Training for my first marathon

Today I have a long day at work babysitting an engine running through an automated test cycle - so I thought I'd kill some time by writing another blog post. I virtually didn't update this blog at all through my marathon training, so thought I might recap it, just to give some insight into what preparation it took to get me through my first marathon.

Marathon Training Plans
There are a ton of marathon plans available online, in books and magazines, catering for everyone from a first timer just looking to finish, to a seasoned runner wanting to achieve a particular time goal. I spent a bit of time looking around, one that caught my eye was the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) first timer's plan. The plan differs from many marathon plans in that it only involves 3 runs a week, with additional conditioning coming through cross-training. I liked the idea of this, as running 5 or 6 times a week is quite demanding, and I wanted to have time to do other activities that I enjoy, such as cycling. I was worried that it might be a bit light on miles compared with most plans, but after reading several good testimonials on various forums I decided to give it a try. See the FIRST programs here

The FIRST Program
There are actually two 20-week programs - one for first timers and one for experienced runners, they both use the same basic structure but the one for experienced runners has more strenuous speed-work, and builds the long run much more quickly. The three runs are:
Speed work - intervals of various distances at a prescribed pace, dictated by your 10k race pace. These were usually around 9-12km, with up to 6km of that being at a fast pace.
Tempo run - ranging in distance from 8km up to 16km, either at a constant pace (i.e. 10k pace + 10sec/km), or using a pattern such as 3km slow, 3km @10k pace, 3km slow
Long run - ranging from about 18km up to 33km (i.e. 20 miles), pace prescribed as planned marathon pace + xx seconds/km.

On top of that, you are to do 2 30 minute cross training sessions per week, I usually just did one mountain biking session of about 2-3 hours, and occasionally added a 5-10k run.

Me and FIRST
Initially I started out on the beginner's marathon plan, but after a couple of weeks I decided I didn't think it was pushing me enough, so I switched to the experienced marathoners plan. With only 2 half marathons under my belt, I was a long way from an "experienced marathoner", but I decided that if I could manage the runs at the paces set by the plan then it would be fine.

I probably struggled the most with the speed sessions, it may have partly been that it's difficult to monitor intervals of the order of 200-1200m using GPS, but often I wouldn't quite be able to make the target pace. After 7 weeks of the program, the O'Hagans 5k series started again after a break over winter, and I replaced the speed sessions with a weekly 5k race. In the first 3 races of the series I dropped about 20-30 seconds per week to bring my 5k PB down to 18:23 :)

The tempo runs were great, a nice combination of distance and speed. I usually managed to knock them out quicker than the required pace. I haven't actually raced a 10k, so I'd guessed my 10k pace to be 4:20/km based on a half marathon pace of 4:27 and 5k of about 4:00. Looking back, I suspect I should've started around 4:15 and I think I could possibly manage a sub-40 10k now.

The long runs were long. For the first few I started out around 5:30/km, but I found running at that pace my stride was quite poor and I would get sore knees very quickly, so most of my long runs were in the range 4:50-5:15/km, depending on length. I did find I started to run out of gas once I got around the 30km mark, which made me reasonably concerned about how I would handle 42km! Also FWIW, my initial planned marathon pace was 5:00 (for a 3hr 30 marathon), but later on I was working with a planned pace around 4:45 (actual pace was 4:38).

Weekly and long run distance for my marathon build up. Note week 19 is race week

As you can see above, my weekly distance varied between 35 and 63km through the program, which is really quite low for a marathon plan.

Injuries and Down time
I think one of the excellent things about the FIRST plan is that 3 purposeful runs per week makes you less likely to suffer injuries than running 5+ times a week and clocking up 70-100 slow kilometers. I didn't suffer any specific running injuries during my training, although I think I came close during the O'Hagans 5k in which I set my current PB - it was only a couple of days after a 33km run, and I got a sudden sharp pain in my hip near the start which almost made me stop, it disappeared shortly after and I pushed very hard over the last 200-300m, leaving my legs in a pretty sorry state for several days afterwards.

I had about 1.5 weeks off early in the program due to getting the flu, it was the first time I had gone an entire week without running since sometime last year, and my first sick day in 2 years at my job.

