How not to prepare for a half marathon

There are a few key things to bear in mind when preparing for a half marathon.  Firstly, you need to train.  I knew I'd failed on that one when I logged my miles for August and realised I'd clocked up a grand total of 40.  I considered pulling out of the Glasgow Half Marathon but decided that, with the scarier challenge of the Nokia Coast to Coast just around the corner, it might be a good idea to fit in another 13.1 miles in preparation.

This blog is littered with the mistakes I've made in my own training - as I've said before, I know what to do but sometimes find it difficult to put into practice.  And I'm no natural athlete.  Here are a few of the principles I follow when constructing a training plan, and where I went wrong:

• Specificity - whatever event you're planning for, the training needs to be specific to the demands of your chosen sport.  Cross training is brilliant for building general fitness and preventing injury, but if you don't run in your training, you're unlikely to fare well in a race.  Your body gets stronger through repeated overload followed by periods of adequate recovery and appropriate nutrition.  This leads to 'adaptation', i.e. your body gets used to working harder. I had hoped my regular 2 hour+ bike rides would see me through a similar length of run. But while cycling works your heart and lungs in a similar way to running, the strain it places on your leg muscles is different.  Not to mention the fact that I didn't prepare to run on the road at all.  I spent almost all of those 40 miles running on trail, which didn't get my poor legs ready for the mean streets of Glasgow at all. No wonder I can't walk down the stairs today!
• Volume - the frequency and duration of your training also need to be appropriate.  Obviously if you're running a marathon, you'll need to log more miles than if you're training for a 5k.  Most marathon and half-marathon plans involve 5 days running each week.  However, I really like the 3-day plans from FIRST, which are easier to fit into a busy schedule and allow a bit more variety if you have time to train on another couple of days.  But less than 3 runs a week really isn't enough to prepare for a race above 10k, and an average of 10 miles a week certainly isn't far enough, no matter how much other activity you do.
• Intensity and progression - to avoid putting too much stress on your body, which will hinder your recovery and thus your adaptation, it's important that most of your training is at at an easy pace, slower than you plan to run the race.  But a couple of times a week, harder efforts will really help you to get stronger and faster. During rest periods, your body repairs itself and gets stronger, so hard days should be followed by an easy day or day off.  A weekly tempo run, at around your half marathon pace, is important to prepare your body for the pace you'll be running at in the race.  And another session of short, intense intervals will help you to get progressively faster.  If you increase the intensity and/or volume a little bit every week, you'll see results in no time.  Well, maybe not no time, but over a 12-week period, you'll have plenty of time to get ready to run your best half.  I didn't give myself 12 weeks to train properly, and what I did do was sporadic - a long run here, a tempo session there - so I had to stick to easy run pace to get myself through the race.  

The main event, an adventure race from Nairn to Glencoe, is only two weeks away now. I'm glad that I did the half marathon, even though I finished 18 minutes slower than my personal best, because it will have helped to get my body ready for another race.  It's too late now to ramp up my training for the Coast to Coast, so I'm just going to take it easy and enjoy the scenery.  But this sorry episode has really reminded me of the importance of planning and training consistently.  My focus for the winter is being kind to my body and building general strength but, if I decide to chase any PBs next year, sticking to a proper plan will be my number one priority.

Can cake girl go cavegirl?

Just a short post this week, seeing as I wrote so much last time.  I'm still pondering over the possible advantages of switching to a diet that is lower in refined grains and contains more of the stuff we used to eat when humans lived in caves and hunted down their dinner.  It contrasts so much with the conventional diet wisdom I learnt in my nutrition degree and my natural preference to be vegetarian, but the primal lifestyle still really intrigues me. After a year of feeling burnt out and not making much progress in my training goals, I'm especially drawn to Mark Sissons' idea of combining lots of moving around slowly with short bursts of intense activity and resistance training.

Although the peer-reviewed studies on eating like a caveman still seem to be sparse, more and more research is showing us that refined carbohydrate may be a bigger health villain than saturated fat.  Frank Hu, of the Harvard School of Public Health, provided a useful overview in a recent editorial in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  Numerous studies on obesity treatment have shown that carbohydrate-restricted diets can be effective for weight loss and can reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors.  While it's clear that we need plenty of carbohydrate to fuel optimal athletic performance, over reliance on post-ride cakes, sugary drinks and chewy sweets may not be doing our health any good at all.  Even in vegetarians, it's looking more and more likely that a diet low in processed carbohydrate may be even more heart-healthy than standard high-carb, low fat veggie fayre.

So what does this mean for me?  Do I get hypnosis to like meat, try to up my vegetarian protein intake, or simply ignore my curiosity and relax with a cup of tea and slice of cake?  In the interests of science, and in the spirit of the old saying "don't knock it until you've tried it", I've decided to conduct a wee experiment in September.  It's not very scientific (n=1, possibly 2 if I can rope my husband in; no control), but it should help me to work out what works best for me. 

