to be a runner but didn’t think I could do it and in fact could only run about 10 feet at first. After lots of breaks in the first year, I finally started following training programmes and I haven’t stopped since.

People still tell me all the time that THEY can’t possibly run. As someone who really started from nothing and has gone up to running a marathon, I believe that anyone can run if they’re willing to put in the effort.

Here are some things I’ve learned along the way that might help new runners.

1. Find more runners. If you are just starting out, it would help to join a beginners running group or to go out with a friend that runs. It’s very hard to pace yourself at first and beginner runners almost always go too fast and then have to walk.

2. Investment! Invest in a proper running watch like a Garmin that will tell you how fast and far you’ve gone, so you can see how much progress you are making. You also really need to buy the right running shoes and ideally you want to try lots of them on in a specialised running shop. They will make a huge difference to how you feel when you run and adjust any foot rolling.

3. Time not distance. As a beginner you are probably really slow, so don’t worry about going x miles, aim for time on your feet. Once you can get up to running slowly for 30 minutes, you have done the hardest part. It’s then easy to add on extra time and start thinking about distance.

4. Enter a race. It’s much more inspiring to have a goal, so find a short race or even better a parkrun to enter.

5. Follow a structured training programme. These are really easy to find online, but Runners World always has good ones. Once you have been running for a while, you will want to start running at different speeds and for different distances so your training is varied and you will improve more quickly.

6. Ignore all the other runners, pedestrians and car drivers This may seem at odds with point 1, but once you get into running you begin to notice that there will be lots of people who are faster than you. This can be because they run 100 miles a week and you don’t, or because they have been doing it for 30 years, or just because they have more natural ability. Don’t let this affect your own enjoyment of running! You are only competing against yourself. Similarly, don’t be embarrassed when you have to pass other people on the road – at least you’re out there doing it, unlike them.

Once you get into more advanced running, there’s a whole load of other issues to worry about, but that’s another post! For the moment consider yourself lucky if you don’t know what fartleks and Bodyglide are.

Have you ever found a similar passion that you stuck with even when it was too hard or inconvenient?

The marathon is over…

…and yes, I finished it!

I’m very pleased with myself and not in too much pain today, just stiff and I think a toenail might be about to go, but it could be a lot worse! I didn’t walk at all, which was one of my goals. I missed my time goal by a few minutes, but actually, that makes sense, as some of my training runs didn’t match up to the timings that they should have either. I’m happy that I really pushed myself at times when it would have been easier to slow down.

I didn’t hit the dreaded “wall”, hopefully because I did long runs in training and learned how to keep myself hydrated. I did have foot cramps that kept trying to come on, but I just mentally thought to myself “NO, you’re not coming on now, just sod off and go away”, and do you know what, they did.

My advice if you’ve got a marathon coming up:

• Thinking  about it was worse than actually doing it. I had some real moments of terror of the unknown in the past few days.
• Trust your training programme. All my training paid off – I saw a lot of people who either hadn’t trained enough or had some kind of disaster on the day. Don’t get me wrong, it was still painful and hard, but it was about what I expected it would be. If you haven’t been able to do all your training, don’t torture yourself by doing the race!
• Keep eating and drinking your tried and tested fuels, it really helps! Don’t wait until you are hungry or thirsty. And no experimenting on the day!
• Be prepared to change your planned outfit if the weather is different than the forecast.

There were many highlights of the day, the weather was perfect, the race itself was perfectly organised, and the 100,000 spectators and volunteers were all so enthusiastic. There were some low points on the course and the last few miles were ridiculously hard, but that was the same for everyone around me. I’d definitely do one again (could it be my new yearly hobby??) so it couldn’t have been that bad!

This post feels a little flat, which is kind of how I feel now. There is so much I could say about the whole experience but I think I still can’t quite believe it’s happened and now it’s all over. It really was amazing and if you’re thinking about doing one yourself – do it!

Good luck to those of you who have got your own races coming up!