marathondan Wrote:Another week done, nothing much to report -- no news is good news. A 12.4 miler in the bag last night at 3:59 marathon pace -- quite hard going, and leaving me with a few aches and pains today, but ultimately very gratifying.
Thoughts during the longs runs are turning to race-day matters -- in-race carb replacement, and pacing. According to this old article, I need 30-60g of carb per hour. I seem to remember that last time, I planned for one 25g gel every half hour, which would mean 50g an hour.
On Friday morning I picked up some jelly babies in Sainsburys, intending to try them out on my long run. Unfortunately, most of the packet was gone by Saturday night... :o They're 5g of carb each, so about 10 per hour, 40 in total... might have to see if I can get hold of a pink bum bag. 
Pace... beating 4 hours is pretty important, as there's a couple of hundred quid riding on it now. Constant pace? Carefully timed routine marked out on a wrist band? (I'm thinking 3 miles @ 9mm, then crank it up to near 10K pace, winding down each mile and finishing at 10mm.) Follow a RW pacer, perhaps? Do they run at steady pace, or allow for some slow-down? Any recommendations from the floor?
Running a race with sweets of some kind can be a good idea, especially as you can use them to sort of incentivise yourself. Not sure about eating 10 an hour though. All that fumbling might get tedious. Maybe you could find a bigger dose and aim to eat one every miles or every 2 miles. I did this in one marathon, and it helped me to count down the miles.
As for pacers, they normally aim to run at an even pace, especially on a flat course like London. If you're keen to do a particular time, especially a nice round figure like 4 hours, following a pacer is a good idea.
Feb 09 - A Hazy Shade of Winter
