I first ran a marathon in 45 years

"It should be interesting I'll be writing about the marathon. Or I will not. " This is the last sentence of the fourth of my notes on the amateur race after 40 written two years ago.

And if you are reading this in the beginning, so I ran a marathon.

The four articles that described the way from not knowing how to run an office worker before the half marathon:

• How to start running in 40 years and the first to run 5 km in 2 months →
• Preparations for the Moscow marathon, or how to run 10 kilometers at 42: Tips from novice →
• How to run 10 km in less than an hour, even if you '43 →
• As I started running 40 years and 4 years later ran a half-marathon without injury →

In the 45 years I ran a marathon Moscow, with two minutes faster than the older runners who turned 81 year. Still - I'm getting ready to plan!

A small digression: I write for those who are under 40 years are not involved in sports and who are tired of a fixed life. I chose to run, someone will choose swimming or Aikido - my idea is that we should not strive for the result: doing carefully, it is possible without injury "reach" to the excellent performance.

About 135 000 people have watched my articles on Layfhakere (for which many thanks to the resource). If at least 0.1% of the readers once wearing sneakers and run jogging in the park, I'm going to assume that the goal is reached.

Now to the point: how I was preparing for a marathon, and about a couple of surprises that I almost did not spoil.

Training

Strictly speaking, I ran a marathon in Moscow 46 - 23 September, the day after my birthday. But the preparations took 45 th year of life, so I think that it ran in 45.

2 September 2016, when he wrote about overcoming the half marathon, I ran two more: in August 2017 in Moscow, in a very strong heat, and in May 2018 the first in the same place.

I decided to run a marathon in the early spring, when, after a good winter season I I keep in shape. In the park next to the house was a lot of snow, not ice, as usual, ran so often and enjoy. It was basically a base running in 120 strokes / min - long and pleasant.

But in preparation for the spring the race one mistake in training almost cost me a half-marathon and marathon a month after six months.

Injury

You can not make mistakes on the last long run for a week before the half-marathon. :) I usually run 2 km warm-up and then - basic training. But this time, after a warm-up run of 18 km (which is a lot for my amateur level) and turned half-marathon 10 days before the primary. And everything would be fine, plenty of time to recover, but on the training I tried to run round the dog on a leash. The sharp maneuver - slight extensionWhich is already at the finish the main race is almost completely off my left leg. In general, flew to the "one wing", improved its result from 2:13:28 to 2:06:57.

heroism result (we had to just stop and walk to the finish line on foot) began two months when I did not what to run, walk began at once.

But the body has taken the task, recovered, and I began to prepare for the race in September, knowing that the half marathon in August, out of caution I do not run.

I want to underline that this injury is not from running and excessive loads, and by their own negligence.

Plan

It so happens that I run without a coach. I know that this is not quite right, especially when preparing for a marathon. However, I do not set myself goals for speed, run properly and carefully studying the issue, so long as.

Nevertheless, the plan was needed, and I have searched through a lot of resources training regimes and exploring options for distances, heart rate and time. As a result, he focused on preparation for the marathon in 16 weeks from the magazine "Marathon".

The plan builds on the training time and includes 4-5 lessons per week, including PFD and stretching. The plan I have combined with long workouts at the distance that is guaranteed to go to the long distance of 28 km.

I began training with the 6th week of the plan, as previously treated leg, but it did not stop to add the appropriate load.

training

At that time I did not have to go every day to the office, so the training regimen was fairly comfortable.

I am running in the park on the pavement - the closest stadium was closed because of a summer championship. At one point there is a great upsurge in the 80 meters with a slope of 30-40 degrees, which perfectly trained ups - it's really helped me later. The circle in the park - 2 km, so we had to find a route on the 7 km long for jogging and for a change.

Training took place as planned, on schedule - it is very convenient, it is not necessary to think, what to do in training at this time. I suspect that with the coach more and more interesting.

Last long distance was three weeks before the race - not in time, both in terms of, and the distance. I run slow, so the time in this case, it would be wrong benchmark. 28.8 km run for 3 minutes at 46 chasa pulse 110 from the beginning to the end 150-160.

