Between marathon 2 and 3

So two out of three marathons done and dusted.

Number one the Vanguard Way Marathon completed in 4.55 after one or two issues.

Number two the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham ticked off with a PB of 4.10 just over a week ago.

Number three fast approaching before the end of the month, the Brentwood Weald Country Park marathon less than three weeks to go!

Recap

I thought I would tie up a few loose ends and recap on where I am and what I am doing as I enter the final stage of my three marathons in three months series.

To be honest I have kind of had enough of running OK maybe not running but the demands of marathon training. My body is starting to feel the affects of several months hard training and I am getting a bit fee up with constantly having to train and eat right, still mustn't grumble!

As I have mentioned I completed my second marathon in a PB time of just under 4hours 10 minutes and with it earned myself the flashest medal in my collection!

Medal

Not only is it shiny and orange (my favourite colour!) and with the striking robin hood design but the bit in the middle spins round! Awesome! 

After the marathon I did go on a little post run eating binge and enjoyed eating a few too many calories to help me refuel. If you are in the mood for a bit of food, check out this blog here be warned does contain foodporn!

Trainers

Trainer wise about three weeks before my second marathon I bought my second 'new' pair of trainers.

My 'newer' asics GT 3000's replacing the 'old' new pair of my asics GT 2000's.

I figure my 2000's have done in excess of 400km and felt like they had lost a lot of life, I will still keep them as my second back up pair as they still have a bit of life left in them though.

Ideally I would have had a little more time to wear in my new pair before my second marathon but it disnt work out that way and although they haven't caused me any problems I think they will be more in their prime come my third marathon in a few weeks

Yearly mileage

Year to date I have almost hit 1300km thats around 800 Miles and I think I am on course to hit 1700km. Earlier in the year I did have an ambition of trying to hit 2000km as I narrowly missed 1000km in 2014 but I know now I am too far adrift from being able to meet that target.

My new aim is to hit 1000 miles which will be just over 1600km which is very doable as I will only need to cover 100km per month for the last three months, should be in the bag! 

London marathon 

Last week I along with many others up and down the country waited expectedly for their fate to be decided? Was Christmas going to be planned around training runs? Would I have to endure a lot of running through the cold, dark dank days of January?

The simple answer is a big far no!

No London Marathon for me again! I have entered the ballot at least 6 or 7 times over the last 10 years or so and never been lucky enough to get in. I know I am not alone in not being lucky enough to be selected.

I did go on a bit of a twitter rant against the London Marathon in the gact that it has become more about celebrity runners and fundraising and less of a race event. Anyway thts over with now and I know I will still be entering the ballot again to hopefully be selected for 2016, fingers crossed!

So on-wards to Marathon number 3...

Marathon number three is in Brentwood, Weald Country Park to be precise and must surely be my most local marathon as it is only a 10-15 minute drive away.

Having started to look into the specifics of this run I am a bit taken aback that this marathon consists of 12 3.5km laps! Argh!

I knew it was laps but so many repetitions of such small laps sounds awfully dull and dreary with the potential to destroy any runner mentally. Time will tell!

The positive from it is that as it is in a park and the route is off road I can go back to training on trails for my preparation which I am really looking forward to! Bring on the trails!

Thanks for reading as always any tips and hints on how to cope with running multiple laps would be great! 

Post marathon eating binge

After a marathon you are meant to eat loads right?

Firstly to replace all the calories you have burned and to refuel your body with all the nutrients it needs to recover from its exertions.

Secondly to reward yourself for all the hard work during the actual marathon and all the efforts of training. 

I know using food, especially bad junk type food as a reward is not a healthy mindset but hey we all do it, right?! 

To be honest following this latest marathon I haven't had a massive appetite. Directly after running I felt empty and quickly consumed some water, a lucozade and a mars bar from my race goodie bag along with a tortilla wrap. But other than that I didn't feel hungry and writing this article three days on I still haven't had a huge hunger. 

Come an hour or two later I still didn't feel that hungry. Not really knowing what I wanted to eat only knowing I should eat we headed to wetherspoons as I knew they at least provided a wide range of food options, my selection was a Mexican chicken burger and two pints of cool refreshing cider.

To be honest I struggled to finish! It wasn't the greatest burger but was perfectly edible and wetherspoon chips are a personal favourite but I just couldn't really manage it all.

I know your body including your stomach takes an absolute hammering during a marathon and its not easy for your stomach to recover from all the sickly sugary energy gels and lucozades.

Later on in the evening I tucked into a few sweet treats, again not through a sense of need or hunger but from a sense of reward and entitlement.

What the old marketing phrase? A finger of fudge is just enough to give the kids a treat? Or in my case a whole pack is just enough to give the marathon runner his chocolate fix!

My post marathon sugary eating binges are nothing new, after the Beachy Head Marathon last year I consumed pretty much an entire packet of a Marks & Spencer chocolate biscuit selection pack at around 4am in the morning after the run as I couldn't sleep and felt bored in my hotel room with only the biscuits to keep me entertained! 

Monday morning the day after the race I was sure I would feel ravenous after not eating that much on the day of the race so I eagerly looked forward to taking advantage of our hotels buffet breakfast.

I didn't really feel that hungry and to be honest didn't eat a crazy amount, my metabolism is definitely working overtime though as I didn't feel stuffed or bloated at all and my stomach soon felt emptish again.

Tuesday and back at work I treated myself to a Japanese curry as a nice break from my training staple of brown rice or potatoes. 

I then carried on the chocolate eating with a pack of 'family sized' twirl bites. 

I blame supermarkets for providing these snacks at such a cheap price and the advertising them as soon as you walk into the store!

After an intense training programme I think its important to let yourself go for a few days and just eat whatever as its hard to sustain complete healthy eating for longer periods. In my case its necessary to have a few 'cheat' days with another event coming up so quickly so I can get eating bad foods out of my system before I refocus on a healthy diet again.

Thanks for reading, what do you like to eat after a long run? Any favourite cheat foods or weird urges you love to eat after running?