I realised what was probably going to happen is I'm going to spend the first 15
K going, oh, this is great. Having a great time. Loving this. Oh,
this was so good. Wow. Look at me, go.
And then I'm going to spend the last 5k, a mess crying,
hating life, just wanting it to all end.
Hi, I'm Sarah.
And you join me in week 11 of my training to run my first ever
marathon. Race day is fast approaching,
but I don't even have time to think about that right now,
because I am in the middle of the hardest block of training on this marathon
plan, which includes my longest run ever.
So stay tuned because I'm going to be showing you exactly what it's like to run
further than you've ever run before.
And what goes through your head in that precise moment,
as well as some top tips for long runs as sent in and commented by you.
First though, I've got an easy to steady 10K to do so hit subscribe
if you haven't already. Let's go do it.
So let's talk numbers. Over the last 11 weeks,
my training has been building up slowly in terms of distance and mileage,
and that is super important with any type of training that you're doing to build
up slowly so that you don't shock your body and put yourself at risk of injury.
So I've been leading up with all of my long runs,
my biggest one being 24K last weekend. Well,
I definitely had some points to work on at the end of that run and that's
good because this weekend it's the big 30K,
the longest run in all of my training.
So I have absolutely loved reading all of your comments, suggestions,
questions, and solutions in the comments. So here's a round up,
of your tips and advice for getting through long runs,
Tip number one is plan a route. Now The Fat Runner commented on a previous
video saying that they love plotting completely new routes that they've never
done before, because it makes it more of an adventure. And I totally agree.
So this 30K is going to be somewhere I've never been before,
but I am going to research it beforehand to make sure there's enough to run on
this route to hit 30K.
Because there's nothing worse than running and then having to turn around plan as
you go and then not running far enough.
So Vikas commented on a previous episode to ask about nutrition both through
the week and on actual long run day itself.
Now nutrition is super important and you should definitely be thinking about it
before the actual day of the run.
This doesn't mean throwing your usual schedule out the window,
but instead just trying to make smart choices. So not skipping breakfast,
taking on the correct amount of proteins, vitamins, minerals,
and carbohydrates,
and then the night before maybe taking on a few more carbohydrates than you
usually would,
just to make sure that your glycogen stores are topped up. Then, on the actual run
itself,
I'm taking gels with me that I've used before that I know don't upset my
stomach and I'm planning when to take them so that it's preemptive
rather than fuelling on the go, When I start to feel hungry,
because I've tried that before and it doesn't work. It's too late by that point.
So plan to precision and then hopefully your nutrition will go well.
Next up it's sleep - so important. But as Jen found out,
it's so easy to neglect when life gets busy or other things get in the way.
Well, I am not sacrificing sleep this week,
whether that's for taking the dog out, taking the bins out, getting up early
to meet a friend, not having any of it.
I am making sure that I'm getting eight hours every night so that I am as rested
as possible.
Next tip is to recover properly. So making sure that after a run,
you are doing everything you possibly can to be ready for the next one.
This might mean I'm described as lazy this week, but I am okay with that.
I have 30K to run and I'm not going to mess this up.
I love the advice from Alice P who said that this is your first marathon,
you're never going to have this experience ever again.
So try and savour it as much as possible.
So that is exactly what I'm going to do.
Don't forget prehab. Now,
I know it can be tempting to let the S&C and the yoga and everything in
between go out the window when you've got a big run to do
that's going to take up a lot of time,
but don't skip it because it's so important.
And as Megan can relate to when she was training for her ultra,
it can sometimes feel like a chore, but I promise you if you stick with it,
it will pay off on race day. This maybe isn't the week though
to add 10 kgs onto your weight training,
take it nice and easy so that you've got fresh legs for the long run,
but don't skip it.
Lots of you in the comments that suggested roping in other people to help out
on long runs. And so that is exactly what I'm going to do.
I've got a friend coming along with me.
He didn't fancy running 30K having done no training.
So he is going to be cycling alongside me being my pacer,
my cheerleader, water carrier and you know,
maybe I'll ask him to sing some tunes as well if he's up for it.
I did the same with a group of friends last weekend and it went really well.
Although I did spend the first half of the run,
coaching them whilst they remembered how to ride bikes.
So also in the distraction category is podcasts and lots of people wanted to
know what specific podcasts I listened to.
So, we're all friends here, no judging. Here goes.
I love listening to ones which are like conversations as if two people were sat
in front of you in a pub having a chat. Um, so my favourites are Happy Place,
Open Mind, Castaway, The Secret's Out and Shag, Married, Annoyed.
