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[Taka]

Charles, a bit late but hope you have a safe race and smash your goal of 3 hours 15 minutes!

Did the Parkrun 5k again yesterday morning despite moving house for 2 days, aching all over. Managed to smash last week's PB by almost a minute for a 24 minute 17 second finish!

[charlesr]

Congrats on your PB. To knock a minute off that distance must have felt amazing.

VLM 2012 was my first marathon. I have a fairly fit base from mountain biking (2 rides a week) and running (1 or 2 4-8mile runs a week). I did Hal Higdon's novice 2 programme of 18 weeks and was all set for a 3:15 on the day.

For example on my 14 mile training run many weeks ago, I did 7:14min/mi which was a bit fast for a training run, so decided to set my full distance target to3:15 (7:25min/mi)

All my training suggested I can run all day at 7:40 at 160bpm (did a 20 miler at this pace and HR) and 7:25 at 167 bpm

So on the day I'm running along at 7:25 and after 6 miles, I glance at my heart rate and it's 180. I tried slowing down to 7:40 for a few miles, but it barely made any difference and after 12 miles I knew I was in trouble (yes it took me that long to realise! what a tool.... I just couldn't accept what was happening, because in training I had never encountered anything like this - I even assumed my HRM was wrong )

So at 12, I really started to drop the pace off massively. My goals were: 3:15 and a fallback of "Finish", so I knew the first one was blown.

But then at 15miles both my thighs seized within minutes of each other, like a switch. I have never encountered this in all my years of running (I've been running for 28 years - but admittedly have never run this distance in one go before). The pain was searing with every step. At one point I almost passed out from it. I could barely bend my legs at the knee at all.

Like a fool, I carried on with the assistance of the medical massage girls along the way and hobbled to the line in 4:11, so whilst I got my fallback goal I'm now crippled! I can hardly walk and stairs are nigh on impossible. I'm devastated about failing the 3:15, but now my mission is to avoid all this the next time.

So far, guesses are increased heat on the day (I got sunburnt!) leading to quick loss of essential salts and cramp.

[Fader209]

That's sad news after all the practice you put in Maybe you felt the pressure on the day and wasn't running properly?
I once did a delivery job where I walked all day non-stop and got that same feeling where the legs won't bend at the knee by the end of the day. Hurts like hell.

[Nijo]

Sounds very similar to the marathon I ran (years ago). Everything was going fine for the first 12 miles, then it got worse for a couple of miles so I slowed the pace - the downhills on the course at that point didn't help - then between miles 14 and 18 it was absolute agony.

The main problem was that like you I hadn't encountered this before, so I didn't know whether I could push past it or whether something was actually going wrong. Is this just 'the wall' or am I going to screw up my legs?

Finally finished in 4:35, and I'm proud of that achievement even though it wasn't near my target.

Gutted that you didn't make your 3:15, but make sure you build on this experience for the next one!

N

[Taka]

Charles, I'm so sorry to hear it didn't quite work out for you. I know all too well when race day doesn't quite go to plan but I'm glad that you did finish. Nobody wants a DNF against their name in the results and as Nijo says, you have the experience under your belt for next year should you wish to do it again, and I imagine you will, so I'll hopefully meet you at next year's. 4 hours 11 minutes is still faster than what I've estimated my finish to be if I ran injury free, so you've done yourself proud still!

I think you're right that the heat takes its toll. I imagine the atmosphere of the day also raises your resting heart beat as well.

For recovery, I would suggest bathing your legs in cold water for 5 - 10 minutes, then have a warm bath to flush out any toxins etc. If you can at all get any motion into your legs, do it. This will also stimulate blood flow and start the repair process. Get plenty of good meat and protein down you as well, stuff like steak and chicken. Finally, take a day off from running for each mile you ran, so 3-4 weeks off.

In 1 or 2 weeks, get yourself a good sports massage. I had 2 sessions after my botched Cardiff half marathon and it worked a treat, reseting a lot of niggles to at least zero.

