February

[stillwaddler]

Mid week training was ok – had to curtail the Tuesday one in exchange for a check up with the doc about my bones.

Friday night saw us enjoying cocktails in the Sky Bar followed by a gorgeous meal at the Hilton in Manchester, had a great time, but probably not the best preparation for a 15 mile training run the following day.

Saturday morning dawned bright and warmish just for a change. I lingered in bed just a tad too long, but decided to show willing. Breakfast was toast and honey and a large mug of tea. Kit was rounded up and shrugged on. Garmin fished out and placed on top of the bird table in the garden to find the satellites before needed. Trouble was, by the time I went out to fetch it, it was showing there was only an hours charge left in the blinking thing. Took it back inside, plugged it in to the charger and hung around for an hour. Mr SW arrived back from his gym class amazed that I still hadn’t left the house.

Gathered up the Garmin, plonked it back on the bird table and fastened my shoes. 10 minutes later I strapped on the GPS and set off at last. Half a mile into the run I realised I hadn’t had a pee before I left…fatal, I now couldn’t think of anything else – should I head back? Should I plod on? I plodded on but doubled back after a while when I remembered a local park had perfectly respectable loos. However, the loos were so respectable that they were locked – probably so they stay pristine over the weekend. Nothing else for it but to find a secluded spot in the park for a quick Paula…you guys have it so easy.

I plodded on, conscious that I should be running slowly in order to make sure I covered the distance. Big mistake. I never got into any sort of rhythm, every junction I came to it seemed I had to stop and wait for a car. The next loo stop – one of those coin in the slot types that wash the floor after every use - was also locked so had to detour to Sainsburys. My legs were both stiff and leaden, calves were particularly tight and didn’t get any better even after stopping to stretch.

Part of my chosen route goes through a park that I occasionally use for hill reps at lunch times, the loos are open during the week, so out of curiosity I checked them out on Saturday, yes you’ve guessed it locked and barred despite the park being full of families. Why? (Must remember to email the council.)

If this post seems to be overly concerned with plumbing establishments you’d be right. Before I had finished I had an even more urgent but awkward need to visit another WC, so I headed home. Afterwards it was so hard to head out of the door again to finish the last 3.5 painful miles. 15 slow and wretched miles banked. I slept like a baby on Saturday night.

I really do feel that I started out too slowly. I should perhaps try to relax into a more normal pace and worry about the distance later. More than that ‘though – why am I doing this at all? At 58 in less than a week shouldn’t I just settle for putting my feet up? I am having serious doubts.

[El Gordo]

Good persistence, SW, I'm impressed.

As for the public convenience problem, at least you didn't end up like this poor chap:

Jogger locked in loo over Christmas

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

As for the public convenience problem, at least you didn't end up like this poor chap:

Jogger locked in loo over Christmas

So what was the point of the CCTV??!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

... More than that ‘though – why am I doing this at all? At 58 in less than a week shouldn’t I just settle for putting my feet up? I am having serious doubts.

Well perhaps you don't have to run marathons sw, but you do need to keep running, because running keeps us alive, in both the literal and joie de vivre senses of the word.

Ease back a bit, but don't quit! Never, ever quit!

[Sweder]

SW, these runs define us as much as (if not more than) those happy medal-collecting days in the sun.
Sure it feels like a rubbish outing. But I wonder how many of us would have thrown in the towel before the finish? Can't honestly say I would have had the discipline to have left the house for that last 3.5 miles. Good on you.

[stillwaddler]

Running hasn’t been the easiest in the last couple of weeks. For the 12 mile run two weekends ago I stupidly chose a very up hill course. It rises constantly from 2 miles out until mile 5.5. the weather was also not the best being both very cold and foggy. I should have known better but wanted to bank the miles. It was a real struggle to get up the hill, I had to resort to walking several times. Running back down was easier, but I was coughing rather a lot when I reached home and felt rather wheesy too. The following weekend’s outing almost didn’t happen as I was feeling so down and hopelessly negative. Hal Higdon had a 17 mile trek planned for me. I eventually got myself out of the door - ElG's previous marathon campaigns being a great source of motive and inspiration. Had to call back home after 7.5 miles to use the loo – I forced myself back out of the door and finished the rest of the mileage. However, I was extremely wheesy when I finished and had to borrow my youngest’s inhaler which did seem to make a difference. I then started with a hard, dry cough that I thought world turn me inside out. I put up with it until Wednesday thinking it was just a bug or something but then visited the doc’s. She has diagnosed me with asthma. This is apparently a legacy of the swine flu from last November and was sparked off by running in the cold weather. An inhaler was prescribed. At least she didn’t tell me to stop running. Turns out the doc is training to do the Great Manchester 10 K! I didn’t do Hal's scheduled runs during the week but did do a 4 and a 3 on the tready in the warmth of the gym with no problems whatsoever.
Saturday arrived together with a filthy headache., thus the scheduled 18 miler was put off until Sunday. On Sunday morning I had a bad case of the "cant be bothereds”. Eventually ventured fourth with plans to do 13 instead of the scheduled 18 - which I can swop with next week - in order to get back in time to watch the Carling Cup. I wore a buff type scarf to breath through hoping that this would warm the air before it hit my lungs. It worked to a certain degree but I was still breathing really badly by the time I got back. The coughing has started again and I really don’t know what to do. My instinct tells me that I am not doing myself any good by continuing to run in the cold weather over these longer distances, but I can’t face running further than 12 miles on a tready. Is the Brighton campaign over? HELP

