Pre Marathon Baseline

My health baseline is 16.13lb, running five times a week (for the last year consistently), non-smoker, healthy eater, very light drinker. I’m 6ft with a BMI of ‘fat’ (!). An ex Mountain Biker and am reasonably cardio-vasculary (is that a word!?) fit. (ish).

So far…

So I’m pretty happy with my running at the minute. The distances have been getting slowly longer, whereby I consider 10k my ‘new normal’ for now. I’ve still no idea whether I’ll get a place in the LM2018 but I’m training as if I have already. My running schedule has now changed then from half a dozen 5-7ks throughout the week to just primarily three runs. Two 10ks and a 12k. I’ll stagger this with rest days in between & do this for the next couple of months. I’ll then increase distances and start doing some half marathons by Christmas. It’s arguably a little too much running but I’m blessed with miles of lovely soft single-track around where I live so at such an early stage in my training I’m just focused on increasing the distance & staying fit.

This is my regular route:

Route map for 12k By The Canal Near Work by Mario DeCristofano on plotaroute.com

Food & Diet

Diet is fine I think, I tend to have a good week staying off carbs and keeping clean, with fruits, veg, fish & protein and I know I’m going to have to move into more macro-nutrient controlled meals soon but I also switch in a cheat day once or twice every seven. I’m currently also looking at replacing my cheese with Quark and taking on whey Isolate as a protein supplement as I start weight training, but I’m a few weeks off that yet. I’m working to 80/20 100% of the time. That’s 80% of the time doing the right thing, allowing 20% of more relaxed decision making and I’m doing this 100% of the time consistently. Consistency is key here.

Kit Check

So after reading a few running forums & starting to plan a list of what I’ll need, it’s starting to look something like this;

• 2-3 nights in London booked (I’m thinking the Apple StayCity apartments near Greenwich)

• Fitted running shoes (and time to bed in)

• A new FitBit/fitness tracker

• Compression clothing (probably anklets & arm sleeves)

• Sunglasses

• A waistbag

• A Camelbak

• Waterproof gilet/clothing

• Small portable battery (to top phone up)

It’s not a huge amount, with some I’ve already got. I’m thinking about realistically what I’ll need on the day of the run and it’ll probably change up to the day, but on the actual run I’m planning on taking;

• Waterproof clothing (tied around waist)

• Sunglasses

• Portable battery

• Camelbak

• A waist bag (with the battery, some wipes, plasters, food if it can’t be stored in the Camelbak)

And then my running outfit will consist of

• Waterproof gilet

• Long sleeved running top

• LM2018 Tee over the top

• Lycra running shorts

• Running shorts over the top

• Anklet sport socks

• Running shoes (obvs!)

I need to practice running with this several times before the race, and I must remember PLASTERS as I don’t fancy putting my nipples through 26.2 miles of abrasion!

Headphones

One of the things I’m going to splash out on is a really comfortable pair of sports headphones which fit my ears, isolate the outside & have decent bass response. I find music such an important tool when I run, and recently I’ve trialled several pairs of headphones with mixed success. There’s nothing worse than headphones which fall out your ears through badly fitting, sweaty slippery etc. You can actually read my review on some headphones here.

Costs

One thing that’s not often mentioned is the cost to run the LM. I’m going to list just the core things worthy of consideration;

• The LM2018 entrance fee/donation

• Accommodation

• Promotion and advertising (to help raise sponsorship)

• Printing (for tee-shirts etc)

Summary

Have you run a LM or any other Marathon? Got any tips, advice, training tricks? Let me know in the comments or Tweet me @mariodc.