How to prepare for half marathon this Saturday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That was a good time. Rollers caught me by surprise a little. Well organized and the temps were great!

What are rollers?

I started almost at the back of all corrals. I hated rock creek parkway but enjoyed the rest. Temps were perfect.

[Anonymous]

This thread is helpful. I do my first half marathon in mid May, and do have questions about diet now that I am running further each weekend. When you are racing, when do you usually have your first gel?

[Anonymous]

[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you use a plan? If so, do what the plan says. What you do leading up to the race and volume is entirely based on a plan and your experience level. I’ll run for ~1 hour Friday morning with some 4x4 at my real marathon pace. I decided to do it this morning as my long run. I’ll have to go and buy a bib from the expo.

For food, I would just cut down on fiber the last two days to avoid having a poopin problem. That’s what I do for long course triathlon.

In race nutrition I would hope you practiced by now. I plan to put there for 1:35-1:40, so ~1.7 hours x 50-60g (what I usually do at the end of a half Ironman off the bike for nutrition in gel form) = 4-5 gels. I’m doing that not so much to avoid blowing up, but to speed recovery afterwards. I’ll still do my bike/run on Sunday.

Yeah, it was beginner, but I didn’t do most of the runs during the week. Just the long runs on the weekends and also lifted weights during the week (tapering off heavy leg days the last couple weeks).

I did practice race nutrition and conservatively did only 2 gels. Now I wonder if I should have done more, but probably too late to add another right?

I would leave that alone. You are very unlikely to metabolically blow up. It takes a lot of time to train taking in carbs like that. You’ll do great!!

Thanks. How does one even carry 4-5 gels during a race?

Trisuit have a bunch of pockets. And Ironman (or other races) have aid stations with gels anyways. I almost never go through what I stick in my pockets honestly.

Gotcha! Enjoy your training run/race!

Thanks boo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a good time. Rollers caught me by surprise a little. Well organized and the temps were great!

What are rollers?

I started almost at the back of all corrals. I hated rock creek parkway but enjoyed the rest. Temps were perfect.

Sorry, the rolling hills along north capitol iirc. Rock creek was not great, but that one exit you sort of know what you are up against if you’ve driven there a bunch.

[Anonymous]

I think "rollers" means gently rolling hills.

For the 8:17 poster looking for info on when to take gels ...

For a half marathon, I used to take one, at about the 6 mile mark. They take maybe half an hour to kick in, so then you have a nice little boost for miles 9-13.1.

I feel like advice has really changed in the past few years, and now a lot of people are recommending a LOT of fuel. Like, one at the start, and then every three miles throughout the race.

My stomach would be a mess with that many gels. So, maybe split the difference and try two? Practice on training runs. For example, if you're doing a 10-miler, take a gel at mile 3 and mile 7. Observe how you feel. Then you can tweak your plan on your next long run, and see if that is better or worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is helpful. I do my first half marathon in mid May, and do have questions about diet now that I am running further each weekend. When you are racing, when do you usually have your first gel?

This is very personal and which products work for you is also a personal thing you need to test in training. 30-60 grams per hour is a good target, especially for a beginner. Overall, you should be concentrating on quality real food and sleep beyond the training. That’s sort of true in life in general anyways.

In my case I ran between mid 1:20 and 1:30 (intentionally vague since there are limited people in my group) and I had a first 25g gel 20 minutes before the start. General rule is it will take about 20 minutes for those carbs to start circulating. I had three more 25g gels every 20 or so. Two of those were 100mg caffeine gels. I used maybe 4 water stations given the temperature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you use a plan? If so, do what the plan says. What you do leading up to the race and volume is entirely based on a plan and your experience level. I’ll run for ~1 hour Friday morning with some 4x4 at my real marathon pace. I decided to do it this morning as my long run. I’ll have to go and buy a bib from the expo.

For food, I would just cut down on fiber the last two days to avoid having a poopin problem. That’s what I do for long course triathlon.

In race nutrition I would hope you practiced by now. I plan to put there for 1:35-1:40, so ~1.7 hours x 50-60g (what I usually do at the end of a half Ironman off the bike for nutrition in gel form) = 4-5 gels. I’m doing that not so much to avoid blowing up, but to speed recovery afterwards. I’ll still do my bike/run on Sunday.

Just curious, is this your first race? I've never heard of a plan that would suggest the bolded.

Not first race - so lots of experience.

I’m not racing this. I’m just doing my aerobic run for half Ironman training I would otherwise do on Sunday on Saturday. A change of venue and lots of my other friends are doing this. I’ll hit 13.1 at my planned 1:40 anyways. I pretty much do that every weekend during “on” build weeks anyways.

Wow, good luck w/ Ironman. May I ask your age?

I’m 43M. I underperformed a little even though I mini tapered and “raced” the event. I ended feeling great on Sunday and did 1:45 on my bike and ~40 running off my bike in the evening. It’s pretty amazing what is possible if you make good quality nutrition and sleep a center piece of your life (and call your mother deli post-race ). I’m also very lucky at my age with my ability to recover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think "rollers" means gently rolling hills.

For the 8:17 poster looking for info on when to take gels ...

For a half marathon, I used to take one, at about the 6 mile mark. They take maybe half an hour to kick in, so then you have a nice little boost for miles 9-13.1.

I feel like advice has really changed in the past few years, and now a lot of people are recommending a LOT of fuel. Like, one at the start, and then every three miles throughout the race.

My stomach would be a mess with that many gels. So, maybe split the difference and try two? Practice on training runs. For example, if you're doing a 10-miler, take a gel at mile 3 and mile 7. Observe how you feel. Then you can tweak your plan on your next long run, and see if that is better or worse.

Good advice here. In the end, it’s unlikely somebody will “bonk” at this distance - assuming some fueling and adequate pre-race nutrition - which is what you’re trying to avoid. The carbs into the system also aid in recovery afterwards since you aren’t completely relying on existing stores. And practice during training is key for sure.

And you are right. With the new products pros in the bike peloton and long distance triathlon are using huge numbers of carbs per hour. Way higher than a few years ago. The science doesn’t seem to support the idea of trying to target fat oxidation through specific training schemes from what I understand.

[Anonymous]

There's also a school of thought that says real food (even if not healthy food) is as good as gels or chews. Some people run with little baggies of jelly beans, skittles, pretzel sticks, dried fruit, etc. Again ... practice! Don't try this for the first time on race day!