Training to Dublin Marathon

hunnymonster

DamienMcKeever, Have you done ironman before? They have an awful lot of aid stations on the run. unless you're very intolerant of whatever company are sponsoring it, there would appear to be little point in carrying your own. Also depending on how fast you are, you will be on the run in the hottest part of the day. It could get very sweaty with either a camelpack or waist pack. Sorry if you're a pro and have tried other solutions.

Odysseus

damianmckeever wrote:

odysseus- yip I can confirm I was overtaken by someone dressed up as scooby doo or something. Hard to take when you're giving your all and someone else is messing in fancy Dress and they're still beating you.:D

Best of luck with it.

Cheers thanks for that Damian, Just to be safe I mailed the organisers and basically their cool with it, "as long as its not offensive and doesn't interfer with another runner". Best of luck with the iron man, sounds interesting, out of interest who long is the run?

hunnymonster

It's a marathon. The Ironman distance race is
3.8 km Swim
180 km bike (usually hilly) and
42.2 km run
(2.4/112/26.2 to the miles people). It's a pro & amateur (called age-group) sport and the pro's can do it in 9 hours. The Irish record was broken a couple of times last year and (I'm open to corerction on this) is currently held by Paul Dogherty at 9 hours 19 minutes.

--amadeus--

Ironman is a long held ambition (as is the MdS, which I am guessing is the Sahara marathon?)

Anyway quick one about hydration, etc... Everyone is different and it is really important that you experiment with what you eat and drink on a run. My first marathon wasn't as quick as it should have been becasue my re-fuel strategy was all over the place and it took three marathons to get it right.

As a very general rule though (depending on your age, fitness and external conditions) you won't need anything up to 10K. Up to around half marathon - 15 miles water is usually enough but anything longer and sports drinks / gels / etc are usually needed. Always err on teh side of caution though.

I hate gels (taste, look and feel like snot) but I strongly reccomend glucose tablets (you'll get them in any pharmacy). I always use a couple of energy bars on teh day and just carry a 1.5L bottle of my own sports drink in my hand on long runs.

For experienced runners Greg McMillan puts a lot of faith into a kind of "depletion long run". The idea is that you run long (15mile +) in training without sports drinks, etc. This helps your body to burn fat as a fuel source, making you more efficient. He also says that when you introduce carbs on marathon day your body reacts well (sort of like a turbo boost!) becasue it's not used to having so much fuel. I'm trying it for Cork and teh long runs haven't been too bad but not a strategy for beginers!

Odysseus

--amadeus-- wrote:

Ironman is a long held ambition (as is the MdS, which I am guessing is the Sahara marathon?)

No the Shara Marathon is a different event, its a standard marathon if you can call 32-36 degrees standard! However, its a great introduction into that type of enviroment, I would really recommend it to anyone who likes marathons.