Life and Marathon Training
I found the demands of marathon training to be a lot less of an impediment to other parts of my life than triathlon training had been over summer. The Rugby World Cup was on during the last 2 months of my training and most weeks I went out at least once to a bar or one of the "fan zones" in the city with my mates to watch a game. I did my part in supporting the New Zealand liquor industry during those weeks, and I also had plenty of time to get to work on my cars, making good progress on some fairly major work I'm doing on the MR2 which I hope will be finished some time over summer.

Gear!
Fortunately I didn't spend nearly as much money buying gear or entering races as I did over summer, but I did add a few more shoes to my collection. I replaced my beloved fluorescent green Saucony Kinvaras with some fluorescent orange Saucony Kinvara 2s. The old ones had over 1000km on them and were starting to get quite worn on the soles, although with claims that the Kinvaras would only last 300km or so I was pleasantly surprised that one pair lasted me about 6 months of quite heavy use. I also finally got some nice trail shoes, the somewhat legendary New Balance MT101s. I haven't used them much yet, but they look awesome, are very comfortable and seem like great shoes, I might post up some detailed thoughts on them once I get a chance to really put them through their paces.

Two brilliant pairs of shoes, MT101 on the left and Kinvara 2 on the right

I did however blow a decent chunk of money on a new mountain bike. It's full suspension Norco with about 6 inches of travel front and rear, riding it has seen my bravery over jumps, drops and descents increase significantly, I love it! A group of us have been discussing a trip to Europe next year which will include the Pass'Portes du Soleil mountain bike race, nearly 100km of mostly downhill riding through the Alps, it looks amazing!

My steed after a particularly muddy ride at Riverhead

Song of the Day
This damn song! I listened to it several times the day before the marathon and it was continuously looping in my head for most of the first 20km or so! A classic from the Canadian rock band, Rush - Tom Sawyer, this one is a live performance with a nice little cameo from the South Park boys. Enjoy!

New Gear!

I've read that the fourth discipline in triathlon is buying cool shit, and I have to agree. Between the three sports there are so many potential avenues for spending - bikes and associated componentry can easily be the biggest contributor, but with swimming there's wetsuits and assorted training aids, and then there's that huge running shoe market. There are many blogs out there that can cover the reviews of such items in much more detail than I care to (Runblogger is one of my favourites, and I've heard good things about DC Rainmaker), but I still wanted to share some of my latest purchases and my opinions of them.

I should also add - although I'm not really cheap, I pretty much refuse to pay the retail prices I see in shops here. I would like to largely blame this on pricing in NZ being hugely inflated in comparison to many other countries (which I'm gonna talk about a bit further down), and the fact I want to get as much cool shit as I can without bankrupting myself. The result of this is that a lot of what I buy is second-hand, from NZ's only worthwhile online store (Torpedo7), or imported.

ISM Adamo Racing saddle

ISM saddles are a bit funny looking at first, but for me the shape seems to make perfect sense. The design allows the rider's weight to be supported on the tuberosity of the ischium, aka the sitz bone or sitting bones (thanks Wikipedia! BTW If you look that up, have a good look at the second picture, it's quite startling when you realise what you're looking at!).

I found that as I had adjusted my bike fit to have a large drop from saddle to bars causing my hips to rotate forward, there was increasing pressure and discomfort on my perenium, that seemed to be greatly relieved by sitting slightly offset to one side. The Adamo line of saddles achieve the same thing but with the weight supported on both, rather than one sitz bone, and the cut-off nose seems to allow the wedding tackle to sit in a more comfortable position too. The saddles are unisex too, and I would imagine they would be even more of a revelation for a woman, as my guess as to what I would've been sitting on in the old (also unisex) saddle if I had lady parts suggests high levels of discomfort.

It is usually suggested that there will be a bit of an adjustment period after switching to an Adamo saddle - my first ride was around 2.5 hours and it felt great! There was some discomfort afterward (similar to light bruising), but after about 300km on the saddle I seem to be fully adjusted to it. The saddle is not quite as cushy as my old one when riding in a more upright position on the hoods or flat of the bars, but I do 90% of my riding on the aero bars anyway, so this doesn't really bother me (and when I'm grunting up a hill my legs are screaming louder than my ass anyway).

I don't see myself changing to a different style of saddle anytime soon, and would definitely recommend the Adamo line of saddles to any triathlete who has a roughly horizontal-torso aero position.

Saucony Progrid Kinvara running shoes

When I first started trying to run about this time last year, I suffered terrible shin splints that prevented me from being able to run for much more than 5 minutes. After taking a trip to a local running shoe store, and outlaying an awful lot of money ($270NZ) I was running in Brooks Adrenalines - moderate to heavy pronation control shoes, and I was cured!

