Need advice Kinboshi and remembered this thread..... Basically a few weeks ago whilst drunk decided to sign up for Glasgow Half marathon thinking it was at the end of september(set up justgiving page before signing up so had to commit) so instead of having 8 or 9 weeks training I will have had 5 weeks on the 4th September so looking for a few bits of advice in my last week and a half. I know your meant to train for 3 months to mininimize injury risk but hopefully I'll be ok cuz was playing footy regularly up until about 2 months ago.
If you have a decent base of fitness that helps a lot. Obviously, still no substitute for the correct training plan - but I haven't run a half or full marathon yet where my training has gone to plan.
Before I signed up havent ran any proper distances since school(over 10 years ago). and even that was just a bit of cross country.
Don't worry too much, a half is a decent distance but 'blaggable' if you have the fitness from something like footy.
Need advice on:
Nutrition; Been really healthy since I've signed up; loads of fish, chicken, Pasta, green veg and potatos, not much junk food at all but whats the best to eat from now until a week on sunday; I'm guessing mainly pasta for endurance as they're "builders"?
Keep eating as you are until 3 days before. That's when you want to start carbo-loading. Just up the carbs and reduce the fat/protein to ensure you can take on board enough energy in the form of carbs. Don't worry too much about this though. Also, stay hydrated during these 3 days. You want your body's cells to be fully hydrated before the day.
What my sessions should be? I've been usually doing 2 smaller gym sessions on treadmill(either a 2 mile quick run or 30 minute run at 11.5 km/h) a week and a "big" run. Sunday there was my biggest run yet of 7 miles in an hour. I have one last big run planned on sunday- should I just stay same distance or try and do say 10 miles? obviously dont want to injure myself but would like to be prepared. Should I do any running at all from monday- saturday before it?
Ideally you really shouldn't increase the mileage of your long-run by more than 10% each time (but again, not everything goes to plan). If you want the confidence builder of having run 10+ miles before the day then do a ten-miler on Sunday, but run it slowly, and slower than your planned pace for the half. That way you'll avoid injury but get the confidence of completing a longer run. You really want to be tapering a little, but to taper you need to have achieved the mileage already in your long runs. After your long run you then want to take it easy for the week. You're best going out and doing some 5K runs to keep ticking over and prevent you from feeling 'lumpy' on the day. Probably don't run from the Friday onwards?
Any Tips for when running it? do you set pace targets for every mile etc(there are markers for every mile), or do you not look at pace until your well into it? I have runkeeper which is pretty good for keeping you updated on pace and distance too.
I have a GPS thing that I use to help pace me, and I'm guessing you've got runkeeper on your iphone or whatever? All you really need is a stopwatch if they've got the mile markers and you can print out a 'wristband' to help you reference as you run round - something like this:
http://www.marathonguide.com/fitnesscalcs/PaceBandCreator.cfmThe pace is key. The worst thing you can do (and I've done it lots of times) is go out too fast. Better to run a consistent pace all the way through than go out too fast and suffer later. Even better is a negative split, where you run the first half of the race at a slower pace than the second half. Not only is it the best way to go, it feels much better when you're fresh at the end and can pick up the pace and overtake people.
When my old man first ran it he done it in an hour and 55 minutes so obviously want to beat that.
Any other good tips for it?
Enjoy it! Also, start a bit back from the start line with slightly slower runners. That way you won't have people over-taking you early doors (not fun), and you won't be tempted to go off too fast. Instead, go out slower and then when you're still feeling good later on you can overtake lots of people (is fun).
The other thing to remember is that you can always enter another one if this one doesn't go to plan.
Where's your justgiving link?
Author