DCM 2015: Mentored Novices Thread

smashiner wrote: »

What Is Overhydration?
Nearly all the major systems of your body depend on water to work properly. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day aids in regulating body temperature, preventing constipation, flushing waste products out of the body, and many other important functions.
Most people, especially those who exercise in hot weather, are more concerned about not drinking enough water. However, overhydration—or drinking too much water—is also a potentially deadly condition, one that can throw off the balance between water and sodium in your blood.

Just thought that I would post on this one after the near miss my friend had at the DHM. I was speaking with him today (fine now BTW) and he told me that he took 3 full pints of water before the race and was 'weeing like a race horse' and that his wee was nearly clear (sorry for mental image). I then by chance received a call for one of the DHM race directors following up on how my friend was and I told her about the 3 pints of water he had taken and and she reckons that there was a high chance that he over did it with water before the race and washed the salts and electrolytes out of his system before he even ran, hence the sudden crash!!

This would probably explain what happened as my friend said that his training went really well and although he doesn't really drink too much when running,he was shocked to crash too (hospital said that he had exhausted all electolytes in his blood). Last year on this thread another mentor posted that he had taken on way too much water in the days leading up to his first DCM and also had to pull out due to exhaustion halfway through.

Just a word of caution not to over do the whole water thing and flush yourself out before an LSR or in the days leading up to the DCM.

Any mentors (Clearlier et al??), have anything to add on this?
Smash.

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Morning novices, one week down and 17 more to go!

REVIEW:
Last week, on the boards plan, you will have had a gentle introduction to pace via strides and completed the first official lsr of 8 miles. The HHN1 group will have done a lsr of 6 miles so congratulations to both groups, you are officially in training for the marathon
Some of you will have raced over the weekend, well done in what were trying conditions. Believe it or not, you may need this warm weather training come October, last year's marathon saw very unseasonal heat and humidity. Clearlier has given great advice on running in hot conditions; get out early if you can (see below) and get into the habit of drinking plenty of water throughout the day (you want to be seeing straw coloured wee/something in between dark and clear urine). Most importantly, on your lsr, drink to thirst.

THE WEEK AHEAD:
This week sees the HHN1 plan increase the lsr from 6 to 7 miles. Make sure you stretch after this run and book a bath in the evening if you can. Got shares in Epsom salts yet?!

The boards plan has its first proper session this week: a 'pace run' of 3 miles after warm up. A pace run is done at your PMP (planned marathon pace). 'But I'm a novice, I haven't a clue what my PMP is :eek:!'

"Pace Runs– these are done at your (realistic, not aspirational) planned marathon pace (PMP). Again you can use McMillan to work out your current marathon pace by plugging in a recent race result but note that McMillan is not always very accurate at working out marathon pace for novice marathon runners. Don't be afraid to run a bit slower than your predicted pace. You should feel like you're working a little harder than during your lsr but you should still be able to talk in short sentences and it should be a pace you feel you can sustain for a long duration. It's better to start out very slow and pick it up a bit as you warm up rather than starting too fast and having to slow down. Do a mile very slowly to warm up and the same to cool down at the end rather than just stopping to a halt."

This week, focus on two things:
1) give yourself a range of 20-30 seconds per mile this week. So if your target is 4 hours, this gives you a PMP of just over 9m/m pace. For the pace run, aim to keep the pace no faster than 8:55 pace and allow yourself a range of up to around 9:20 pace.
2) the important thing at this stage is to go by effort: it should be comfortably hard so you should be working steadily but not eyeballs out.

This is the first session of its kind on the plan, you are not expected to *get it right* this week: from Wednesday's run, you will be able to establish more accurately how you felt, what you are capable of right now and 'pace' for future runs of this kind.

The boards plan sees the lsr move from 8 miles to 10. Which brings me to...

THE LSR AND FUELLING
You should all be aiming to make the lsr a morning run. The marathon is...in the morning so it makes sense to practise morning running. Now is the time. Four weeks out is too late, eight weeks out is too late...now is the time to start fitting those pieces of jigsaw puzzle together

Establish your routine: get up early, find out what breakfast works for you (usually a light carbohydrate-based one) and at how long before running is comfortable. For me, it's at least two hours but I know of one - successful - runner who scoffs a bowl of porridge 20-30 minutes before a run.
You need to find out how much/little water works too. Trips to the bushes are pretty inevitable but you want to minimise these as much as poss. You should get into the habit of hydrating throughout the week. If you do this, you don't need to worry too much about liquids on the morning of a lsr; I find a glass of water and coffee is enough and don't send me to the bushes mid-run. Again, now is the time to find what works for you.
You also want to leave that bowel as empty as possible. Coffee works great here too so if you don't drink coffee, let us know what works for you. The legs are not the only piece of anatomy that needs training here

FUELLING:
You should also be reading as much as you can about refuelling in training and on marathon day.
- you might decide to forgo any kind of refuelling and train your body to utilise its own resources. In that case expect Enduro to add you to his Christmas card list.
- you might decide to use chemical free/natural foods to refuel
- you might decide to go down the gel etc route

All these are valid choices and each one has worked for runners. You need to find out which one is for you and....now is the time
There is a lot of information online. Use your discretion when reading. Just because it's online, doesn't mean it's *true*. Source personal feedback and more reputable sites (Runners World etc). If you're in a club or know marathon runners, ask them. Real life experienced people are the best source of information, use them but remember what works for them may not be what works for you. Yep...now is the time

TAPERING:
Those of you who are racing this weekend: follow the plan but reduce the intensity and if you feel it necessary, take an extra day rest or recovery towards the end of the week. Too much rest will not necessarily make you fresher, it may even make your legs a bit lethargic. As the weeks and races progress, you will find what works for you. The important thing is, we start to fit the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle into place now.
Good luck and strong legs!!


