July 2017 Running Challenge

Going for 168.08 miles. Again. Hopefully, I can overcome the nasty Georgia humidity and stay on track.

July Goal: Rest.

Been running with a niggly glute/hamstring since late 2016, and need to get rid of it if I'm going to run a (healthy) marathon before I'm 51.

Seeing a massage therapist / myotherapist on Tuesday who specialises in sports therapy and is an endurance runner.

Will have a more specific goal after then.

I'm in for 80 miles this month, should be fairly easy, I have a marathon in a week and 1 day, ahhh.

Still struggling with how to carry my energy chews, bought a hydration pack, I love it, but it won't work for my marathon. So I went and bought some shorts with 1 good sized pocket, will try them this weekend to see what all I can put on it, ugh.

How does everyone else carry their GUs and chews, etc. I'm slow so I'll be out there for 5 1/2 to 6 hours, all aid stations will have gatorade, and 3 will have GUs, so I'm not sure how much to bring. I have a friend who I was suppose to do this race with, but she injured her knee, so she's volunteering, and will be manning the aid station at mile 9.5 I guess, so I could probably have her have some things for me so I don't have to carry it all the whole way. Thoughts?

angmarie28 wrote: »

How does everyone else carry their GUs and chews, etc?

I usually research what they're giving out on the day, and train with them so no dodgey tummy surprises on the day. And carry as little as possible. If I do carry, it's usually in my bra straps. You can get gel belts, but they always look uncomfortable, never tried one (basically an elasticated belt), having a couple of folk out on the course may be a good idea.

Here is a working link to the @Orphia post: https://goo.gl/qGSjyB
The original got *kitten*-ised by MFP's censor!

p.s. That's definitely me also but it's worked so far, so who cares!!

angmarie28 wrote: »

I'm in for 80 miles this month, should be fairly easy, I have a marathon in a week and 1 day, ahhh.

Still struggling with how to carry my energy chews, bought a hydration pack, I love it, but it won't work for my marathon. So I went and bought some shorts with 1 good sized pocket, will try them this weekend to see what all I can put on it, ugh.

How does everyone else carry their GUs and chews, etc. I'm slow so I'll be out there for 5 1/2 to 6 hours, all aid stations will have gatorade, and 3 will have GUs, so I'm not sure how much to bring. I have a friend who I was suppose to do this race with, but she injured her knee, so she's volunteering, and will be manning the aid station at mile 9.5 I guess, so I could probably have her have some things for me so I don't have to carry it all the whole way. Thoughts?

@angmarie28 ,

So... race as you train. Experiment as fast as you can, and then do that for the rest of your training so there are no surprises on race day.

Rule of thumb is 60-100 calories per hour if you are running for that long. If you are using the Gu Gel packets I think that is like 1 packet every 45 minutes. So 6 hours is 8 gels. You can get away with less if you drink Gatorade instead of water, but you will have to fine tune that based on your own body.

I run with a belt back bag where I can fit a bunch of them. Takes me 4 hours to do a marathon, so I have a bunch too.

I would not count on Gu's on the course. There is no telling when you will hit them vs when you need to be eating. Hydration is normally pretty often in a race like that so you should not have to carry any water. That helps a lot. 6 hours worth of running water in the summer is a lot of weight.

I have started experimenting without the Gu Chews and Clif Bloks instead of the Gels. I find them MUCH easier to deal with. Portions are smaller, so like 1 chew every 15 minutes or something like that would work. Still working that out.

My wife uses Sweedish Fish and counts on the Gatorade for the electrolytes instead of the Gels. I lose too many electrolytes through sweat for that to work for me (10-15 pounds over 26 miles), but I also supplement long runs with Scaps so that I only need to worry about calories and hydration: http://amzn.to/2scq1z4 (one before I at the start, one per hour after that)

My belt bag is an older version of this: http://amzn.to/2uuLV10 Looks like mine has a bigger pocket, but something like that should work for you. Or so is my guess

Today I had 11.3k on my plan, and after a very busy week was quite tired and lower legs were very stiff so decided a nice easy pace was in order. Up the hill and on the plateau was taking it very easy. At about 6k I came back down and naturally sped up, (parts were fairly steep so more "controlled falling" than running!). However, I forgot to slow down again when I got back on the flat so thought I'd see out the last 5k at MP. Realised at my 10k time check I was even going a bit faster than that but felt really great so kept it up to home totalling 11.5k in the end.

I felt so good that when I came across a woman doing intervals in local park just before home, (i.e after running 10k+), I was even tempted to join her and I HATE intervals!



1-July: 11.51km - easy 6.5k; HM pace last 5k

Upcoming Races:
9-July: Southend HM
?? 22-Oct: Chelmsford Marathon ?? [Undecided]

11.3 hot sticky miles in 100% humidity. Use my new 2 liter hydration pack. Good thing I had it. I went through a full liter. I figure this will be ample water for a 20 mile run. The run was slow only 10:15 for a pace.

angmarie28 wrote: »

I'm in for 80 miles this month, should be fairly easy, I have a marathon in a week and 1 day, ahhh.

Still struggling with how to carry my energy chews, bought a hydration pack, I love it, but it won't work for my marathon. So I went and bought some shorts with 1 good sized pocket, will try them this weekend to see what all I can put on it, ugh.

How does everyone else carry their GUs and chews, etc. I'm slow so I'll be out there for 5 1/2 to 6 hours, all aid stations will have gatorade, and 3 will have GUs, so I'm not sure how much to bring. I have a friend who I was suppose to do this race with, but she injured her knee, so she's volunteering, and will be manning the aid station at mile 9.5 I guess, so I could probably have her have some things for me so I don't have to carry it all the whole way. Thoughts?

I use a Spibelt. It's got enough room for a few chews, my glasses and a key. Mine also has the toggles to attach my race number.

https://spibelt.com/

Hi all. I will target 140k only this month for 2 reasons, a) high temp and b) i have an aquathlon race at the end of the month and i need to concentrate on swimming.

Take care all and hydrate often