That is beyond… My marathon training must haves!
Pictured above are some of my marathon training must-haves. As you may already know TIB (aka me!) is running the Stockholm marathon! This will be my first one and so I am working through a schedule to make this even possible. Some of the key factors for me are as follows:
A) due to my work pattern, I have to do most of my training at night.
B) I live and work in London
C) I do short runs for general fitness and longer runs specifically building up to the big M!
D) I have currently run 136.7 miles.
Firstly, I can’t express enough the importance of good trainers. I have given you two examples here, firstly the nike lunar glide
http://www.lillywhites.com/nike-lunarglide-plus-5-mens-running-shoes-212169
These are the newest edition to my running kit and they are seriously like running on trampolines!!!! The support is amazing and really cushions the impact away from your knees and ankles. These are not like any other trainers I have tried (and trust me I have tried a fair few!) and they do take some getting used to. But for my money these are great for road running – and as I have to train mostly running home from work on roads and pavements – I think this has probably been a good test of them. £69.99 and worth every penny.
Next are the Adidas Kanadia 5 mens trail running trainers.
http://www.lillywhites.com/adidas-kanadia-5-mens-trail-running-shoes-213143?colcode=21314318
These are great for shorter runs on mixed terrain – I literally love these, they are so comfy, but the more road running I was doing, the more I needed more support and so I team the trainers with the exercise (these are also great for tennis, squash and AstroTurf based sports) they were around the £60 mark but some sizes are now on sale.
A little side note (why change the habit of a lifetime??!!) lillywhites, are in the centre of Piccadilly Circus and they offer a great service of having your run analysed. I always recommend this. They will pop you on a treadmill and film how your feet hit the ground etc, and then can show you the best trainers for your stride – this is a free service, and I have to say that they give you options in all price ranges ( not just the heftily priced ones!)
Also this rather fetching! Running jacket was a reasonable £14.99 too. It is a good windshield and is water proof enough for my needs. It has the reflective strips that are important for night running ( and let’s face it, you are NOT gonna be missed in this bright yellow neon fabric) it’s light weight and folds up really small.
The next two must haves ( and I mean MUST haves) are products that, if you are a regular reader of my blog, you will be familiar with:
The Champneys anti-chafing gel & the Molton Brown sport, body warming sports balm. In short the Molton brown is a muscle heater, that smells amazing and the Champneys is the saviour of my nipples and man bits. Stops skin chafing on other skin and fabrics. This is particularly good on your pant line (I wear a supportive brief for sports) and this stops the painful effects of rubbing. Most of you will be familiar with the fact that some runner’s nipples actually bleed from chafing ( owchhhh!) but this lubricates them and ensures that this doesn’t happen!
In depth blog posts
Here: http://thatisbeyond.tumblr.com/post/66603033798
& here: http://thatisbeyond.tumblr.com/
My next three items are all technology based, now it’s important to me that I have the right music and a set of earphones that stay in my ears! (Without falling out every two seconds). The set I got were from Asda and come with different sized attachment to fit different sized ears! I canny find them online, but these rare great and were about £8, so a bargain as well.
The nike running app is a great bit of kit.
It’s free
It’s motivating
It measures your distance of run
It measures your time of run
And allows me to run with my mates: Emily in reading, Matthew and Josefine in Stockholm, and Pammy in Peru.
Fora technophobe (like me) it’s easy to use. And it’s convenient!
My light up arm band is great too, it is reflective and lights up and again, it’s so small you can carry it around with no worries, for a spur of the moment run, it’s another aid that could just make you that little bit safer on the mean streets of North London!
As a longer haired gentleman, it is important to keep the hair out of my eyes, but also important to stop sweat attacking my eyeballs! Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the bandana!!! Now this is an old trick that I learnt from some rather attractive ladies on the Middlesex university mixed hockey team, you fold the bandana in half (making a triangle) – then you fold it into a thick strip- then tie the ends together behind your head and tadah! This does the trick and it cost about a pound!
My final thought for you is …
Safety is paramount.
I always carry my bank card, my Oyster card, and some small change in my runners pouch. If I get injured, lost or knackered, I can always find another way of getting home. I don’t take this lightly, I have sustained an injury before and had no option but to walk on it for 3 miles to get home. What should have recovered in a couple of days took a month, I will never make that mistake again.
Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it.
TIB
ThatIsBeyond 