Specially bought a belt is for the bottle and drank isotonic and gels without caffeine. Jogging passed without any problems, which was a very positive thing for me - it was the longest distance that I ran at the time.

Two small surprise

But I was at home waiting for news - survey shoes showed that if they will live up to the marathon, at the same it and die. The question arose: to take the risk and not to change the shoes, which is convenient as in slippers, or the same risk, but to buy a new, and for three weeks they "run"?

I chose the latter, as it is theoretically possible to travel with calluses (with reserves of plaster and adhesive tape), but barefoot, I just can not reach. Chose Nimbus - really I came to the foot, and, as it turned out, has not lost the form. But tell me, as best she could come up with the idea to make the insole made of felt similar to nazhdachku? On the first training session almost wiped foot. Had to change the insole to normal, "slippery".

The second surprise is related to the fact that in my Garmin battery died, and five hours, they would not have survived. Pre-order it on AliExpress, quietly waiting for her arrival last month. But a week before the race, she did not come, and wait until the last I do not want. Fenix ​​had to buy 3, good for old models, they do not cost so much. These turned out to be a lot of questions, but more on that later.

heat

The most annoying thing after the start - this is what you overtake all. That is really all I specifically looked. :)
Well, I was ready for it, otherwise it's really annoying and can break all the plans (I remind you that I'm a fan and I have many years of competitive experience).

The eve of the race was held, too, according to the rules: 2 km jogging in the morning, carbohydrates and healthy nap. Many thanks to my wife and daughter for the full and unconditional support! Because of the weather we decided not to go with the whole family, and it was the right decision: I was calmer, and the application of the Moscow marathon to monitor, as I walk the distance.

I had some plan, and I stuck to it: to run the whole route of 7:30 to 1 km, there are no direct and reverse splits - has not grown. This is the most comfortable for me to pace what transpired during long workouts, which I did not run on time and not on pulse, and on cadence. It so happened that the 156 steps per minute - most enjoyable for me to score, simply fall into meditation.

Honestly, right before the start I had a light panic and pulse rose to 150 - the nerves and the fear that the legs hammered, and such I have happened. But no, everything was fine, pulse It fell two kilometers, and the front was still 40.

I ran out of water, but with their gels - a carbohydrate to 35 km, and from then on with caffeine.

Beja easily. 15 km conversation with a girl and did not notice that ran up to the mark 25. Then we went to many referred to the Moscow "basals" (long nekrutye ups), but I did not even notice. The girl behind, for many of these ascents also become an obstacle.

By the 35th kilometer ran, clearly realizing that the marathon was a success. While reading that really begins after the marathon of 35-37 km, and a little afraid of that now as an embedding in the "wall", stumble, and I do not see a decent finish. But no, all was quiet.

As rightly pointed out to me later in the conversation, "wall" - this is for those who runsInstead drags 7:30 per km. Perhaps, but at the first marathon and I did not want to face this. The minimum objective was to finish, the maximum objective - to finish, taking care not to move. Maximum task I performed.

miscellanea

Two of the most valuable tips that I found on the Internet open spaces:

1. Calluses where the moisture, so you need to rub out all the usual antiperspirant (worked).
2. Do not wait, when it will want to drink or eat. I drank water all PP Threshold, and used exactly according to plan: half of the 100-gram sachets of 5 km. Isotonic, respectively, are not used.

Garmin Fenix ​​3 I'm disappointed: attributed excess of 2 km. Comparing the track with the track Polar, noted that Garmin «walked» the neighboring streets, the Moscow River and the rooftops. And all this when enabled increased accuracy.

results

Yes, you can run a marathon, just running a few years and gradually increasing the distance without being in a youth athlete. Yes, it is necessary to specifically prepare for a marathon, but if you deal with a half-marathon, half a year - this is quite enough time for the first race of easy-riding 42 km. Yes, it's very nice when someone says something, run a marathon, and in response you hear, "Wow." And yes, after the marathon, too, there is the goal. ;)

health all, light feet, the right technology and new goals!