A Journey to My First Marathon Part 6

The Beginner's Marathon Training Plan by Marathon Training Academy actually recommend that you have built a solid running base of running 3-5 miles for 3 times a week for 6 - 12 months.  The training plan is a 20 weeks' plan. So it is about 4 - 5 months commitment at least. A long run for every Sunday.

The training plan has 3 running days and 2 cross-training days. The cross-training days are mostly activities other than running. My cross-training days are my weight training days. I used to do weight training for 4 days a week. My weight training has to be reduced to two days a week. I used to weigh 63kgs before I started weight training. After about two years it has gone to about 70kgs. Subsequently the weight keep going up and up and up. My heaviest I have reached was about 81kgs. Could have competed for Mr Penang then...(ho-ho-ho).  However, the heavy body is a real disadvantage in long distance running.  Will write about my weight loss later in the blog.

The long run goes from Week 1 of 6 miles to Week 17 of 20 miles then tapering to 12 miles and 8 miles and finally the marathon. I have try to do modifications to the plan as my half marathon and marathon dates do not coincide with the schedule weeks.

Back to drinking water issue, after digging information from the Internet and asking Andrew about this, there are a few alternatives you can approach it. The easiest method is to carry a disposable bottle. Those soft drinks or 100plus bottles. I actually saw one guy doing it on my first long run. And I find out the Coca Cola bottle has the best grip. But holding a bottle too long a time is also tiring.

The second alternative is to plant the water which actually means you placed water bottles or water bags along your running course. So you may have to go the night before or before your run to do that.

The third alternative is to wear a fuel belt which comes with small little bottles which you can fill it up with water or sport drinks. It is almost impossible to find fuel belt on sale in Penang. So you would have to look up the Internet to buy one.

The last alternative that Andrew suggested is to run where there are petrol stations. You can go to buy drinks or he says some runners drink tap water.

My solution is that I find a route that I can hide my disposable bottle under a tree and run for an hour before retrieving it. After that I have to carry the disposable bottle for the rest of the run. But as my runs get longer and longer, this solution will not be workable.

The next problem arose when my runs getting longer and longer when it gets above 1 and a half hour...what about fueling? You cannot run for a long time without fuel. It is just like a car running out of gas. You would not want to hang bananas around your waist for those long runs just for fueling.

Next ~ The Fueling Strategy

To be continued.............