HOW I RAN  

Great advice. Thank you.

There is x amount extra force downhill herego the stronger quads.

I need to try this

Fantastic review video! Inspiring.

Thanks mate. Appreciate the support 👊

Thank you. I really appreciate it. Your support has been great 👊

Glad you enjoyed it. I’m hoping just by getting my thoughts on video that I can look back at this and learn for future marathons too. It’s so easy to forget how you were feeling and what you did in each race. RU-vid has been really helpful for me in this regard. Glad you enjoyed and good luck in your future races.

Congratulations Ian. You may have seen that you are the winner of the competition. Please can you email me at matt@thewelshrunner.com. Thanks.

Absolutely it helps a lot. Congratulations on your PB. Great running.

I tried different amounts in training. Nearly 100g of carbs on race morning when I was fully carb loaded seemed to work well. Muscle glycogen stays fairly constant overnight. Liver glycogen falls slightly so 100g of carbs on the morning before the race worked well for me to replenish those stores. Everything is trial and error and a balance. For me the balance is being optimally fuelled but considering any discomfort of feeling too full or stomach discomfort. Maurten 320 would have been 80g of carbs which is fine but I wanted some solid food too as well as liquids. So ~40 from the Maurten 160, 44 from the Maurten Solid bar and a rice cake just to top it off. Over consuming on race morning has never worked well for me. I had my biggest meal at 3pm the day before (lots of rice). Everyone is different but some principles remain the same. I am aware that guidelines would suggest for my weight I have between 70-280g of carbs but guidelines are generic and I always find it is important to test what works for each individual athlete. I see every long run in a marathon block as an opportunity to test and learn. My most specific testing was running Dublin Marathon as a training run. I hope that helps in some way with how I addressed it.

Thanks so much Matt. All makes sense and v helpful! 🙏You’ve convinced me to test out on long runs. Best wishes with your journey. Maybe with 2.24 in the bag, potential to throw the dice and shoot towards 2.20!

They were an issue in Cheshire too. I have some thoughts on what I can do to address the issue. So I will change a few things. I have also noticed that they seem to only hurt when I’m wearing Alphafly but I don’t know if that is correlation or causation. Stuff to work on for sure.

@@TheWelshRunner I wondered if it was either physiological or training oriented issue, even a mix of both?

Thanks for the question Neil. I got the Maltodextrin from my MyProtein. 5kg was less than £15 (equivalent carbs to 200 maurten gels). I know you can buy Maltodextrin from Bulk.com too, and probably lots of other retailers. I got some electrolyte powder to add in from Bulk.com (again very cheap). I bought cheap soft flasks from sportsshoes. Good luck and I hope it helps.

@@TheWelshRunner cheers for the quick reply. i have actually got soft flasks. just need something to fill them in 🤣 how much elecrolyte did you add into each soft flask. it didnt seem like much from the video. cheers

@@neilcurran9661 Yeah you don't need much of the electrolytes. I think I added a little extra to be safe but it's only a few grams in total. I would adapt this depending on predicted weather for the race.

@@TheWelshRunner yeah thanks for the info. also dont think my stomach could handle 100grams carbs every 60 mins at minute so will have to start and test with a lower amount. thanks

It’s a bit of a long answer. The main reason was I could make up 200g of carbs in 2 small soft flasks rather than carry 8 gels. They fit in the SOAR marathon shorts and were less weight and volume. I rely on water from the course and make the drinks very concentrated. When I tried them out I actually found they were sitting better than Maurten too at marathon intensity. My hypothesis is because of the fructose in Maurten gels. Fructose is slightly lower GI so more difficult to digest. The reason doesn’t really matter though I found homemade ones were working well. Maurten gels or drinks are too weak to carry 200g in 2 small soft flasks so that was the biggest factor though. Final reason was more a bonus than anything. Cost. 5kg of Maltodextrin cost me £8.74. That’s equivalent of 200 Maurten gels for less than a tenner. This allowed me to test like crazy in training and not worry about replenishing Maurten all the time. I used Maurten before hand to save my course fuel and in the morning because that’s what I’d practiced.

@@TheWelshRunner Thank you for going into this level of detail, very useful information. Can I ask what the electrolyte is that you added?

Electrolyte powder from Bulk.com. Also very cheap but currently out of stock. I think you can probably get electrolyte powder from many places though.

Based on your soft flask approach I Did the same in my marathon yesterday. Easier to drink/eat from flask than gels. Use what fits you the most (electrolytes, caffeine..). The challenge is to drink the planned amount as I dont know how much to squeeze the flask. The best is to use 2 flasks of the same amount. I had one bigger and causes the shorts to make a little clockwise turn.

You have to go to the expo. The expo is really nice but I would go early. I ended up in a long queue at the prime time the day before. It’s located in the same place as the race start and finish. Great that you have entered. It’s an amazing race.

That’s better than mine but still too late for me. I tried to eat between 4 and 4:15.

@@TheWelshRunner i understand, worked fine for me. ( i also missed the 41 km (and the 40 k ) mark. The 800 m was a blessing. I will follow your journey ( mine s breaking 2.30, now at 2.33 aged 50) 🏃‍♂️💪🖐

Yeah 100% maltodextrin. Tried fructose mixed in and for a marathon I don’t think it’s necessary for me.

@@TheWelshRunner thanks alot Matt! I'm using MaltoDextrin now in may preparation for my Toronto Marathon. I usually take 2:1 ratio using MaltoDextrin and Sugar. Im having stomach cramps maybe because I really don't like the sweet taste I get from Sugar. If I mix it in 500ml during it would be fine but if I mix it I. A small flask like yours I'm having the stomach cramps. I will try using 100% MaltoDextrin or maybe 90% MaltoDextrin and 10% fructose. Thanks for sharing.

@@jricab30 Yeah I would try maltodextrin without the sucrose. I replied in Sub 3 group with more information on what I use and why.

Supersapiens Glucose Monitor. Measures blood sugar. Allowed me to dial in my fuelling strategy and learn how different foods impact me. I found it really helpful in training.

I wouldn’t call them mistakes but of course there was more work I would have liked to have got done. Long hard runs are key for me. The main reason I ran Dublin Marathon was to condition the legs for the pounding of the marathon. I would have loved some more time to prepare and some more big long runs. I would also do higher volume overall if I had the ‘perfect’ block. All things I can try to improve for the next one. 👍