Having run somewhere around 700km since then, and recently done a considerable amount of research into running biomechanics (another post I hope to make, when I have time!), I decided I wanted to give the Kinvaras a shot. The key reasons being the excellent reviews they've received, reduced heel-to-toe drop (4mm vs the 12mm of my current shoes), ridiculously low weight, good pricing and absolutely blingin' appearance! The hope was that with all the running I've done over the last year, I will have been through sufficient anatomical adaptations that shin splints should no longer be an issue and could handle a "neutral" shoe, while the reasonable level of cushioning would make them more forgiving than my VFFs while I develop my stride.

I bought the shoes online from the US for about $80NZ, and the total cost to have them air-freighted here was $130 - a mockery of the retail pricing on them in NZ (if you can find them). Although I appreciate that local retailers wont have the economies of scale nor the relatively low overheads of a large online store, I don't see where the extra $100NZ+ comes from when you buy them locally.

Anyway, onto my impressions of them...
First run in the shoes was great, I did 11kms at 4:40/km which is a reasonably quick training run over that distance for me. The reduced weight (about 40% lighter than my old shoes) was nice, and I definitely felt I was able to more easily land roughly on my mid-foot, although I think I was still heel-striking to some degree. The nice thing is that as the shoes are still quite cushioned, this wasn't punished as heavily as it would be in my VFFs. I suspect the fact there is still a bit of heel-lift prevented me from being able to get a really nice landing on the forefoot like I can with VFFs.

The sizing and fit felt pretty good - similar to my Adrenalines in the way they felt perfectly matched to my foot (the few other running shoes I've tried have felt just a little odd). I did feel a little cramped in the toes; this may be improved by running sockless, will have to try that next time. I also suspect they will stretch a little.

I have recently been experiencing a bit of a niggling pain in my left knee - it almost feels a bit swollen and like it's been getting jarred a bit; that was non-existent while running in the Kinvaras, and I hope this is due to the shoes. My calves felt a bit tight but I'd been experiencing that a bit recently, so not sure if it was due to an altered landing or just normal. At one point my right ankle was a little sore but that was while running on a laterally sloping path and it went away pretty quickly.

My current running shoe collection

Overall, I'd say - so far so good. I look forward to putting more distance on them, and I'm particularly looking forward to doing a 5K and my first Olympic distance triathlon in them next week.

Brooks Trance 9
The Brooks Trance is basically a more expensive (better?) version of the Brooks Adrenaline, designed to perform the same job for the same type of foot. I bought these because the online store I got the Kinvaras from was clearing the old stock at a ridiculously low price (~$75NZ), my Adrenalines are due for replacement and I was concerned I might not be able to get through my planned winter marathon training solely in the Kinvaras. Given the price of Adrenalines here vs the USA, I would expect the Trance to retail around $350NZ. Again, ridiculous.

Malcolm, shut up and tell me about the shoes

Trance on the left, Adrenaline on the right

Ok. Looking over the shoe and comparing it to my old Adrenaline, it looks like there was a design group working on each shoe, except one group spent the first 6 months drinking and then copied the other group's design, making small changes to make it look different. I think the group that was doing the drinking were the ones that designed the Adrenaline, because they're half a size undersized compared to virtually all other running shoes.

Comparing with my well-worn Adrenalines, the Trance have a certain stiffness/firmness to them, which I presume is mostly because they are new. They feel a bit more cushy under foot. Otherwise, the fit is very similar between the two, although my old shoes feel much more like they are perfectly shaped to my foot (again, probably due to wear).

I took the shoes out for a 12km run this morning, and I feel kinda like I've been spoiled by wearing the Kinvaras. The Trance felt a little clunky, the landing was frustratingly heel-heavy, and the upper felt so stiff. My left knee was feeling a bit dodgy again by the end of the run, but I'm hesitant to blame that on the shoes. I did the run sockless (which I prefer to do when possible), which was possibly a poor choice in a new shoe; I ended up with quite a bit of rubbing along the top of on my little and 4th toes on my right foot, where the edge of a stiff piece of rubbery material is on the shoe.

I think I will try wearing the shoes around a bit more to try and break them in and loosen them up a little. I love the comfort of my Adrenalines, and would still like to give these a chance to be a replacement for them.