Give those a listen f you haven't already.
A lot of other people also recommended audio books,
which I've tried and absolutely loved as well.
First one I listened to was the Summer Job by Lizzie Dent,
which was like over 10 hours, but I managed to get through it in three days.
So I think I need to pick a longer book.
So those are all the tips that I'm going to be taking with me into my long run.
And hopefully that should make it seem really easy.
Or is that asking too much for a long run?
We shall see. For now, though, I've got this 8K to finish off followed by some
strides. So run done, and I just have strides left to do,
and to make things a little bit more exciting.
I'm going to swap shoes in to these,
which are the brand new Wave Rebellion shoes from Mizuno.
They look fast, they feel fast.
I've been doing lots of my interval sessions in these shoes,
and it's great to just have something which gives you that little bit extra oomph
behind you.
It's also made me quite excited for life post-marathon and given me something
to aim towards, perhaps a PB and something a little bit shorter than 26.2 miles.
And we want to help you out with your goals and personal bests as well.
So we want to give away a pair of these shoes to one of you.
All you have to do to enter is like this video, drop a comment down below.
Not sure what to comment?
Tell me what goals do you are working towards at the moment.
And if you're currently training for a marathon,
do you have any post-marathon goals? Let me know. So run and strides done.
Now it's all about rest and recovery because there's only four days to go until
the big 30K. I've still got a couple of sessions to do though.
So tomorrow is a rest day where I'm going to do some strength and conditioning,
light interval session the day after, and then another rest day and then 30K.
Okay, it's getting close now.
Good morning. I've got porridge on the go here.
And today is all about preparing for the big 30K
tomorrow.
So I'm trying to do as little movement as possible so that I'm ready to run
and just get ready. I don't want to be faffing about in the morning.
So I want to have all of my kit folded, ready to go this evening
so that I don't have to think about anything tomorrow apart from running.
So that's what I'm sorting out now. Shoe choice.
I'm of course going to go for my trusty Mizuno Wave Rider 25s.
I have had zero foot pain and zero blisters from the shoes.
And the last thing I want tomorrow is for a blister to appear or my
foot to start hurting. So gonna go with these.
Then it's still super hot in the UK.
So I'm going to go for shorts.
I will be wearing anti chafe as well because no one wants that on a long run.
And then I've picked out a light coloured vest
with matching coloured sports bra,
because coordination is key so that I'm nice and cool for tomorrow.
And I've also got a visor to wear as well to keep the sun off my face.
I have picked a route which is relatively shady,
but I think it's always better to have a visor on as well
just so you don't have to get the sun in your face. Then all that's left
to pack is a vest where I'm going to be carrying water and gels,
which I'll be doing on actual race day as well.
Although obviously tomorrow there won't be any aid stations.
So I'm going to make my friend the aid station.
I'm going to give him two of these.
I don't really know how much water I'm going to need / want tomorrow.
So I'm, overpacking rather than under packing, just so that I'm fully prepared.
And then if I need to, I can grab one of these from my friend tomorrow,
whilst I'm running or ask them very nicely to fill up my soft flask whilst I
carry on running. We'll see.
Then all that's left to do is make sure that my watch, headphones and my phone
are fully charged. And then when we're ready to go,
let's do this. Good morning.
So it is 30K day, or what regular people call the weekend.
I am about to run further than I have ever run before. And I am nervous,
excited, I feel sick all in one go,
but I think the best thing to do is just get it done.
So I've got my trusty backup crew with water, spare supplies,
spare batteries, everything that I could possibly need,
nothing left to do apart from run now. Let's do this. Okay,
let's go. Start the watch.
So we're just coming up to 2K, um,
this first 10K is nice and easy, feeling all right.
But I'm still very aware that we've got a 28K to go.
Right, 30K thoughts for you.
There'll be a few weird thinkings along this road, I'm sure.
My first one is I feel great when I pass people and say
like, oh morning, I feel like that's really fine to say, but
why is afternoon, it suddenly sounds really posh?
Do you just say hi when it gets past 12 o'clock? Because, not gonna lie,
we've set off quite late. So we will be going into the afternoon on this run.
And this is quite a busy path. So what'd we go for - hi?
Hiya? Afternoon? Evening if it takes that long?
What do you say? Let me know in the comments down below.
5K done. Um,
30 minutes for that first 5K.
So going well, on track for one hour 10K.
So just coming up to 8K, feeling good.
I'm trying not to make the mistakes that I've made on previous runs.