FOCUS FOR THE WEEK:
This week, I want you to continue practising the elements of strong running from the last two weeks summarised as:

Breathe

Run Tall

Relaaaaax

I have one more very important ingredient to add this week:

Smile

Believe me, it makes a difference. Yeah, I've had you looking somewhat unhinged by making you talk to yourself in the conversation test and now I'm making you look like manic sweaty crazed runners by smiling on the hoof. Trust me, it works
You don't need it to be a full-on gum-baring gurn (although if that works for you....), it can be a little Mona Lisa style smile.
- you will immediately relax when you smile
- you will be reminded of how bloody good it is to just get out and run
- you will send some (more!) feel good thingys flooding through your body

Happy running Novices

Dubgal72 wrote: »

It's a scorching hot day today. Looking forward to hearing how you all cope with the heat on your long runs this weekend. Drink to thirst and you should be ok. I have found that it is the day before that is crucial for hydration and that I generally don't need to drink much, if anything, in the couple of hours before a run (unless it's a run first thing in the morning).
Make sure that you hydrate fully after your run. Dark yellow urine means you need to drink more, clear means you have probably drunk too much. A light straw colour is a happy medium

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Could be over hydration...what colour is your wee btw? In the morning it will (normally) be dark yellow but you should achieve a light yellow/straw colour by lunch time if properly hydrated. If your urine is frequently clear, it may be a sign that you're drinking too much. I usually have a glass of water before bed, two if I've been ahem sipping vino but not any more. I suppose that's an individual capacity so try cutting back liquids at night and see if that gets you through the night. Getting up to wee counts as a sleep interruption so it would be worth trying to fix it now

Clearlier wrote: »

Well done to all at the weekend. It sounds like most had races that reflect the great training that has been going on.

With the death of that poor man and the collapse of smashiner's friend there's been a fair bit of discussion about hydration. Aside from how sorry we feel for the friends and family of the young man who died hearing about someone so young dying doing something that we're doing is a scary experience - it brings us into touch with our own mortality and there's an understandable desire to do whatever we can to mitigate the risk of the same happening to us.

I've done some searching about this in the past and what I found was that most deaths in a marathon come about because of a pre-existing condition. People do die from dehydration but it's hard to find examples of it - it's much easier to find examples of people who die from being over-hydrated (hyponatraemia).

The difficulty with hyponatraemia is that the symptoms are almost identical to dehydration and in the past there has been a tendency to assume that a runner collapsing towards the end of a marathon is dehydrated - they were put on a drip lowering the sodium levels to a point where they fell into a coma and died. Thankfully medical crews are much better educated in respect of this issue and know to look out for the warning signs.

The best advice on drinking remains to drink to thirst. That doesn't mean that common sense doesn't apply, if it's 30 degrees celsius, there's no shade and you're sweating buckets you can probably assume that you're going to need water but don't overdo it and drink litre upon litre.

Here's a link to a more lengthy discussion of hydration in races.

This is a broader discussion about deaths during exercise. Possibly the key point to take out of this article is that the risks are minimised by training properly for an event.

Final point is that everybodys needs are different so avoid any kind of guidance that suggests you should drink x amount.

Follow your thirst, use your common sense and you'll almost certainly be fine.

Clearlier wrote: »

I did post a bit about hot weather running earlier in the thread but it's a big thread now and I've had a few more thoughts about it since. I'm assuming that you're on holiday for up to two weeks in a location that is significantly hotter than what you're used to. I'm also taking a relatively cautious approach.

Ignore your pace - you will be slower.
Run for time rather than distance i.e. if your plan says 12 miles at 10mm pace then run for 2 hours at the same effort which is likely to be less than 12 miles.

Run when it's coolest.
Run in the shade if possible
Wear white clothing (reflects the sun)
Wear a hat
Drink water on the run - bring a bottle if you have to or do loops.

One last point to note is that different people respond differently to heat. Body mass may have a role to play in this. One guy I know ran his half marathon PB wearing a beanie and ran a significant marathon PB in Paris when all around him was carnage. I personally enjoy running in the heat but if I want a PB I need cold conditions (body mass may have a role to play in this!).

An out-there idea i've only recently become aware of is that there are some companies out there claiming to manufacture clothing that keeps you cool in hot weather. I've never tried it so have no idea if they work although technical tops are definitely better than cotton ones! Has anyone here tried any of this clothing?

wolfyboy555 wrote: »

So I gave my knee a weeks rest and went out again today on grass and did 3 km. I could still feel it niggling me so stopped again. I am not sure what to do. It doesn't hurt to walk or anything I feel fit its just when I am running its like a strain beneath my knee. I have already missed out on a full weeks training and getting a bit worried now. I am thinking of maybe going to a physio? Does anyone have any recommendation of someone to go to? I am based in Lucan. Feel free to PM me. Thanks.