Marathon Monday – Bad Decisions

On Saturday afternoon, I found my self laid up on the couch, in the fetal position under a blankie, cursing myself for ruining a perfectly good Saturday – yet again. My head was pounding. I was struggling to get a sip of water down, let alone any actual food, without puking my guts out. None of the usual go-to’s were working – my body craved electrolytes but any salty snack that I offered was rejected moments later by the puke monster as I found myself hunched over the toilet, retching. I was so angry and embarrassed that I had, once again, made poor choices that led me to this place – when will I learn? Was it worth it? I’m too old and wise for this shit. I’m too experienced to be dying on the couch after my long run.

It sounds like I have some work to do on my hydration and fueling plan, doesn’t it? I’m still trying to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but it’s the second long run in the last month where I’ve ended up intolerably nauseous for hours after finishing my long run. This time I felt so ill for so long that it took me close to six hours to get in (and keep in) a recovery meal post-long run. Anyone who knows anything at all about how to recover and fuel properly after a run or workout will tell you that is a very big no-no. It’s so important for post-run recovery, particularly for female athletes, to get adequate carbs and protein back in our systems within that 30-60 minute window after a run. I even planned ahead and had a protein recovery drink at the ready, which I sipped steadily within about 15 minutes of finishing my run on Saturday afternoon. I thought I was in the clear and doing all the right things.

So what went wrong?

A few weeks ago, the first mega-long run of Boston training was on the schedule, with about 35km/ 2 hrs 45 minutes planned with some long stints at a hard effort. With the cooler temperatures one gets to enjoy (and sometimes, “enjoy”, amirite?) during the winter, I had been able to get away on all of my long runs up until that point with a single 500ml flask of water (plus about 500 calories’ worth of gels). Because handhelds aren’t my favourite and I couldn’t bring myself to do a road marathon long run in a running vest, I decided I was cool enough to survive on one bottle for the 35km as well, right? Wrong. I got through it, but I did not get through it feeling good. I was extremely thirsty by the time we finished the workout portion of the long run and it was a straight up death march/count down to the second of “when the hell will this run end?” for the entire cooldown that day. What I experienced was more than a feeling of tired legs after a hard effort – I was depleted and fading, hard. Bonk city, population: Liz. I remember feeling very hot that day, which is a relative term, but between the sun, the layers I had on and the intensity, I was cooked by the end of the workout. I knew I needed to refuel and rehydrate ASAP and I figured I would be fine once I did. The Reeds were kind enough to take me in as their post-long run patient and we imbibed on a protein drink, some water, some crazy electrolyte drink I forget the name of and (obviously) half a beer. Instead of gradually starting to feel better, I could feel myself on the decline as time went out. By the time they dropped me off at home an hour later I, sadly, my stomach went full exorcist and expelled the melange of liquids in my belly within moments of walking in the door. I did start to feel better and was able to get back on the water and food train pretty quickly. However, I really noticed how terrible I felt for the rest of the day and honestly, a few days after. I was much more sore than usual and the feeling of being depleted really lingered much more than it had after other long runs.

The following weekend, I brought two handhelds and stashed them somewhere accessible on my 2 hr 15 min long run (again, with a solid amount of intensity). I managed to take in 360 calories in gels (I ate right before the run) and ended up only finishing about 700ml of water. I was bracing myself for the impact but it never came – I was able to get in a smoothie and a sandwich immediately after like a champ and felt totally fine the rest of the day. Maybe last weekend was just a one-off?

WRONG AGAIN! This brings us back to this past Saturday, where my long run adventures took me to a place I have never wished to go on a long run: the treadmill. It snowed so much last week and was so miserably cold and windy, there wasn’t a chance in hell at hitting anything close to marathon pace, or really enjoying a single moment of a long run outside on Saturday. So, I mentally prepared myself to buckle up for a long ride on the treadmill. The big advantage that the revered treadmill run has over a long run outside, is that it’s really easy to fuel and hydrate. I had my ~550 calories of gels, some including electrolytes and managed to get down between 1.5 – 2L of water. I didn’t force the water, but I actually found myself feeling thirstier than usual and with the drinking fountain right there, it was easy to top off. I made it through 34km feeling much better than I did at the end a few weeks earlier, and I was feeling proud of that. However, that pride was short-lived. Looking back, I did feel really, really hot by the end of the workout and I had definitely sweat way more than I was used to outdoors. I thought I was in the clear, but you know how this story ended.

The current combination of intensity (and resultant heat), hydration, electrolytes and calories is not quite working for me and it’s something I’ll be fine tuning over the next few weeks. I can’t control the weather on race day (sure, I’ll do some heat training), and I can’t really avoid high intensity when I’m specifically trying to run 42km at intensity, so that leaves working on better hydration and fueling practices. I wonder if I’ve sneakily turned into a bad fueller, something I’ve always prided myself on (I think I typically take in about 1000 calories during a marathon). Maybe I need to revisit that magic number and the exact timing. Maybe I need to dig deeper into what works for me the morning of and the night before and pay a little more attention to going into the run fueled up and ready – stay tuned! Until then, bring on the bagels, pasta poptarts and (the occasional) beer. Cheers!

Last Week’s Training:

Weekly Totals: 92km, 900m vert, 8.5 hrs

Monday – REST DAY

Tuesday – 2 miles at Goal Marathon Pace, 2 x 1km at Half Marathon Pace, 2 x 800m at 10km pace. ~ 13km, 1hr

Wednesday – Dawn Patrol! ~8km easy

Thursday – Social Dirtbags – there was a foot and a half of snow and I ran there and back. ~ 16km

Friday – Another snowy 8km easy (which meant walking sometimes when it was up to our knees)

Saturday – Treadmill Death. 34km with 15km @ 4:45/km, then: 5km @ 4:20/km, 4km @ 4:15/km, 3km @ 4:10/km, 2 x 1km @ 4:05/km.

Sunday – 13km easy