Starting tomorrow, my plan is to try following Mark's primal fitness blueprint and to minimise refined grains and sugar (what, no cake?!?).  I'll keep it as simple as that to start with, then review how I feel at the end of the month, and maybe take it a step further, or maybe try something else.

Whose idea was this anyway?

Five and a bit weeks to go 'til the big M and I'm nowhere near prepared. Where did the summer go? It only seems like days since I was meticulously planning my 16-week training schedule - dreaming about reaching peak fitness and slashing 30 minutes off my time. Ha!

My initial enthusiasm for the running club soon wore off, because:

• Tuesday night long runs were too long and I didn't like leaving the dog at home - she likes running too but the beach is so much more fun than the road and she hates being on the lead
• Thursdays were great but the boys were just too fast for me - why was I the only girl? I thought this was a good challenge at first, but the novelty of playing catch up didn't last and I started to feel demotivated.

I haven't given up on the club completely, but twice-weekly is now more like once-a-month. I am still sticking to three runs a week - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday - but have replaced Tuesday's club run with a circuit/hill reps session in the park straight after work. The beauty of this is that it gives me the chance to catch up with a couple of the girls and still get home in time to take the dog out. Thursdays are either running club or 5-6 miles with the dog, and Saturday is the long run.

Ah, the long run. My nemesis. Try as I might I could not get past 9 miles. It always felt like there was so long to go until the marathon that there was no hurry to go longer. I got bored and took a short cut home. Then two weeks ago I did the Haddington Half Marathon and was shocked into action. Another personal worst! It was a warm and sunny afternoon and I was tired, but that's really no excuse. I just hadn't put in the training and I had no one to blame but myself. It didn't bode well for the marathon.

I'd really love to beat my only other marathon attempt (4 hours 20 minutes, 4 years ago) so I'm now pulling out all the stops. I did 14 miles last Saturday - 7 out and 7 back so I couldn't cheat - and intend to add on 2 a week until I hit 20. I'll also add in some cross-trainer and bike sessions on my non-running days, to try to get my fitness up without over-training.

Can I reach my best-ever fitness in less than 6 weeks? Watch this space!

Bootcamp week

I'm on holiday by myself this week and on a serious fitness mission. For a brief moment in early January, I had considered booking myself on a bootcamp holiday for the week. But I wasn't sure about spending £1000+ of my hard-earned cash to run around the hills being shouted at by a scary-looking ex-army trainer. Ok, I'll admit it, that actually does sound like fun to me, but I really couldn't justify spending the money. So I decided to put together my own home-made bootcamp fitness regime. I started on Saturday with a 6 mile run and yesterday went for a big walk with the dog and another 5 mile run. I could really feel it in my legs this morning so I took it fairly easy today. Another big walk and a good stretch out with my Tracy Anderson DVD. I took the opportunity to set up a makeshift spa retreat and had a lovely long bath, did a body scrub and detox mud wrap. By the end of all that I was shattered and needed a sleep. What a lovely way to spend a Monday!

The plan

Today I started by looking at my goals and what my new plan will involve. The list so far:

Goals/motivators:
(in no particular order)

• Vanity: I'd like to fit into my jeans better and feel more toned and confident.
• Fitness: My husband is a great cyclist. I'd like to be able to keep up.
• Competitive streak: In 2005, I completed my first (and only) marathon in a respectable 4 hours and 20 minutes. My most recent race was a duathlon. Although it involved running up an enormous hill in gale force winds, I'm ashamed to admit that only 2 people saved me from finishing last! Okay, I'll never be an athlete, but finishing somewhere in the middle would make me very happy.
• Health: Long and short-term. I know that exercise is the best way for me to relieve stress. As well as the immediate feel-good effect, I want to do everything I can to keep me well in the future.

The plan:
There are no rules.

1. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables.
2. Eat plenty of protein (as a vegetarian, I know this can sometimes be a challenge).
3. Stick to wholegrains and avoid processed foods.
4. Vary training and eating habits, so I don't get bored.
5. Schedule exercise in my diary, most days.
6. Do a couple of resistance-training sessions every week.
7. Remember to stretch.
8. Walk as much as possible.
9. Sign up for at least 4 races this year, so I have something to work towards.
10. Take a day off every week.

Tools:
Essential: Bike, running shoes, hand weights.
Useful: A big pile of exercise DVDs, skipping rope, indoor bike trainer (in case it's just too cold to go out), heart rate monitor, stability ball.

Day -3

I'm starting this blog as a motivational tool for myself. A former self-confessed 'gym bunny', my fitness levels have nose-dived since I moved out of the city and away from my beloved gym. I recently started thinking that I'm probably not the only one in this position; with the economy seemingly in free-fall I imagine many are sacrificing expensive private gym memberships to look for new (or old-fashioned) ways to stay fit. So, my plan officially launches on Sunday 1st Feb, when I'll begin chronicling my quest to move more, eat well and be healthy and happy.