Friday 25 February 2011

tokyo marathon plan

It's Friday and 2 days before the marathon. Little bit concerned about the dead-lift PB I did this morning, hoping my lower back muscles will recover in time for Sunday. On the other hand, if I can make a PB I must be in strong shape, my nutrition has been good leading up and my legs are fully rested after not running for over 2 weeks since the running experiment.


World record holder Haile Gebrselassie will be joining me to run this year's marathon, which is nice. Let's see how he gets on.


Same route as last year, big 'X' shaped jobbie. It's dead hot today so I'm hoping the temperature is going to drop a bit before Sunday. Have been chatting earlier with fellows runner Ed and Masaru about our build ups. Which has got me pumped to write down my plan this afternoon to get it clear in my head.




Full explanation of strategy is written in the running experiment. I am following this same plan this week too. Interesting that I did that experiment after deadlifts and am running the marathon after deadlifts too.


In summary: Keep the protein high all week, carb/fat ratio high on weight training days, carb/fat ration low on rest days. 16 hours of fasting per day, day before race day 5 minutes of intense cardio, followed by wholesale ingestion of high glycemic index refined carbohydrates over the course of the whole day. (Simple carbs being sugars, refined carbs being bread, complex carbs being tubers).


The difference between the running experiment and this time is that I kicked off the week with a 1 day fast in order to drop a little more weight before the start of the run in week.


The graph shows calorie intake for the week up until today. Feb 19 shows the fast with minimum calories from ingestion of BCAAs, the red line shows maintenance, with rest days and weight training days obvious from the bars below and above maintenance.


I spent the first 5 days of this week trying to keep carbs to a minimum, with a high fat, high protein diet.
NOTE: Calorie maintenance is 2200


Saturday
Fast


Sunday
8 hours sleep
Rest DayProtein 160g
Fat 85g
Carbohydrate 125g
Calories 1885


Monday
5 hours sleep
Fasted 6AM workout: 3x5 backsquats, 3x5 push-press, Run 100 Meter Sprints, Dumbbell Power Snatches, Pull-ups
Protein 200g
Fat 80g
Carbohydrate 260g
Calories 2478



Tuesday
6 hours sleep
Rest Day
Protein 170g
Fat 110g
Carbohydrate 90g
Calories 1892



Wednesday
8 hours sleep
Fasted 6AM workout: snatches
Protein 260g
Fat 90g
Carbohydrate 230g
Calories 2683



Thursday
8 hours sleep
Rest Day
Protein 140g
Fat 80g
Carbohydrate 75g
Calories 1514



Friday
6 hours sleep
Fasted 6AM workout: 3x5 deadlift, Push-ups, Pull-ups, Double Unders, Dumbbell Thrusters
Protein 315g
Fat 65g
Carbohydrate 200g
Calories 2628



Saturday Plan
9 hours sleep
Fast 10AM workout: 5 minutes of high intensity cardio
Weighed in at 7?.?kg
Followed by ingestion of carbs all day. 
Rough plan for this is 200g vitargo, L size dominos hawaiian pizza, DVD, go and get my bib, 2 subways on the way back 200g vitargo, another DVD, L size dominos hawaiian pizza, DVD, 200g vitargo, bed.
Thinking of the Indiana Jones Trilogy for the DVDs (The fourth one does not count as a movie)


Sunday Plan
9 hours sleep
Weighed in at 7?.?kg

Hearty breakfast of cereals.
8AM Drink 50g of carbs, 20g of BCAA
9AM Marathon start
take one sachet of "Shotz" every 30 minutes

Expected Result
I am expecting to run fine up to Asakusa (28km), then start to feel wear and tear on the groin. At Ginza (36km) the calves will start to go and I'll be basically hobbling. If I have worked out the glycogen plan correctly; cardiovascularly I should be fine, and it will just be a question of sore legs to the finish.

Actual Result
Didn't manage to get through all the carbs I'd planned to eat on the Saturday. Here's what I got through:
Strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, Champion Nutrition Ultramet, Vitargo Final Energy 200g, 3 slices of Christmas cake with icing, a banana, an orange, BLT bagel, 15 slices of Shakey's pizza, bowl of spaghetti, raw cabbage salad, 3 krispy kreme glazed donuts, 200g of Vitargo Final Energy before bed.
I woke up on Sunday at 5am and immediately had a glazed donut, then started on another 200g of Vitargo Final Energy. At 7am I had another donut and some Purple Wraath mixed in a bottle of water before the race.


Felt fine for the 12km popping 3 "Shotz" as planned just needed a piss. 
Stopped for a piss and the toilet was like a sauna, the faster than usual pace caught up with me and my stomach started to feel weird like I needed a loose one.
Carried on and got stitches and felt full all the way.
When I could I forced myself to eat another "Shotz" but I didn't eat every 30 minutes as planned.
I was also throwing them away after one mouthful.
Legs went at 32km and the last 10 were totally painful like last year.
At no point did I feel tired though, even at the end my heart and lungs felt great, but my legs were wrecked.


So all in all the planning worked.
If I did it again I would refrain from using it as an excuse to eat rubbish, and stick to high glycemic index vegetables instead.


After I ate ribs, fries, coke and weighed in at 76kg.

1 comment:

Edokatsu said...

That's incredible, Kie.
If you don't give Gabby a run for his money I don't know who can.

I'm keeping it on the simple side. I've increased my food intake since Tuesday, making sure I have three big meals a day full of carbs and complex fats to the point that I'm now 66kg, 2kgs more than I was two weeks ago. I'm hoping t shed this off during the race. I'm not going to binge eat on the last day.

I ran 40K last month after having eaten a bowl of ramen and drank a huge glass of orange juice the night before. I felt great after.

For me it's all in the mind. I've done the training and believe I can ran it within 4 hours or even 3.5hrs. Impossible is nothing. But I need all my limbs working at their maximum. I've got it in me. I just need to keep believing I can do it.

I've had a good rest, despite the fact that I might be coming down with a cold. I think someone sneezed in front of me while on the train a couple of days ago. Getting that train every morning and seeing the 'catttle' getting on and off and the potential illnesses you can get makes you despise the human race.

Your plan is awesome. Good luck to the oth of us.