The dreaded wall....(long distance running)

kelsully

I ran my first marathon on Sunday. I will count it as a success as I finished the whole thing running but if you look at my splits...it is actually funny to me how obvious my wall was. I hit that wall head on. I worked hard mentally to get through it but have been doing a bit of research today. It seems that I may have depleted the glycogen stores in my muscles. The glycogen is the mid level energy we store. We use glucose first, then glycogen then burn fat. I think that while I was drinking gatorade while running I may not have been consuming enough calories while running to replenish my reserves. Thus I hit that wall. I was too afraid to try a banana or orange while running the race as I had never practiced eating those foods and I didn't want cement legs and a belly ache or puking. I tried the gels once and had a horrid experience and thus stayed away from them.

If you have ever hit the wall what did you do differently the next time to avoid it?????

Sharonbed4d

That is a huge success to finish a marathon!! I've done 2 and the first one was great. The 2nd one I hit the wall at mile 16 and it felt like my body was giving up. I ended up finishing but 30 mins longer than my 1st. I count both as a success because no matter how long it takes, running 26.2 miles is amazing. When I look back at the 2, I think I actually over trained for my 2nd marathon. I didn't give my body adequate rest after hard workouts and I probably didn't fuel enough to compensate for the extra workouts. I also started off too fast on my 2nd. For me, it's really important to pace myself the 1st few miles to give my body a chance to warm up and get into a steady pace. I would also suggest that you try energy replacement such as gu or chomps during your next long distance run. Great job and be proud!!

brityn

Have you ever heard of chia seeds? My uncle has completed over 20 marathons. He's my idol (: but doesn't like all the different gels that you can buy already packaged. He makes his own out of chia seeds. Theyre packed with nutrients. He makes a gel with lemon juice, honey and chia seeds. I don't know the ratio, but i can find out. He swears by it....

DJH510

Did my first marathon just over a week ago now. Had heard a lot about the so called wall, but guessed that hitting it wasn't a total inevitability. Sure enough, i finished without hitting any such wall! My legs and joints were in A LOT of pain and were very fed up, but with regards energy i felt no noticeable drop throughout the race. I can only put this down to weighing very little (therefore using much fewer calories in a mile), good pacing in the early part of the race and repeated consumption of energy gels and sports drink!
Finished in 3:29:33, my target was 3:30!