MY TOKYO MARATHON - 5 WEEKS TO RACE DAY

This week I found sleep pattern a bit disrupted and difficult to get to sleep and waking in the middle of the night. This was affecting my energy levels and training motivation. I was not sure if it was the full moon or the fact, I’m in a new country and the combination of weather, time zones and air condition and lack of routine in work contributed to the sleep patterns.

Training and fuelling also has a lot to do with energy levels and by Wednesday I decided to get some advice from my local pharmacy. I told them the supplements I take daily (cod liver oil, wheatgrass, probiotics and vitamin B12). They asked about my daily diet, lifestyle, sleeping patterns and energy levels. They suggested to add magnesium to my supplements as this could help with my energy levels and help boost my exercise performance as I was in training and help aid sleep. They recommended MegMag Night Formula by Nutri Advanced. It’s a food supplement made of powdered magnesium, L- tryptophan, hops, L - Theanine and Lactium in Camomile Formula. Direction was to take one scoop of he powder into 100- 250ml of water (adjust to taste) once a day an hour before bedtime.

I have been taking the Nutri Advanced supplement since Wednesday along with turning off the air conditioning and in general early nights with a book. My sleep and overall energy level has improved over the last two days. I’m sleeping solid through the night and waking early but with good energy and focus to go about my day.

This week my focus was to put in my 3 to 4 runs again and try and increase my long run to 18km at the weekend. Along with my cross training, daily yoga and meditation.

A club run was arranged with Run 4 a Purpose on Sunday, but I missed the run due to my work schedule. They are a running group based in Dubai. I met them at on my first race day two weeks ago at the Super Sports Race series 10km run. They are a private and limited Facebook group. All runners are welcome from a new runner who want to start running to the advanced runner. It’s a unique group where each month is a month-long challenge. The runners record their daily runs in kilometres, keeps a running total and post it on the Facebook page. It’s also a forum where each runner shares his/ her experience, running story, running advice, article on running or sport or motivational story. It currently has 736 active members and run generally twice a week as a group on Sunday and Wednesday evenings.

It was the annual Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on 25th January 2019. I had contacted the organisers at the beginning of January to volunteer but I didn’t hear back from them. I found out on Wednesday they were still accepting late entries for the 10km race, so I applied on line and got a spot. The process was fast and simple on-line entry form and they took the payment on line and processed the transaction and issued a confirmation and QR code you can use to collect your race number from the marathon expo. The expo was at the Jumeria Beach Hotel Conference Centre. I managed to on Wednesday late afternoon to collect my race number and goody bag and runners t shirt. The late entry was 80 USD which as quite expensive for a 10km race in my opinion. I ran the 10km as one of my training runs this week.

Here’s the training journal for the week.

Sunday, I missed the Run 4 a Purpose evening run in the Dubai Marina. I didn’t do any training. I took it as my rest day.

Monday, I did a 5km on tread mill with interval sessions in the morning in the gym in the apartment hotel. Short and sweet as I was tight for time and because I didn’t have a good night’s sleep, I wasn’t really feeling the energy. By evening time, I was feeling a bit more energised and went on a 7km evening run around the Marina as I wanted to do an evening run to see how that differed from a morning run. The evening run was cooler but more humid so that affected my breathing a bit but once I got into my stride, I was fine. There are more people around the Marina in the evenings, so I found I was dodging other runners, walkers, bikes, buggies and kids. It was a pleasant run slow and steady 7.31km at a pace 5:44min/km total run time 41:59mins. No issues, legs body, breathe all good.

Tuesday, I took another rest day again sleep and energy levels not well. I just did my self yoga practise and meditation and listened to my body.

Wednesday, I moved my Supersupfit class to mid-week so I can do my long runs at the weekends. HIIT (high intensity interval training) on the paddle board was great. Sophie mixes up the work outs and tailors it to the class dynamics and I really enjoyed the class. Lots of core work today and I can feel my body getting stronger and my balance on the board improving along with my confidence on the work out in general.

Thursday morning, I did a quick 5km jog on the treadmill again just to get the legs moving. I had to push myself to put the run in as I was struggling with my overall energy. I started the magnesium supplement on Wednesday evening, but it didn’t have any affect on my sleep pattern last night.

Friday, I woke up early for my Dubai Marathon 10km run. I had race day nerves. I love the marathon day atmosphere. Thousands of people getting ready for the run on if their lives, mix of abilities, ages, demographics and nationalities all aiming to cross the finish line for their own personal goals. I met many runners on the 10km start line and for many it was their first race and first 10km. Many runners were corporate teams representing their companies and running with colleagues, charity runners, running clubs and individuals like me running for fun. It was very interesting to see so many people out running. The race was a 10km loop on the Al Sufouh road between Palm and Burj Al Arab. A flat road race on not much to see as the scenery was boring apart from the Burj Al Arab. The race started at 8.30am where sun was already out and was warming up the road and there was no shade in the open road. I was at the middle of the pack on the start line so there was a lot of weaving in and out of runners, groups and walkers for me to get into my running rhythm and pace. I was going slow and steady aiming to complete the run under 55 minutes by the time I reached 6km I was feeling the heat. I had to stop and take my running top off and re pin my race bib which took a bit of time. I did feel cooler after that and continued to run at a nice steady pace and crossed the finish line in 57 mins. I was happy with the run as I met some inspiring runners with some amazing stories. It always touches me when I hear why people run. The marathon, 10km and 4km race was very well organised and the goody bag and adidas technical shirt was of good quality. The route for the races was quiet boring in terms of views as it was a loop of a major highway, a flat road run in the desert sun. I enjoyed the race day experience and atmosphere. The post run food snack and drinks from sponsors were very generous and in abundance. I especially loved my finishers medal.

Saturday, I woke up early form a good night sleep. The magnesium seems to be working. I felt good and ready for my long run. I went out at 6.30am and ran the Dubai Marina Walk and added a few bridge crossings to the last weeks route so I could make up the extra 3km. It was dark and breezy and nice cool 17 degrees. The Marina was still in the shade when the sun came out, so the heat didn’t affect me as much. I had a packed of Gu chews with me to test out. I took 3 chew sweets at 6km and 2 chews sweet at 11km along with my bottle of water. That was enough fuel for my 18km run. It was mainly flat with a few elevations to and from the bridges. I finished the run on The Beach in JBR and did my cool down and stretches on the beach by the sea which was beautiful and tranquil as it was still early in the morning not were many people out. My running pace was good I ran 18.37km at a pace of 5:56 mins/km and completed the run in 1:49:03hrs. I ran with my music today for most of the way. My breathe and body felt good throughout the run. I noticed my upper body arms, shoulders more upright and posture held up well throughout the run. No aches or pains to report apart from 2 blisters on my feet as I ran with new socks today

.

As the weeks to race day draws nearer, I will be focusing on my diet and training as well as my overall wellbeing and energy levels. All these are my pillars to a successful run on race day.

Happy running!

Chrissy x