[marathondan]

Not good news, SW. I sympathise with the dilemma of abstaining to return to health, while watching that fitness slowly ebb away. Maybe some more experienced bods around here can offer some magic advice. It certainly sounds like you could do with spending most of March indoors. March being the most critical month to your training, of course. All I can suggest is that this is a make or break moment, when you might have to embrace the tready and somehow crank out those long runs indoors. Maybe watch a film or something? EG had to make some tough decisions last winter when things didn't go according to plan. The end result wasn't the fairytale finish, but neither was it a disaster. You don't need a young whippersnapper like me to tell you that it's how we react to setbacks that show our true character. EG's campaign last year shows that setbacks can be overcome. The light at the end of the tunnel is that the race is in mid-April, and if you can make it to the start line you shouldn't suffer too much on the day.

I'm not going to start whooping or anything, this stuff is patronising enough as it is. But I hope you can dig deep and find a way to get round this.

[stillwaddler]

Thanks Marathondan, El G's battles have given me courage to get this far but I really am at a loss as to what to do now, I've so far avoided injury and have kept up with the schedule, but this feels serious.
I shall go to the gym this evening and do the planned 5 miler, I can't really get away with doing more than 4 in the gym at work over a lunchtime - can't run fast enough!! However the thought of doing more than the 12 on the tready I managed while the weather was bad is just too awful to contemplate. The other thing that worries me is that it might not be just the cold weather but running distance that is sparking the attacks and I suppose the treadmill route is the only way I can rule out that possiblity. Sometimes I just hate being old.

[Sweder]

One smidgeon of light in the gloom is that Spring appears to be ambling gently this way. Complete sympathy with you on the breathing issues SW; Mrs S was diagnosed asthmatic last year - a real shock - and my lungs, when infected as they are now, pump about as much air as a pair of re-cycled teabags.

It's hard to offer advice because as with all injuries/ afflictions you know better yourself when you're pushing beyond your limits. You may have to cut your losses and scale back. One of two things will happen; either the air temperature will improve (and your breathing ease up), in which case you can continue (but not try to catch up) with your plan, or things don't improve. In that case some form of reduced plan may yet ensure you get round safely, perhaps not in the time you originally had in mind.

If you're really unlucky and none of this helps you may have to defer your place. Your health is paramount. Treadmills? I'm saying nowt. EG's Battle of Boston is a terrific motivator for anyone facing an impossible task. Very best of luck. We'll try and send some of our Sussex sunshine (glorious today) your way

[El Gordo]

Let's look at the facts: there are 40 days to go to the race. Wisdom, and Hal Higdon, tell us that if you can do 20 miles, you can do 26. So with a 2 week taper, you have roughly 4 weeks to get to a 20 miler. Did I get your earlier message right (or perhaps it was your email)? Have you managed a 17 miler so far? If so, it's only a small hop to 20.

The big unknown is your asthma: how bad it is, and what the weather will be like for the next few weeks. Echoing Sweder, here in Berkshire, spring is definitely on the way. The last few days have been sunny and actually warmish (though cold at night). You might hit lucky, or you might not.

As it's an unknown, let's ignore it for a moment, and concentrate on the things you can control. You can aim to maximise (within reason) your cardiovascular fitness, and this is where the gym can be really useful. Don't think that the treadmill is your only option. I know you're not a big elliptical fan, but what about the bike and rowing machine? You can get a great workout on the latter, even if it's not something you'd want to do for longer than 20 mins or so (IMO). Cycling is really good cross-training for runners, and can certainly get the heart-rate up. If you can talk yourself into a spinning class, you may never reappear -- they are highly addictive. But spinning is also a brilliant fat-burner/fitness builder.

Instead of contemplating 12 miles on the treadmill (and I wouldn't do that either), think in terms of time. You need a 2 hour workout. Why not put all those activities together to come up with a 2 hour+ session? For a long session, I used to do 10 mins on the rower as a warm-up, then a routine of 20 minutes on the elliptical, 20 on the treadmill and 20 on the bike, and repeat if I had to. A long session is much more manageable if you can break it down into chunks, just liek you do for the race itself.