So really sticking to that slowish pace to start off with, not talking
too much and I'm just trying to enjoy it.
So just had my first gel, little bit later than I wanted to.
So I'm glad I've got Rory with me, cause I totally forgot.
He'd stopped to get some photos and then cycled up to remind
me, so we're, we're on track. We're doing okay.
I'm loving this route though. It is, it's kinda muggy today.
Um, it's not too bad. Um,
and it's literally just one straight path. We go out for 15K,
then we come back to 15 K,
which I know for some people would be the absolute worst nightmare.
But for me it just means I can lock into a pace
and then just power through, which is what I'm going to do for this final 1K
at this pace. 10K in, 20K to go,
time to pick up the pace. Let's do this. So we're now
12.8K in and this is already feeling better than my
24K last week. I think ultimately you just got to respect the distance,
put in the effort beforehand,
and the payoff is so much more worth it. I realised what was probably going to happen
is I'm going to spend the first 15K going, oh, this is great.
Having a great time living there. Oh, this was so good. Wow. Look at me go.
And then I'm going to spend the last 5K a mess, crying,
hating life. Just wanting it to all end. But for now
I'm just not going to think about that bit.
One thing that I love about running really long distances is,
is that on my watch, once you've gone past an hour,
the one is really, really tiny, but you can't really see it.
And that's actually quite useful cause I kind of just reset in my mind.
I'm not thinking I've done an hour and 20 minutes. I'm just thinking,
all right, that's a 3.37K in 20 minutes.
That's alright. Need to get to 28:45
for 5K, that's brill. Mind games, marathon
mind games. Just hit some awful stinging nettles and brambles and stuff.
So have had to turn around a little bit before 15K.
But that's all right. That's okay. We'll make something work.
It's always the way isn't it. You can plan all you like in the world,
but there'll always be some kind of obstacle.
Just coming up to the big 2-0,
which means 10K to go.
And in this 10K it's kind of an all unknown.
But my legs are feeling good. There are definitely some parts of my body shouting
at me to stop, but it's not painful.
So I'm just going to ignore it and carry on.
We are coming in to the uncharted territory,
23 kilometers point-two-three.
Once we hit 24, I have no idea what's going to happen.
I can already feel that my legs are starting to
really feel it. I'm tired.
I need to take another gel
but I'm feeding strong. Pace that I want to hit is working out so far.
So I just need to keep plugging on, plogging on,
plugging in, whatever the phrase is, and get this done.
And we are into the unknown, still feeling strong,
had my gel, had some water, come on, 6K to go,
and then we're finished. And then I'm going to have my ultimate post-run drink,
sparkling water. 2K left to go.
Time is moving so slowly. I can taste the
finish. I can taste the sparkling water,
come on, just want to get it done.
Final sprint, come on, you can do it.
Yes. There were parts of that where
I thought I couldn't finish. There were parts
of that where I just wanted to stop.
I didn't think if I could run a full marathon.
Oh, but I'm so happy with that.
I'm sure I'll be even more emotional than this on the actual marathon.
But if I can do that,
then anyone can do it and anyone can run a marathon and fingers crossed
in a few weeks time, 12K more
will feel like a piece of cake.
That's the plan. For now, though, it's sparkling water time.
And shout out to my very patient support crew.
If you have anyone in your life who is willing to cycle 30K alongside you,
then do it because there is no way I could have done that without my
friend. Alright, perceived effort, what we saying hard, very hard,
extremely hard. I think I'll just put 'Light'.
So it's the day after the 30K now and and I just keep reliving it in my head.
I think the hard thing with that distance is that no one that I've ever come
across goes like, oh, I'm going from 30K PB, or what's your 30K time.
So it's hard to have a time goal to aim for or to know whether the time that
you've run is good for you. Good in the grand scheme of things.
But to be honest, I'm just really happy with how that went.
I thought it was going to be a whole lot worse than it actually was.
And I actually finished it really happy and with more in the tank,
which is very good to know as well.
And I don't have to run that far again until race day now.
So I am well and truly coming in to the last little bit of training,
I've got a few long runs left, and then it's time to taper.
And that is what I'm going to be covering in the next episode of this series.
So if you've run a marathon before and you've done some tapering or ultras,
whatever you've tapered for. If you have any tips for me,
please do leave them in the comments down below.
And if you have any questions about tapering or if there's anything that you
want to know, leave your questions in the comments as well.
And I'll see how many I can answer in the next episode.
And I'll see you next time for another instalment of Road
to My First Marathon. Bye.