[charlesr]

Thanks people. I've got a massage booked for tomorrow to try and get me back on my feet and will come back again for another one next week. I'll try the cold bath thing.

After researching the wall thing today, it's definitely not cramps. The wall is just an inability to continue due to energy depletion. It doesn't necessarily hurt at all. You just feel drained.

And fader, I'm sure there was a bit of adrenaline on the day to raise my hr a bit, but I was pretty relaxed considering.

I'm going with "cardiac drift" (google!) due to inability to deal with high heat (fluid movement from blood to surface skin to improve cooling and associated increase in bpm due to low blood oxygen supply).

[Spatial]

Oof! Sorry to hear things went south Charles - the fact you managed to finish it, even in that state, is certainly admirable. Or just shows how bloody minded you are

Hope you're back on your feet (literally) soon.

[charlesr]

Cheers Jamie.

Taka, you nutter. The cold bath.... omg. I did 10 mins though. No scientific evidence that it works as far as I can tell, but I'll take any advice right now
I'm going to get up on my feet tomorrow - I've tried moving around today and it's too painful, but need to get that lactic acid out of there somehow.

[Taka]

The cold bath works in two ways by reducing swelling and encouraging blood flow - you've done the hard part, this should be easy!

If your feet are still swollen, use some ibuprofen gel to further help bring down the swelling. This stuff always works a treat pre and post race for me.

[charlesr]

My feet are fine actually. It's just my thighs and calves. I've got some similar gel that I'm using (with natural anti-inflamatories, so I can use it all day long).

So now that that's all done and dusted till next time, is there anyone reading this thread that wants to get fit and is now inspired to do something about it? Let's hear from you.

[Brad]

Well done Charles. Hope you have a speedy recovery. Impressive feat even if you missed goal one mate. Props from me.

[QualityChimp]

at 15miles both my thighs seized within minutes of each other, like a switch. The pain was searing with every step. At one point I almost passed out from it. I could barely bend my legs at the knee at all.

Like a fool, I hobbled to the line in 4:11, so whilst I got my fallback goal I'm now crippled! I can hardly walk and stairs are nigh on impossible.

Sounds very similar to the marathon I ran (years ago). Everything was going fine for the first 12 miles, then it got worse for a couple of miles so I slowed the pace - the downhills on the course at that point didn't help - then between miles 14 and 18 it was absolute agony.

The cold bath.... omg. I did 10 mins though.

I'm going to get up on my feet tomorrow - I've tried moving around today and it's too painful, but need to get that lactic acid out of there somehow.

So now that that's all done and dusted till next time, is there anyone reading this thread that wants to get fit and is now inspired to do something about it? Let's hear from you.

Hmmm... you're not really selling it to me, Charles.

[Taka]

How are the legs feeling today, Charles?

Got a fartlek speedwork running session planned for tonight. Kind of addicted to getting new PBs at the Parkrun so need to get a 3rd new one in a row this Saturday...

[charlesr]

I can do upstairs now with using my arms to assist. Downstairs is still too painful.

QC, any sane person such as yourself would have just stopped to save the later trauma.
See if you can guess which pics are before the thigh issue and which are after. It's not difficult....

http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?action=site.login&RaceOID=19802012S1&LastName=Rodmell&BibNumber=50650

Check out my stride length in some of those tiny.

[Taka]

Another 5k Parkrun, another PB this morning. It was chucking it down but we had a record 250 turn up from a 200 average per week (must be the marathon inspired).

Wasn't feeling great due to lack of sleep at the start line, but the adrenaline soon kicked in and I found myself racing against a 70ish year old chap, only to lose to him during the final 100m sprint at the very last 0.5 second to come in with a new PB of 23 minutes 59 seconds. Incredibly chuffed especially given how wet it was and all the puddle dodging.

Decided to sign up for the Cardiff 10k in September so the other half can see her family and I can race. Gonna apply for a ballot place on Monday for next year's London Marathon - fingers crossed!