The asthma is a curse, and we know you've had all sorts of other ailments and accidents. The fact that you've got to where you are is pretty astonishing, so feel proud of that. But it seems to me that your biggest battle at the moment is with that old enemy - self-belief. All I can offer here is my own experience, which is that if you can feel good about yourself, you can easily swat away the doubts. And spending some time in the gym doing a variety of these things can do you the world of good. It may not be quite as good as getting back home after a 15 miler or so, but a good couple of hours in the gym isn't that far behind. If the weather improves and your asthma recedes, allowing you to get out for a few miles here and there, so much the better. You can very quickly feel much. much better about the race, and your chances.

Marathon sages will talk about getting the miles in your legs, and stacking up those long runs, and if you can, great. But I really do think that if you have to scale back on the miles, the gym and other CV activities like road-cycling and long strenuous walks, can really help. By far the worst thing to do is to get fed up and to really scale back on doing anything. As an expert in this 3rd option, take my word for it. People have said kind things about me in this thread that I really don't deserve. If I'd been aiming for a UK marathon, I don't know if my resolve would have been so strong, but with an airline ticket and hotel room paid for, it was different. I wasn't going to chuck away £1500 so easily! That was a big part of the motivation, and you need to find some motivation from somewhere too. Once you have that on board, the trips to the gym and/or the two or three long runs you have left will become non-negotiable.

The other thing to think about is managing your own expectations of the race itself. How bad is it to run-walk a marathon? Not bad at all. Hal likes to relate the fact that his son ran a 2:28 marathon by run-walking! Suzie of this parish is a great believer in run-walk and turns in perfectly creditable times. I read something recently... an actor I think, said, when asked how he coped with stage nerves, said "I just turn the 'What if?' into a 'So what?'" It's sometimes worth taking a step back and asking why we get so worked up about these things. Supposing you chug along at the back, enjoying the event, having a natter, and walking for a minute or two each mile? So what? It's not illegal.

Equally, it's not a crime to decide not to do the race. I didn't do the Wokingham Half a couple of weeks ago because of injury. No one minded, or if they did?

I may well not do Reading in a couple of weeks. It doesn't matter, apart from the fact that I like their medals. When all's said and done, if you think you're just not able to do the race, no one will mind -- apart from you. You could decide to do it next year instead, when perhaps a few of us might be there too.

Personally, right now, I would try to think positively, and aim to give it a real good do. It's amazing how fortunes and self-confidence can change in just a few days. But if your asthma or your other issues become too much of an obstacle, just give it a miss. It's not from a lack of effort or determination, that's for sure. One of the good things about any running community is that we all know what it's about. Everyone here will understand totally.

[ladyrunner]

Hi SW,

Just been reading about your asthma. I had suffered with terrible breathing problems whilst I was running for years after getting a dreadful chest infection back in 2003. My lungs were so strong before the infection - the only way that I can measure the difference that the infection made was through swimming underwater as I didn't own a peak flow meter back in those days. Before I had my chest infection I could swim 25-30 meters under water holding my breath, but afterwards I could only manage 5 meters!!

I went to the doctors about it approximately 18 months ago. I had all sorts of tests done - lung xray, computerised peak flow testing and had to keep a diary of my peak flow for a couple of weeks after using the brown and blue inhaler. Nothing was conclusive but the doctor suspected that I have some minor scar tissue on my lungs which has damaged them. The brown inhaler, which is the preventer did not have any benefit. It should have slowly risen my peak flow back up towards normal levels, but the Blue inhaler does open my airways and help me to breath when I run.

Before I run I always take 2-4 puffs of the blue inhaler - and will carry it with me on a long run so that I can use it to top up after a couple of hours if necessary.

Cold weather hasn't been too much of a problem for me with the asthma but the biggest problem I find is when I'm tired my breathing is bad.

Regular interval training seems to really help as it gets your lungs working. Also I have an Ultrabreath (http://www.ultrabreathe.com/) which is excellant and inexpensive.

Could you try doing a longer run over flatter terrain to see if this helps??

Julie

[suzieq]

SW - you're getting lots of good advice here - I don't have much to add. But if you are able to continue running (and hopefully are), do try the run/walk method for a bit. It might help your breathing. Start off with running for 10 min., then walk for a minute - and keep that up over the whole run. You will appreciate how much it helps in the later part of your run; but you need to do it right from the beginning.

And if nothing is working, don't beat yourself up with having to push off this race until next year. Your health is more important than a race.

Good luck!

Suzie

[Antonio247]

I hope you can manage to do Brighton marathon even if it means taking it easier than you would have wished.

Get better soon, SW.

PS. I´m sending you lots of sunshine from the south-east of Spain.